Self-assembled monolayers containing terminal mono-, bis-, and tris-nitrilotriacetic acid groups: characterization and application.

We have undertaken a structural and functional study of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) formed on gold from a series of alkylthiol compounds containing terminal multivalent chelators (MCHs) composed of mono-, bis-, and tris-nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) moieties. SAMs were formed from single-component solutions of the mono-, bis-, and tris-NTA compounds, as well as from mixtures with a tri(ethylene glycol)-terminated alkylthiol (EG(3)). Contact angle goniometry, null ellipsometry, and infrared spectroscopy were used to explore the structural characteristics of the MCH SAMs. Ellipsometric measurements show that the amount of the MCH groups on surfaces increases with increasing mol % of the MCH thiols in the loading solution up to about 80 mol %. We also conclude that mixed SAMs, prepared in the solution composition regime 0-30 mol % of the MCH thiols, consist of a densely packed alkyl layer, an amorphous ethylene glycol layer, and an outermost layer of MCH groups exposed toward the ambient. Above 30 mol %, a significant degree of disorder is observed in the SAMs. Finally, functional evaluation of the three MCH SAMs prepared at 0-30 mol% reveals a consistent increase in binding strength with increasing multivalency. The tris-NTA SAM, in particular, is enabled for stable and functional immobilization of a His6-tagged extracellular receptor subunit, even at low chelator surface concentrations, which makes it suitable for applications when a low surface density of capturing sites is desirable, e.g., in kinetic analyses.

A microarray chip for label-free detection of narcotics.

A protein array chip for label-free optical detection of low molecular weight compounds has been developed. As a proof of principle, the chip is proven capable of rapidly (approximately 1 min) determining hits from aqueous cocktails composed of four common narcotics, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, and amphetamine, using imaging surface plasmon resonance (SPR) as the detection principle. The chip is produced by injecting a mixture of antibodies and letting them self-sort and bind to narcotic analog coupled proteins already present in a predefined pattern on the supporting substrate. An indirect detection method, where antibodies are displaced from the surface upon recognition of their corresponding narcotics, is used to obtain the optical contrast and thus a detectable SPR and/or ellipsometric signal. Two types of readouts are possible from the present setup: intensity SPR images and SPR/ellipsometric sensorgrams. Positive hits were routinely obtained for analyte concentrations of 50 pg/microL and the limit of detection, without any parameter optimizations, seems to fall in the range 0.5 pg/microL (1.4 nM) for heroin, 2.5 pg/microL (8.2 nM) for cocaine, and 5 pg/microL for the other two narcotics (26 nM for ecstasy and 37 nM for amphetamine). With improved readout possibilities (sampling frequency), signal evaluation algorithms, and antibody-antigen design strategies, we believe this limit can be further improved. The chip is shown to work for many measurement cycles with excellent reproducibility. Moreover, with a more advanced fluidic system, excess injected antibodies could be collected and reused for many cycles, which could make the running costs of the system very low. The chip is in no way limited to detection of narcotics. Other low molecular weight compounds could easily be detected on the same chip. For example, trinitrotoluene detection has already been demonstrated using our chip. Possible areas of application for the system are therefore envisaged in airport and underground transport security, customs, drug interdiction, forensics, and as warning alerts on military equipment and personnel.

Addressable adsorption of lipid vesicles and subsequent protein interaction studies.

We demonstrate a convenient chip platform for the addressable immobilization of protein-loaded vesicles on a microarray for parallelized, high-throughput analysis of lipid-protein systems. Self-sorting of the vesicles on the microarray was achieved through DNA bar coding of the vesicles and their hybridization to complementary strands, which are preimmobilized in defined array positions on the chip. Imaging surface plasmon resonance in ellipsometric mode was used to monitor vesicle immobilization, protein tethering, protein-protein interactions, and chip regeneration. The immobilization strategy proved highly specific and stable and presents a mild method for the anchoring of vesicles to predefined areas of a surface, while unspecific adsorption to both noncomplementary regions and background areas is nonexistent or, alternatively, undetectable. Furthermore, histidine-tagged receptors have been stably and functionally immobilized via bis-nitrilotriacetic acid chelators already present in the vesicle membranes. It was discovered though that online loading of proteins to immobilized vesicles leads to cross contamination of previously loaded vesicles and that it was necessary to load the vesicles offline in order to obtain pure protein populations on the vesicles. We have used this cross-binding effect to our benefit by coimmobilizing two receptor subunits in different ratios on the vesicle surface and successfully demonstrated ternary complex formation with their ligand. This approach is suitable for mechanistic studies of complex multicomponent analyses involving membrane-bound systems.

