Abstract

Conjugation of proteins to gold nanoparticles (AuNP), silver nanoparticles (AgNP), or other metal nanoparticles (NPs) can often be achieved using passive adsorption. Although such an approach is simple and effective, there is usually no control over the orientation of the protein and denaturation due to close contact with the metal surface. The method described here makes use of adapter proteins which have the ability to adsorb to the NP surface in an oriented and stable way and at the same time enable straightforward attachment to other proteins of interest.