title: Applications of polymer brushes in protein analysis and purification.
abstract: This review examines the application of polymer brush-modified flat surfaces, membranes, and beads for protein immobilization and isolation. Modification of porous substrates with brushes yields membranes that selectively bind tagged proteins to give 99% pure protein at capacities as high as 100 mg of protein per cubic centimeter of membrane. Moreover, enrichment of phosphopeptides on brush-modified matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) plates allows detection and characterization of femtomole levels of phosphopeptides by MALDI mass spectrometry. Because swollen hydrophilic brushes can resist nonspecific protein adsorption while immobilizing a high density of proteins, they are attractive as substrates for protein microarrays. This review highlights the advantages of polymer brush-modified surfaces over self-assembled monolayers and identifies some research needs in this area.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
authors.forename: Parul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: Gregory L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Merlin L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Bruening
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011108:Polymers; D011506:Proteins