SGER: Linking enzymes to light emitting semiconductors for high throughput screening

高效的酶功能化电极对于酶燃料电池、电生物催化和其他可再生能源应用是必不可少的。由于对极低电子流速率的高度并行传感的限制，目前没有可用的电化学技术能够高通量选择和改进电极结合酶。这个项目的中心目标是展示一个解决这个问题的方法：一个酶功能化的发光半导体电极微阵列。通过制造LED微阵列，通过光检测对产电酶和细菌进行高通量筛选将成为可能。这种方法的未来版本将致力于允许芯片上PCR扩增和蛋白质文库的体外翻译，消除酶发现的关键瓶颈（克隆和纯化）。智力优势：结合酶和半导体用于电子转移依赖性光的产生和检测是一种新方法。这个跨学科的项目将蛋白质化学和生物学的知识与电子和电气工程相结合。更广泛的影响：酶- led微阵列将对绿色生物技术和利用可再生碳源提高效率的生物燃料电池的生物催化剂的发展速度产生影响。这种新方法可以解决酶功能化电极发展的一个关键限制，并将代表一个由化学、生物化学和工程专业学生组成的跨学科培训团队。

CBET-0814646BondHighly efficient enzyme-functionalized electrodes are essential for enzymatic fuel cells, electrobiocatalysis and other renewable energy applications. There is currently no available electrochemical technology enabling high throughput selection and improvement of electrode bound enzymes, due to limits in highly parallel sensing of very low rates of electron flow. The central goal of this project is to demonstrate a solution to this issue: a micro-array of enzyme-functionalized light emitting semiconductor based electrodes. By fabricating LED micro-arrays, high throughput screening of electricity producing enzymes and bacteria via light detection will become possible. Future versions of this approach will aim to allow on-chip PCR amplification and in vitro translation of protein libraries, eliminating a key bottleneck (cloning and purification) in enzyme discovery. Intellectual Merit: Combining enzymes and semiconductors for electron transfer-dependent light generation and detection is a novel approach. This interdisciplinary project combines the knowledge of protein chemistry and biology with electronics and electrical engineering. Broader impact: Enzyme-LED micro-arrays would have an impact on the pace of biocatalyst development for green biotechnology and bio-fuel cells utilizing renewable carbon sources with improved efficiency. This novel approach could resolve a crucial limitation in development of enzyme functionalized electrodes, and will represent cross-disciplinary training for a team of chemistry, biochemistry, and engineering students.