Abstract
As a method to detect the interaction of bio-macromolecules with their specific ligands, especially protein-ligand binding, this paper presents a new method to integrate cantilevers made from SU-8 and protein films fabricated by electrospray deposition. We decided to use SU-8 cantilever, since the deflection of cantilever is in inverse proportion to Young's modulus and SU-8 has a Young's modulus of about 4GPa, which is much lower than one of silicon and silicon nitride (190 GPa and 385 GPa, respectively). To increase the density of protein immobilized on the cantilever, electrospray deposition was used. Electrospray-deposited protein film has porous structure of protein molecules, so that more molecules on the same area of cantilever can bind their ligands. In this experiment, α-lactalbumin was used as a protein and it was proved that our system was useful to detect protein-ligand interactions.
