Protein patterning on silicon (100)

Description/Abstract

Silicon is an ideal substrate for the development of micro and nano bio-molecular sensor devices; the fabrication technology developed for microelectronic industries is now finding extensive applications in the creation of microfluidic devices. To realise these devices an approach for the creation of precise, highly stable motifs of biomolecules on the silicon surface is needed. Covalent attachment of proteins to crystalline silicon (100) surfaces has recently been achieved in patterns with micron sized features, using a straightforward two-step process, by us. UV light exposure through a mask was used to covalently attach a monolayer of alkene, functionalized with N-Hydroxysuccinimide ester groups, onto a hydrogen-terminated silicon (100) surface. The N-Hydroxysuccinimide ester surface is a template for the subsequent bioconjugation of a single lg-binding domaion of Protein L via the protein amino group present in external lysine residues of the protein. The patterned surfaces were revealed using epifluorescence microscopy; fluorescently labelled Mouse lgG was associated with the surface attached protein L domain. This method is to be developed for the creation of novel microfluidic sensing technology in silicon for proteomic applications.