Fabrication of protein tubules: Immobilization of proteins on peptide tubules

Peptide tubules, self-assemblies of bis(N-alpha -amido-glycylglycine)-1,7-h eptane dicarboxylate, were functionalized by poly(L-lysine), D-biotin, avid in, and albumin bovine. Proteins were covalently immobilized on the peptide tubules via NHS ester intermediates, while amide groups of the peptide tub ules were also capable of intercalating proteins via hydrogen bonds. These entities, tagged with fluorescein isothiocyanate, uniformly coated the pept ide tubules as confirmed by fluorescence microscopy. Avidin coated the pept ide tubules without denaturing, confirmed by fluorescein-tagged D-biotin at tachment onto the avidin-coated peptide tubules, This result indicates that the protein tubules may be attached at desired surfaces using biological i nteractions such as antibody-antigen recognition. Such protein tubules may be used as building blocks for microdevice fabrication such as microelectro nics and protein array biosensors.