title: Simple and Flexible Model for Laser-Driven Antibody-Gold Surface Interactions: Functionalization and Sensing.
abstract: Interactions between biomolecules and between substrates and biomolecules is a crucial issue in physics and applications to topics such as biotechnology and organic electronics. The efficiency of bio- and mechanical sensors, of organic electronics systems, and of a number of other devices critically depends on how molecules are deposited on a surface so that these acquire specific functions. Here, we tackle this vast problem by developing a coarse grained model of biomolecules having a recognition function, such as antibodies, capable to quantitatively describe in a simple manner essential phenomena: antigen-antibody and antibody substrate interactions. The model is experimentally tested to reproduce the results of a benchmark case, such as (1) gold surface functionalization with antibodies and (2) antibody-antigen immune-recognition function. The agreement between experiments and model prediction is excellent, thus unveiling the mechanism for antibody immobilization onto metals at the nanoscale in various functionalization schemes. These results shed light on the geometrical packing properties of the deposited molecules, and may open the way to a novel coarse-grained based approach to describe other processes where molecular packing is a key issue with applications in a huge number of fields from nano- to biosciences.
authors.forename: Bartolomeo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Della Ventura
authors.affiliation: Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University , 9 Oxford Street, Room 125, Cambridge, Massachussetts 02138, United States.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ambrosio
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fierro
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Funari
authors.forename: Felice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gesuele
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maddalena
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI-8) and Institute of Complex Systems (ICS-8), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH , 52428 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.affiliation: Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University , 637371 Singapore.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pica Ciamarra
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Velotta
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Altucci
keywords: biosensing; complex systems; nanoassembly; simulation; surface functionalization