[25a-P03-1~11] 12.6 Nanobiotechnology

[25a-P03-2] Effect of buffer molecules on the self-assembly process of ferritin molecules

〇Masato Ishigooka¹, Yuki Kudo¹, Yuji Fujita¹, Ken-ichi Sano¹, Yasuhiro Ikezoe¹ (1.Nippon Inst. Tech.)

Keywords:Ferritin, Quasi-elastic laser scattering, molecular adsorption

Ferritin is a spherical protein molecule with an outer diameter of 12 nm. It has a pore with a diameter of 7 nm inside and is possible to store metal nanoparticles. Therefore, it is expected that a two-dimensional molecular film of metal-encapsulated ferritin on Si substrate can be applied as nano-electronic devices and sensors. Many studies on the formation of two-dimensional crystal-like molecular films have been reported so far. However, the mechanism of self-organizing process is still unclear. For example, it has been known that the formation of two-dimensional self-assembly of ferritin is affected by buffer molecules; the crystallinity is better in PIPES than in Tris. In this paper, the adsorption process of ferritin molecules onto the water surface was investigated through a real time surface tension measurement using the quasi-elastic laser scattering (QELS) method. Furthermore, the adsorbed molecules were observed by a Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM).