(441h) Multichannel Automated Temperature Stimulus of Elastin-like Polymers

Elastin-like polymers (ELPs) are proteins similar to naturally occurring elastin protein that have a tunable lower critical solution temperature (LCST). ELPs have been investigated for use in wound dressings, drug delivery, and biosensing. The stimulus response of ELP to changes in salt concentration and ligand binding have been characterized [1], as well as the response to temperature while in solution. However, the temperature-dependent behavior of surface-bound ELPs has not yet been fully characterized. This is in part due to the difficulty of efficient and accurate temperature control in analytical environments, especially in electrochemical techniques. A system has been built that allows for simultaneous analysis of 8 different electrodes in a temperature controlled electrochemical cell. We have been actively using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) to monitor the attachment of ELPs to electrodes as well as the stimulus behavior and stability of the resulting surfaces. We are also studying the effects of drift in EIS at different temperatures and solution conditions.

[1] M.A. Morales, W.A. Paiva, L. Marvin, E.R.M. Balog, J.M. Halpern, Electrochemical characterization of the stimuli-response of surface-immobilized elastin-like polymers, Soft Matter. 15 (2019) 9640–9646. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9sm01681c.

Support was provided by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR award (#2119237), BIO-SENS.