Peptide actuators

Thornton, P.D., Mart, R.J., Webb, S.J. Ulijn, R.V. 2008, Enzyme-responsive hydrogel particles for the controlled release of proteins designing peptide actuators to match payload . Soft Matter, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 821-827. 

Mcdonald,T. O., Qu, H. L., Saunders, B. R. and Ulijn, R. V. (2009). Branched peptide actuators for enzyme responsive hydrogel particles. Soft Matter, 5,1728-1734. 

Sadana, A. Ramakrishnan, A. A kinetic study of analyte-receptor binding and dissociation for biosensor applications a fractal analysis for cholera toxin and peptide-protein interactions. Sens. Actuators, B, Chem. 2002, 85, 61-72. 

The flow control elements or valves developed in Sandia were plugs of nonporous monolithic polymer prepared from fluorinated acrylates via UV-initiated polymerization directly in one of the channels. The reason for using the fluorinated monomers is to manage the surface energy, decrease their friction in channel, enable actuation at a low pressure, as well as to avoid both swelling and shrinking in solvents typically used in reversed-phase separations such as water and acetonitrile. The friction could be further decreased by modification of the valve channel with fluorinated alkylsilane. However, the latter may be counterproductive in systems used for the separation of proteins and peptides because they tend to adsorb on highly hydrophobic surfaces. 

Recently, EWOD actuation chips were developed into a multiplexed device that was used to simultaneously cleanup four samples. A sequence of seven actuation steps were performed for each sample (1) generation of sample droplets (0.02 p.L), (2) transport and drying of sample droplets, (3) generation of rinsing droplets, (4) transport of rinsing droplets to the sample sites for selective dissolution of urea, (5) transport and disposal of the rinsing droplets, (6) generation of MALDI matrix solution droplets, and (7) delivery of matrix droplets to the dried peptide spots. 

FIGURE 19.15 (Step 2) (a) The bio-nanocomponents will be used to fabricate complex biorobotic systems. A vision of a nano organism carbon nanotubes form the main body peptide limbs can be used for locomotion and object manipulation and the biomolecular motor located at the head can propel the device in various environments, (b) Modular organization concept for the bio-nanorobots. Spatial arrangements of the various modules of the robots are shown. A single bio-nanorobot will have actuation, sensory, and information processing capabilities. 

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