Spectroscopic Studies of Ultrathin Biopolymer Films at Metal Surfaces

该研究项目由威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的Robert Corn教授进行，并由分析和表面化学计划支持，使用表面光谱来表征固体/液体界面处的生物聚合物薄膜。 研究的生物聚合物包括合成多肽、具有修饰碱基的寡核苷酸、具有衍生的单个氨基酸的多肽和表面聚合的多肽多层膜。 金表面上的生物聚合物薄膜用作基底，使得表面是导电的，并且使得表面等离子体共振光谱法用于表征表面上的薄膜。 表面FTIR，荧光测量，接触角和成像SPR光谱也被用来建立薄的生物聚合物膜的性质。 探索了新的连接策略（胺和/或硫醇偶联方法）。 在一个令人兴奋的潜在应用中，表面上分离的基于DNA的分子将被用作在表面上编码信息的手段。对生物分子薄膜在金属表面上的附着的理解，以及表征薄膜结构的方法，是生物传感器、医学植入物、人工生物结构和基础材料科学的基础。 玉米教授将研究这种附着和结构表征的核心问题，使用互补的表面光谱来建立附着在表面上的天然和改性生物分子的结构和形状。 这样做，将更好地了解它们的作用机制。 在一个令人兴奋的潜在应用中，表面上基于DNA的分子将被用作在表面上编码信息的手段。

This research project, carried out by Professor Robert Corn at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry program, uses surface spectroscopies to characterize ultrathin biopolymer films at solid/liquid interfaces. The biopolymers studied include synthetic polypeptides, oligonucleotides with modified bases, polypeptides with derivatized individual amino acids, and surface polymerized polypeptide multilayers. Biopolymer thin films on gold surfaces are used as substrates so that the surface is conductive, and so that surface plasmon resonance spectrometry is used to characterize the thin film on the surface. Surface FTIR, fluorescence measurements, and contact angle and imaging SPR spectroscopies are also used to establish the nature of the thin biopolymer film. New attachment strategies (amine and/or thiol coupling methods) are explored. In an exciting potential application, isolated DNA-based molecules on surfaces will be used as a means of encoding information on surfaces.Understanding of the attachment of thin films of biomolecules to metal surfaces, and the means to characterize the structures of the thin films, underlies much research in biosensors, medical implants, artificial biostructures, and basic materials science. Professor Corn will study central issues of this attachment and structural characterization, using complementary surface spectroscopies to establish the structure and shape of the natural and modified biomolecules attached to surfaces. In so doing, their mechanisms of action will become better understood. In an exciting potential application, isolated DNA-based molecules on surfaces will be used as a means of encoding information on surfaces.