Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Low concentrated heavy metal ions are causing diverse problems for conventional metal processing. Artificial peptides with metal binding affinities are a new, innovative challenger for conventional metal recovery. They combine high specificity and sensitivity and being biodegradable, they do not add additional environmental pressure, therefore they are of high potential for geobiotechnology.
Here, we aimed for the development of novel peptidic bio-materials for the recovery of cobalt and nickel. Combining Phage Surface Display Technology (PSD) with deep sequencing approaches, suitable sequences were identified and genetically optimized for heterologous expression and production. Methods used for characterizing the peptide metal interaction, were e.g. quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) and UV/Vis spectroscopy. Our system can be adapted to many different purposes/materials and the identified motifs can provide information for a deeper understanding of bio-inorganic interactions, leading to the discovery of novel metal-interacting biomolecules.
Introduction. With biomining first applie