Multivalent Glycopolymer-Coated Gold Nanoparticles

Glycosylated noble metal nanoparticles are a useful tool for probing biological binding events due to their aggregation-induced color changes, particularly for lectins that have multiple binding sites. To overcome the challenges of colloidal instability, which leads to false-positive results, it is essential to add polymeric coatings to these particles. Here we describe a versatile, and reliable, approach to enable coating of gold nanoparticles using well-defined polymers, with carbohydrate end groups. This produces multivalent nanoparticles that are both colloidally stable, but still retain their rapid colorimetric responses to lectin binding.