Acknowledgement

First of all, we would like to thank our colleagues from Basel and Rüschlikon for the great collaborative effort and for their valuable contributions to make progress in the field of “BIO-NANOMECHANICS” (actual members: N. Backmann, T. Braun, A. Bredekamp, M. Ghatkesar, W. Grange, F. Huber, S. Husale, P. Shagaldian; former members: V. Aranyos, V. Barvich, P. Bertoncini, A. Bietsch, K. Gfeller, N. Nugaeva, E. Rebourt, J. Zhang). We are grateful to Hans-Joachim Güntherodt, Ernst Meyer, and Wilfried Grange. We also thank in particular our hard working technicians and the Micro/Nanomechanics Group @ IBM Res. Lab Zürich, for their excellent contribution in cantilever array microfabrication (U. Drechsler, M. Despont).

Financial support is acknowledged from SNF (NCCR & Div.III), CTI (Technology Oriented Program TOP NANO21), EUCOR Learning and Teaching and Mobility (ELTEM) Nanotechnology project and the IBM Research Laboratory Zürich.