Method For Fabricating Two-Dimensional Protein Crystals
The 2D crystalline protein materials generated have diverse potential applications including the following: 1) Fabrication of self-assembled, chemically dense, lab-on-a-chip platforms for sensing, diagnostics, vaccine development, and drug delivery, 2) Fabrication of molecular membranes for sieving and filtration, 3) Fabrication of molecular templates that provide 5-100 nm spatial resolution for patterning and deposition (which is a length scale that is hard to attain with diffraction-based methods), 4) Stabilization of enzymes and proteins of commercial value, and 5) Fabrication of crystalline molecular scaffolds for macromolecular structure determination by 2D crystallography and electron microscopy.
Scientists at UC San Diego have developed a highly efficient/expeditious design strategy for the fabrication of single layered, ultra-low defect 2D crystalline materials out of protein building blocks. The 2D crystalline materials are essentially defect-free and self-assemble in an unsupported fashion in solution. They also offer a better strategy because of their simplicity, low cost nature, effectiveness, and potential generalizability.
Related Materials Tech ID/UC Case 25324/2015-321-0 Related Cases 2015-321-0
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