Protein Engineering & Expression of Recombinant Immunotherapeutics

Micro-/Nanofabrication of Integrated Sensor Devices

Synthesis of Biologically Inspired Nanostructures for Advanced Materials Processing

Synthesis of Biologically Inspired Nanostructures for Advanced Materials Processing

 

The limit to precise manufacture of reproducibly functioning quantum confined materials for advanced electronics, photonics, and magnetics is fast approaching. The use of conventional integrated circuit techniques involving lithograthy followed etching has limited success in producing the ultrasmall structures that are needed for these advances. Biomolecule based self- or directed- assembly of nanostructures hold promise as a means of better control for uniformity of size and quality and emergence of desired properties.

Crystalline bacterial cell surface layer (S-layer) proteins have been optimized during billions years of biological evolution as building blocks of one of the simplest self-assembly systems. S-layer proteins form the outmost cell envelope component of a broad spectrum of bacteria and archaea. S-layer lattices exhibit either oblique, square or hexagonal lattice symmetry with unit cell dimensions in the range of 3-30 nm. S-layers are generally 5-10 nm thick and show pores of identical size (diameter, 2-8 nm) and morphology.

Previous studies on S-layers have shown that the periodic structure can be exploited as a template for the formation of regular arrays of molecules and particles. In addition, some S-layer proteins can be separated into monomers and reassemble into two-dimensional arrays on surfaces of a broad spectrum of materials and interfaces.

Our research project is focusing on formation of arrays of quantum dots, nanoparticles, semiconductor nanowires and carbon nanotubes. These high-density and ordered array structures should provide novel functional materials for application in electronics, photonics and magnetics, such as storage arrays, light emitting displays, sensors and lasers.

Specific Projects and Relevant Lab Personnel

Development of novel, in situ biofabrication techniques to create PHA microstructures within microfluidic systems [Christine Campagnolo, Nathaniel C. Cady, Soazig C. Delamarre, Nuttawee Niamsiri]

Synthesis and characterization of novel organic/inorganic hybrid materials based on PHAs and silicone polymers for microfluidics applications [Nuttawee Niamsiri]

Design and engineering of novel genetic constructs for the expression of recombinant S-layer proteins with desired self-assembly properties [Magnus Bergkvist]

Use of bacterial and archaeal S-layers for arraying highly fluorescent, water-soluble quantum dots on ultra-flat silicon substrates for novel opto-electronics applications [Magnus Bergkvist, Sonny Mark, Xin Yang]

Synthesis and arraying of magnetic nanoparticles for catalysis of carbon nanotube growth [Sandhyarani Neelakantapillai, Xin Yang, Changcheng Zhu]

Description of Images

The (clickable) images shown on this page demonstrate the self-organization of gold nanoparticles by biomolecular templating using 2-D crystalline S-layer protein arrays.

Top Left:
Tapping mode-atomic force microscope (AFM) image of an S-layer fragment purified from Deinococcus radiodurans.

Bottom Right:
Low- and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showing micrometer-sized patches of ordered 5 nm-sized gold nanoparticles.