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Advances in Nano Research Volume 1, Number 3, September 2013, pages 133-151 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12989/anr.2013.1.3.133 |
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Interaction at the nanoscale of fundamental biological molecules with minerals |
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Giovanni Valdre, Daniele Moro and Gianfranco Ulian
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| Abstract | ||
| The availability of advanced nanotechnological methodologies (experimental and theoretical) has widened the investigation of biological/organic matter in interaction with substrates. Minerals are good candidates as substrates because they may present a wide variety of physico-chemical properties and surface nanostructures that can be used to actively condense and manipulate the biomolecules. Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) is one of the best suited techniques used to investigate at a single molecule level the surface interactions. In addition, the recent availability of high performance computing has increased the possibility to study quantum mechanically the interaction phenomena extending the number of atoms involved in the simulation. In the present paper, firstly we will briefly introduce new SPM technological developments and applications to investigate mineral surfaces and mineral-biomolecule interaction, then we will present results on the specific RNA-mineral interaction and recent basics and applicative achievements in the field of the interactions between other fundamental biological molecules and mineral surfaces from both an experimental and theoretical point of view. | ||
| Key Words | ||
| minerals; nucleic acids; amino acids; SPM; ab initio simulations; molecular dynamics | ||
| Address | ||
| Giovanni Valdre, Daniele Moro and Gianfranco Ulian : Interdisciplinary Research Centre of Biomineralogy, Crystallography and Biomaterials, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Piazza di Porta San Donato 1, I-40126 Bologna, Italy | ||