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.