Native protein nanolithography to work with fragile proteins

From Nanowerk a spotlight report on native protein nanolithography (NPNL) that allows the fabrication of bioactive protein nanoarrays down to a resolution of 50 nm in a fast and versatile manner without the need of vacuum or ambient atmosphere conditions – but under conditions of a physiological solution. This allow for nanopatterning of more fragile proteins.

The original paper is here at Nature Nanotechnology.


Fabrication of rewritable protein nanoarrays on SAMs by native protein nanolithography. (Image: Ali Tinazli)

NPNL serves requirements in nanobiotechnology, where physiological ambient conditions, such as in aqueous solution, are highly desirable for ensuring the preservation of biological functionality during and after array fabrication.”
This new technique enables the fabrication of rewritable protein nanoarrays, allowing a previously unobtainable flexibility in nanolithography and experimentation in biosensing and single-molecule studies.
The researchers also demonstrated that this erase-and-write (i.e. ‘displacement’ and ‘replacement’) technique allows a more complex lateral organization of protein assemblies in multiplexed arrays, consisting of a series of different proteins and protein complexes in a unique orientation.

This system can be helpful in making protein assembly lines.