Engineering and design in the bioelectrochemistry of metalloproteins

Engineered metalloproteins offer interesting systems for electrochemical st udies of protein structure/function and their applications in nanobiotechno logy. Scanning probe microscopy and cyclic voltammetry of engineered metall oproteins and electrodes have proved to be a powerful combination of tools contributing to the field of bioelectrochemistry. The ability to engineer t ags, such as histidine tags and biotin-acceptor peptides, and to site-speci fically introduce cysteine residues enabled the creation of ordered immobil ised protein structures that can be characterised both electrochemically an d topographically. Gene fusion and de novo combinatorial synthesis of metal loproteins are emerging to provide structures with the desired electrochemi cal properties.