PNNL

Abstract

Covalent immobilization of peptides on solid supports plays an important role in biochemistry with applications ranging from characterization of molecular recognition events at the amino acid level and identification of biologically active motifs in proteins to development of novel biosensors and substrates for improved cell adhesion. Self-assembled monolayer surfaces (SAMs) provide a simple and convenient platform for tailoring chemical properties of a variety of substrates. Existing techniques for linking peptides to SAMs are based on solution-phase synthetic strategies and require relatively large quantities of purified material. Here, we report a novel approach for highly selective covalent binding of peptides to SAMs using soft-landing (SL) of mass-selected ions. SL is defined as intact deposition of ions onto suitable substrates at hyperthermal (