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Aligned Immobilization of Proteins Using AC Electric Fields
Author(s) -
Laux EvaMaria,
Knigge Xenia,
Bier Frank F.,
Wenger Christian,
Hölzel Ralph
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201503052
Subject(s) - chromophore , electric field , molecule , excitation , materials science , fluorescence , orientation (vector space) , fluorescence microscope , electrophoresis , planar , nanotechnology , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , optics , photochemistry , chromatography , physics , computer science , organic chemistry , geometry , mathematics , computer graphics (images) , quantum mechanics
Protein molecules are aligned and immobilized from solution by AC electric fields. In a single‐step experiment, the enhanced green fluorescent proteins are immobilized on the surface as well as at the edges of planar nanoelectrodes. Alignment is found to follow the molecules' geometrical shape with their longitudinal axes parallel to the electric field. Simultaneous dielectrophoretic attraction and AC electroosmotic flow are identified as the dominant forces causing protein movement and alignment. Molecular orientation is determined by fluorescence microscopy based on polarized excitation of the proteins' chromophores. The chromophores' orientation with respect to the whole molecule supports X‐ray crystal data.