abstract
In the last few years gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) became extremely interesting materials due to their enhanced optical, chemical and electrical properties. With the intention of taking advantage of those properties, the use of AuNPs has spread into a wide variety of areas such as physics, chemistry, biology, industry and medicine. More interestingly, their ability to form robust conjugates with biomolecules has given proteomics a new tool to improve aspects where the current methods to study proteins and their interactions in living cells cannot achieve the success required. In this review we present some of the current methods for AuNPs synthesis, the tailoring of their surface with ligands to improve stability and strategies to conjugate with biomolecules. Lastly, we also discuss their application in proteomic methods and recent developments in clinical diagnosis.
keywords
MASS-SPECTROMETRY; ULTRASENSITIVE DETECTION; PROTEIN CRYSTALLIZATION; COLORIMETRIC SENSOR; METAL NANOPARTICLES; CHEMICAL-DETECTION; COLLOIDAL GOLD; PARTICLE-SIZE; SEEDED GROWTH; SHAPE CONTROL
subject category
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
authors
Couto, C; Vitorino, R; Daniel-da-Silva, AL
our authors
Ana Luísa Daniel da Silva
Principal Researcher
Cláudia Alexandra Maia do Couto
Research Fellowshipacknowledgements
The authors report no declarations of interest. This work was developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007679 (FCT Ref. UID /CTM /50011/2013), financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and when appropriate co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. This work was financed by national funding from FCT (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia) through the project PTDC/EXPL/BBB-BEP/0317/2012, by FEDER (COMPETE) and by FCT/MEC (PIDDAC) in the frame of the projects CICECO-FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-037271 (Pest-C/CTM/LA0011/2013), QOPNA-FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027554 (PEst-C/QUI/UI0062/2013), UID/IC/00051/2013 and UID/BIM/04501/2013. A.L. Daniel-da-Silva acknowledges FCT for the FCT Investigator Program.