Controlled assembly of gold nanoparticles using De Novo designed polypeptide scaffolds

Heterodimerization between designed helix-loop-helix polypeptides was utilized in order to assemble gold nanoparticles on planar substrates. The peptides were designed to fold into four-helix bundles upon dimerization. A Cys-residue in the loop region was used to immobilize one of the complementary peptides on a maleimide containing SAM on planar gold substrates whereas the second peptide was immobilized directly on gold nanoparticles. Introducing the peptide decorated particles over a peptide functionalized surface resulted in particle assembly. Further, citrate stabilized particles were assembled on amino-silane modified glass and silicon substrates. By subsequently introducing peptides and gold nanoparticles, particle-peptide hybrid multi layers could be formed.