An examination of peptide-tether binding to gold and glass surfaces

Abstract

For many biological applications, it is beneficial to know that a peptide will bind to a surface. In this thesis, a tether, bead, peptide complex is constructed using the gold binding peptide (GBP) of sequence (CGGVSGSSPDS). Several assays and assay modifications are developed and tested to attempt to attach the GBP first to a gold slide and then to gold nanoparticles. Four peptides: FO₂, K1, K2, K3, known to bind to sapphire were attached to glass to see if it was possible to modify the sapphire assay to work with glass.