April 2004
University of California - Davis
Making protein nanostructuresModern analytic techniques use patterns of very small spots of protein, DNA or other biological molecules to screen for genes or proteins. Gang-yu Liu, associate professor of chemistry at UC Davis, and her colleagues have now made dots of protein hundreds of times smaller than those in any commercial "chip" device. Liu's laboratory used scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy to place eight molecules of the protein lysozyme in a square about 100 nanometers across on a gold surface. By reducing the size of dots in gene or protein chips, the number of potential tests per device could be hugely increased.
Contact: Gang-yu Liu, Chemistry, (530) 754-9678, [email protected].
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