Featured Publications

Nanoparticle–protein interactions: a thermodynamic and kinetic study of the adsorption of bovine serum albumin to gold nanoparticle surfaces

​Investigating the adsorption process of proteins on nanoparticle surfaces is essential to understand how to control the biological interactions of functionalized nanoparticles. In this work, a library of spherical and rod-shaped gold nanoparticles (GNPs) was used to evaluate the process of protein adsorption to their surfaces. The binding of a model protein (bovine serum albumin, BSA) to GNPs as a function of particle shape, size, and surface charge was investigated. Two independent comparative analytical methods were used to evaluate the adsorption process: steady-state fluorescence quenching titration and affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE). Although under favorable electrostatic conditions kinetic analysis showed a faster adsorption of BSA to the surface of cationic GNPs, equilibrium binding constant determinations indicated that BSA has a comparable binding affinity to all of the GNPs tested,
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