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Gold nanoparticles can serve as tiny plugs to connect enzymes to electrodes. Potential applications for systems using such "nanoplugs" include electrodes for fuel cells and sensitive and specific sensors for biological molecules. Authors have demonstrated a bioelectrocatalytic system in which they wire glucose oxidase to an electrode. As shown here schematically, the enzyme cofactor flavine adenine dinucleotide (FAD) is covalently attached to a gold nanoparticle that in turn binds to a gold electrode. Then glucose oxidase (without its natural FAD cofactor) is added to the mix, where it latches on to the gold-bound FAD. When the resulting Au-FAD-enzyme assembly acts on glucose, electrons flow through the gold nanoparticle to the electrode; the current is proportional to the glucose concentration. The system's electron transfer rates are faster than with an untethered enzyme, the researchers report.
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