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Wednesday, 19th December 2007 (5379 views)

Chinese scientists have developed a new protein separation technique that sees gold and iron nanoparticles joined together to help isolate specific proteins once a magnetic field is applied.

Previously such a technique had been hindered by a complicated process to fabricate the nanoparticles.

However, chemists and biotechnologists from Tsinghua University have developed a simpler process which is hoped to rival gel electrophoresis and ion chromatography.

Scientist Yadong Li and his team created 60nm iron nanoparticles with amino groups on their surfaces which naturally bind with 10nm gold particles.

These nanoparticles were also shown to retain both the magnetism of the iron particles and the biomolecule-binding ability of the gold nanoparticles.

When compared with gel electrophoresis in protein separation, the nanoparticles extracted proteins in a neat line in the gel while the electrophoresis technique produced a wide range of different sized proteins spread out across the gel.

Earlier this month, Industry Week described recent breakthroughs in the field of gold nanoparticles as extremely good news for the sector of nanomedicine.

 

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