Supra-Biomolecular Architectures at Functionalized Surfaces

Abstract

The controlled build-up of supra-molecular architectures by specific recognition reactions at functionalized surfaces is currently studied in many laboratories employing a broad range of experimental techniques. In particular, the ligand-receptor pair biotin-streptavidin¹ is widely used as a model system because i) it undergoes a highly specific and strong binding reaction (with a binding constant of K = 10⁻¹⁵M), ii) the complex formed is structurally well-characterized by X-ray analysis so that information about the sterical requirements of the binding reaction can be deduced,^2,3 iii) biotin (vitamin H) can be easily linked to other functional units, e.g. to phospholipids or self-assembling molecules like alkyl-thiols⁴, and iv) the two biomolecules are easily available and relatively stable to work with.