Engineering and design in the bioelectrochemistry of metalloproteins

Engineered metalloproteins offer interesting systems for electrochemical studies of protein structure/function and their applications in nanobiotechnology. Scanning probe microscopy and cyclic voltammetry of engineered metalloproteins and electrodes have proved to be a powerful combination of tools contributing to the field of bioelectrochemistry. The ability to engineer tags, such as histidine tags and biotin-acceptor peptides, and to site-specifically introduce cysteine residues enabled the creation of ordered immobilised protein structures that can be characterised both electrochemically and topographically. Gene fusion and de novo combinatorial synthesis of metalloproteins are emerging to provide structures with the desired electrochemical properties.