Probing the metal surface/amino acid interface with scanning tunneling microscopy and synchrotron spectroscopy

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The design of materials for use in the human body, for example for hip and knee replacements, requires a good understanding of the interaction between the surface of that material and the body's tissues, in order to avoid problems like rejection. One approach to solving this complex problem is to start from the bottom up and examine the interaction of amino acid molecules with different surfaces at the nanoscale - the length scale of an individual molecule. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, large biomolecules which perform many key functions in our bodies and are a major constituent of body tissues. Advances in understanding how individual amino acid molecules interact with a surface provide a foundation upon which to build a picture of ever more complex interactions involving proteins, cells and whole tissues.This research is designed to study, under controlled conditions, how amino acids interact with a metal surface and with each other when they are on that surface. In particular, we seek to understand how these interactions influence the strength with which the amino acids stick to the surface, the position and orientation of the amino acids on the surface, the ability of the amino acids to form two dimensional patterns, and the ability of the amino acids to respond to changes in their environment. These goals will be accomplished by using experimental techniques available in a new surface science laboratory in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics at the University of Saskatchewan and at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron in Saskatoon. Amino acids will be imaged on metal surfaces using a scanning tunneling microscope, a sensitive instrument which is able to trace the contours of atoms and individual molecules on a surface. The bright light of the Canadian Light Source synchrotron will be used to probe how strongly and in what position the molecules stick to the surface. The knowledge of molecule-surface interactions gained from this research is of fundamental interest in physics and chemistry and also in the development of improved biomaterials.