Dip-Pen Nanolithography-Assisted Protein Crystallization

Ielasi FS, Hirtz M, Sekula-Neuner S, Laue T, Fuchs H, Willaert RG

Research article (journal)

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) to crystallize proteins on surface-localized functionalized lipid layer arrays. DOPC lipid layers, containing small amounts of biotin-DOPE lipid molecules, were printed on glass substrates and evaluated in vapor diffusion and batch crystallization screening setups, where streptavidin was used as a model protein for crystallization. Independently of the crystallization system used and the geometry of the lipid layers, nucleation of streptavidin crystals occurred specifically on the DPN-printed biotinylated structures. Protein crystallization on lipid array patches is also demonstrated in a microfluidic chip, which opens the way toward high-throughput screening to find suitable nucleation and crystal growth conditions. The results demonstrate the use of DPN in directing and inducing protein crystallization on specific surface locations.

Details zur Publikation

Pages: 4
Release year: 2015
Language in which the publication is written: English