Investigating the adsorption mechanism of Bovine Serum Albumin on crystal surface by steering atomic force microscopy

The protein adsorption is a crucial but complex phenomenon in many applications, like biosensors, biomaterials. The amount, orientation and biological activity of adsorbed proteins are heavily dependent upon the structure of protein, like widely-applied Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA), and the properties of the substrate. At some extent, to explore the physicochemical properties and dynamics interaction process between protein / multi-proteins with crystal/biomaterial surface, it has been presented that how to dig out the potential ability of the apparatus and other methods/tools for removing the block of studying interactions and measuring these complex interactions with crystal environments efficiently. In our recent works, it was demonstrated how to detect the BSA under aqueous conditions by steering the AFM tip in contact mode to sample more abundant topographical clues. The results indicated that this approach should be available for exploring more complex interaction system and acquiring more useful interaction information without altering the current apparatus platforms.