User:Andy Maloney/Notebook/Lab Notebook of Andy Maloney/2009/10/03/Surface passivation

Direction

So on Thursday I was able to get all the stock solutions for the experiments remade and I have shown that motility is still working and that the kinesin we have is still viable. Granted, there is some funkiness with the amount of kinking going on with the microtubules (maybe not enough kinesin on the slide) but at least I now know it works. This means that I can now reevaluate the experiments I have been trying to do with different types of surface passivation.

Silica nanoparticles

I was able to get some samples of varying sized silica nanoparticles made by Nissan chemicals from Zahyun Ku. The question I have and why I want to try these things is that in the literature, people think that kinesin will denature if it does not have some sort of supporting structure holding it up from the glass surface. Well, spin coating silica nanoparticles to a glass substrate will give kinesin the rough terrain it needs to keep it from touching the glass directly. One thing to note here is that no one knows what happens to kinesin when it comes in contact with a glass surface. People think it just denatures when it hits it. I'm going to propose that it actually does not denature. In fact what I think happens is that the motor domains have some sort of affinity for the glass substrate and that once they come in contact with it, they are no longer capable of supporting motility (perhaps because they are pointing in the wrong direction to attach to microtubules). This experiment will answer this idea some what because the silica nanoparticles have the same hydrophilic nature that glass does. So, if I have a rough, hydrophilic terrain, the kinesin motor domains will be attracted to the hydrophilic silica nanoparticles and they will stick there and will not support motility.

The only problem is trying to get a spin coating that will work. I've tried several things and it seems that nothing is working for me. Oh well, I'll try again later.