Non-specific proteases can produce metal oxidenanoparticles

Abstract

Biomineralization-based techniques have emerged as alternatives to traditional materials syntheses as they offer ambient fabrication conditions with a high degree of compositional specificity. This highlight focuses on a paper in the current issue of the Journal of Materials Chemistry by Feldheim and colleagues that demonstrates the extrapolation of metal oxide fabrication methods of sponges to other commonly used proteases. From this, active site criteria can be elucidated to understand the mechanistic details of enzymatic-based materials syntheses, which may eventually be incorporated into designs that require spatially registered materials deposition.