GEPI: genetically engineered proteins for inorganics as molecular erectors in nanotechnology and bio-technology

Controlled binding and assembly of proteins onto inorganics is at the core of biological materials science and engineering with wide ranging applications. Biological tissues are models for technological systems as they have excellent combination of physical and chemical properties due to their highly controlled surface chemistry, structures, dimensions and morphologies. A common denominator in all biological tissues is the presence of proteins, which may be enzymes, nucleators, habit modifiers, functional units, and scaffolds, and control intricate nano and microstructures of biocomposites hierarchically through specific biochemical interactions with other organic and inorganic structures. For developing truly biomimetic, reliable, and robust hybrid (inorganic/organic) materials systems for practical applications, we must use proteins that are designed, selected, or engineered to have specific affinity to functional inorganics. Using combinatorial biological techniques, i.e., phage display and cell-surface display, we isolate polypeptides (and further engineer them) with specific recognition elements for inorganic surfaces, including those not realized by natural proteins, in the absence of apriori prediction of necessary structures. We show that these Genetically Engineered Proteins for Inorganics (GEPI) are can be used as molecular erector sets for nanoassembly of functional materials including inorganics and synthetic polymers. The GEPIs could have significant potential applications by providing self-assembled functional molecular substrates in nano and biotechnologies. We hybridize GEPI with synthetic monomers that self-assemble onto selected substrates for nanoelectronics. We also demonstrate controlled, directed assembly of target molecules (protein or DNA) onto probes genetically fused to GEPI resulting in potential molecular substrates for utility in genomics and proteomics. Supported by a DURINT project through US-ARO.