Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Probing The Enzymatic Activity Of Alkaline Phosphatase Within Quantum Dot Bioconjugates, Jonathan C. Claussen, Anthony Malanoski, Joyce C. Breger, Eunkeu Oh, Scott A. Walper, Kimihiro Susumu, Ramasis Goswami, Jeffrey R. Deschamps, Igor L. Medintz

Jonathan C. Claussen

Enzymes provide the critical means by which to catalyze almost all biological reactions in a controlled manner. Methods to harness and exploit their properties are of strong current interest to the growing field of biotechnology. In contrast to depending upon recombinant genetic approaches, a growing body of evidence suggests that apparent enzymatic activity can be enhanced when located at a nanoparticle interface. We use semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) as a well-defined and easily bioconjugated nanoparticle along with Escherichia coli-derived alkaline phosphatase (AP) as a prototypical enzyme to seek evidence for this process in a de novo model system. We began …