Strategies for peptide-induced formation of noble-metal nanoparticles and investigation of their antibacterial efficacy

Noble-Metal Nanoparticle formation in defined sizes and shapes is still a great challenge. Peptides
have shown potential for offering the generation of such nanoparticles. However, still limited is the
knowledge for identifying the appropriate peptides. To fulfill this requirement, we used colorimetric
on-bead screening of encoded one-bead-one-peptide libraries and successfully identified a variety
of simple tripeptides which are able to induce the formation of AgNPs in different size on solid
support. Furthermore, in this thesis we demonstrate how short peptides identified within the
encoded one-bead-one-peptide libraries could be used to generate highly stable AgNPs of different
size and shape in solution. In this regard, the effect of pH, peptide/Ag+ ratio and the role of the
linker between the amino acids were evaluated. Also accompanying this account, are the
exceptional antibacterial activities of our peptide-AgNPs as determined by Isothermal Micro
Calorimetric studies.