Large-scale arrays of aligned single viruses.

The fabrication of single virus arrays is herein demonstrated using the direct printing of unmodified anti-M13 bacteriophage antibodies on silicon with nanometer resolution, widely variable feature pitch, and flow alignment of the viruses. Organization of virus-based systems into functional, addressable arrays has many technological applications, including micro-array technology and bottom-up nano-assemblies.

Virus-based toolkit for the directed synthesis of magnetic and semiconducting nanowires.

We report a virus-based scaffold for the synthesis of single-crystal ZnS, CdS, and freestanding chemically ordered CoPt and FePt nanowires, with the means of modifying substrate specificity through standard biological methods. Peptides (selected through an evolutionary screening process) that exhibit control of composition, size, and phase during nanoparticle nucleation have been expressed on the highly ordered filamentous capsid of the M13 bacteriophage. The incorporation of specific, nucleating peptides into the generic scaffold of the M13 coat structure provides a viable template for the directed synthesis of semiconducting and magnetic materials.