Biologically programmed nanoparticle assembly

Abstract

One approach to prepare biologically programmed nanoparticle assembly is to incorporate complementary receptor-substrate sites into the molecules and to attach complementary receptor-substrate sites to the surface of the nanoparticles. It is proposed that the information contained in these sites will permit the recognition-driven assembly of ordered and addressable arrays of architecturally complex and functionally diversed structures. The use protein-substrate binding to program the self-assembly of nanoparticle-based structures from aqueous solution. Ligand-induced recognition and binding of the protein-substrate complementary pairs are used to induce the reversible aggregation of inorganic nanoparticles.