Photonic immobilization of high-density protein arrays using Fourier optics.

The technique of UV-light-assisted immobilization of disulfide containing proteins has been combined with the Fourier-transforming properties of lenses as well as with a simple millimeter scale feature size spatial mask. The result is a new simple and inexpensive way of creating high-density protein arrays with feature sizes down to a few hundred nanometers, which represents an improvement of tenfold over existing commercially available high-density protein arraying methods.

Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations point out the effects of pressure on the stability and dynamics of the porcine odorant-binding protein.

The effects of hydrostatic pressure on the structure and stability of porcine odorant-binding protein (pOBP) in the presence and absence of the odorant molecule 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (IBMP) were studied by steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy as well as by molecular dynamics simulation. The authors found that the application of moderate values of hydrostatic pressure to pOBP solutions perturbed the microenvironment of Trp(16) and disrupted its highly quenched complex with Met(39). In addition, compared with the protein in the absence of IBMP, the MD simulations experiments carried out at different pressures highlighted the role of this ligand in stabilizing the Trp(16)/Met(39) interaction even at 2000 bar.