Title: Directed self-organisation of soluble proteins on surfaces

Authors: Marisela Velez

Addresses: Instituto Nicolas Cabrera, Facultad de Ciencias C-XVI 4a.planta, Universidad Autnoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco Madrid, 28049, Spain

Abstract: Incorporation of proteins on surfaces is a first step in the lengthy process of using active biological molecules in man-made nanodevices. There is therefore a strong motivation to develop strategies for organising active proteins on solid substrates and it is very desirable to take advantage of the principles of self-assembly. In the present work, I summarise two strategies to orient and selectively adsorb proteins on gold surfaces previously modified with specially designed self-assembled monolayers. I also report on the on-going research describing the aggregating properties of a bacterial cytoskeletal protein on a surface to illustrate nature|s ability to direct the self-assembly of dynamic structures.

Keywords: soluble proteins; gold surfaces; self-assembled monolayers; scanning force microscopy; amperometric biosensors; redox proteins; bacterial cytoskeletal protein FtsZ; nanotechnology; Spain; self-organisation; nanodevices; solid substrates.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2005.006981

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2005 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.169 - 179

Published online: 30 Apr 2005 *

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