Computational (re)design of ice-binding proteins for nanobiotechnology

Properties of metal surfaces can be tuned by via thin molecular layers adsorbed on- or chemically attached to them. In this project we aim at designing thin molecular layers adsorbed on gold surfaces that render the surface anti-(bio-)fouling and antifreezing. With the advent of computational protein design, it has become possible to de-novo design proteins with high stability. We aim at the computational design of highly stable proteins assembling on gold surfaces, rendering these surfaces antifouling and antifreezing. Antifouling and antifreezing functional domains will be based on proteins designed earlier by us, for attachment to gold we will rely on gold-binding peptides. We expect these new and stable functional gold coatings will have many future applications in biosensing and other biomedical technologies.