RE: Nanostructure Article/Nature

Gina Miller (echoz@hotmail.com)
Thu, 15 Apr 1999 12:26:41 PDT

Nature 398, 593 - 597 (1999) © Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Template-imprinted nanostructured surfaces for protein recognition

HUAIQIU SHI, WEI-BOR TSAI, MICHAEL D. GARRISON, SANDRO FERRARI & BUDDY D.
RATNER

Synthetic materials capable of selectively recognizing proteins are important in separations, biosensors and the development of biomedical materials. The technique of molecular imprinting creates specific recognition sites in polymers by using template molecules. Molecular recognition is attributed to binding sites that complement molecules in size, shape and chemical functionality. But attempts to imprint proteins have met with only limited success. Here
we report a method for imprinting surfaces with protein-recognition sites. We use radio-frequency glow-discharge plasma
deposition to form polymeric thin films around proteins coated with disaccharide molecules. The disaccharides become covalently
attached to the polymer film, creating
polysaccharide-like cavities that exhibit highly selective recognition for
a variety of template proteins, including albumin, immunoglobulin G, lysozyme, ribonuclease and streptavidin. Direct imaging
of template recognition is achieved by patterning a surface at the micrometre scale with imprinted regions.



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