Surface plasmon resonance detection of blood coagulation and platelet adhesion under venous and arterial shear conditions.

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based flow chamber device was designed for real time detection of blood coagulation and platelet adhesion in platelet rich plasma (PRP) and whole blood. The system allowed the detection of surface interactions throughout the 6mm length of the flow chamber. After deposition of thromboplastin onto a section of the sensor surface near the inlet of the flow chamber, coagulation was detected downstream of this position corresponding to a SPR signal of 7 to 8 mRIU (7 to 8 ng/mm2). A nonmodified control surface induced coagulation 3.5 times slower. Platelet adhesion to gold and fibrinogen coated surfaces in the magnitude of 1.25 and 1.66 mRIU was also shown with platelets in buffer, respectively. SPR responses obtained with PRP and whole blood on surfaces that were methylated or coated with von Willebrand factor (vWF), fibrinogen, or collagen, coincided well with platelet adhesion as observed with fluorescence microscopy in parallel experiments. The present SPR detection equipped flow chamber system is a promising tool for studies on coagulation events and blood cell adhesion under physiological flow conditions, and allows monitoring of short-range surface processes in whole blood.

Piezo dispensed microarray of multivalent chelating thiols for dissecting complex protein-protein interactions.

The fabrication of a novel biochip, designed for dissection of multiprotein complex formation, is reported. An array of metal chelators has been produced by piezo dispensing of a bis-nitrilotriacetic acid (bis-NTA) thiol on evaporated gold thin films, prestructured with a microcontact printed grid of eicosanethiols. The bis-NTA thiol is mixed in various proportions with an inert, tri(ethylene glycol) hexadecane thiol, and the thickness and morphological homogeneity of the dispensed layers are characterized by imaging ellipsometry before and after back-filling with the same inert thiol and subsequent rinsing. It is found that the dispensed areas display a monotonic increase in thickness with increasing molar fraction of bis-NTA in the dispensing solution, and they are consistently a few Angströms thicker than those prepared at the same molar fraction by solution self-assembly under equilibrium-like conditions. The bulkiness of the bis-NTA tail group and the short period of time available for chemisorption and in-plane organization of the dispensed thiols are most likely responsible for the observed difference in thickness. Moreover, the functional properties of this biochip are demonstrated by studying multiple protein-protein interactions using imaging surface plasmon resonance. The subunits of the type I interferon receptor are immobilized as a composition array determined by the surface concentration of bis-NTA in the array elements. Ligand dissociation kinetics depends on the receptor surface concentration, which is ascribed to the formation of a ternary complex by simultaneous interaction of the ligand with the two receptor subunits. Thus, multiplexed monitoring of binding phenomena at various compositions (receptor densities) offers a powerful tool to dissect protein-protein interactions.

Selective recruitment of membrane protein complexes onto gold substrates patterned by dip-pen nanolithography.

Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) is employed to develop a generic array platform for the selective recruitment of membrane protein complexes. An atomic force microscope tip inked with HS(CH2)16NH2 is used to generate amino-terminated domains on gold. These domains can be arranged into microscopic and submicroscopic patterns, and the untreated gold substrate is subsequently blocked with HS(CH2)2CONH(CH2CH2O)15CH3, a compound known to resist the unspecific binding of proteins and cells. The patterned gold substrate is exposed to an enriched membrane fraction from mutant Rhodobacter sphaeroides, which contains photosynthetic core complexes consisting of the reaction center and the light-harvesting complex LH1. The selective recruitment to the patterned domains, governed primarily by electrostatic interactions, is confirmed by contact mode atomic force microscopy.