When scientists work at the interface and investigate how to tailor it, they can unlock a plethora of possibilities for the future of different sectors. This is well exemplified by the five articles published as a part of this research topic; these works can contribute to development of natural delivery systems for cosmeceutical applications, bio-inspired functional surfaces for biomedical, biosensing, and food packaging, as well as techniques for the measurement of protein adsorption. Following from the previous research topic (Editorial: Protein-Material interfaces: Fundamentals and applications), this second volume explores how proteins can interact with surfaces and how these interactions may be intentionally applied to alter surface properties and introduce novel functionalities.
We can understand and study only what we can measure and the review article on nanomechanical mass spectrometry presents the crucial role of nanomechanical techniques in the understanding of protein deposition at the surface. This research topic also features a review article on hydrophobins, a protein with a tight affinity for surfaces that can self-assemble at hydrophobic/hydrophilic interfaces into amphipathic layers, and shines light on the potential applications of hydrophobins from fungi.
As a complementary approach to lab studies, in silico predictions of protein structures often offers access to information that is inaccessible experimentally through X-ray crystallography or electron microscopy. Using a protein structure prediction program (AlphaFold2, AF2), the conformation of the adhesion devices of Streptococcus thermophilus was studied. This study demonstrates the ability of AF2 to unveil structural and functional details of the molecular machineries involved in adhesion of bacteriophages to their hosts.
The important issue of sustainability has also received attention in the submitted works; alginate and chitosan polymers has been investigated by two papers – one that describes the delivery of bee products for cosmeceuticals and medical applications, and a second that explores nanocomposite film based-sensors based on catalase.
What will the future bring? Hopefully a better understanding of the single molecule events at the surface and ways to better tune and exploit them, while the current innovations reach the market and deliver impact.
Statements
Author contributions
All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.
Acknowledgments
The guest editors wish to thank the authors for their valuable contributions, as well as the many reviewers for the tremendous efforts to guarantee a high-quality review process.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Summary
Keywords
functional surface, protein immobilisation, functional material, biosensor, enzyme immobilization
Citation
Faccio G and Asuri P (2023) Editorial: Protein-Material interfaces: Fundamentals and applications volume II. Front. Mol. Biosci. 10:1137613. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1137613
Received
04 January 2023
Accepted
09 January 2023
Published
17 January 2023
Volume
10 - 2023
Edited and reviewed by
Ralf Metzler, University of Potsdam, Germany
Updates
Copyright
© 2023 Faccio and Asuri.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Greta Faccio, greta.faccio@gmail.com
This article was submitted to Biophysics, a section of the journal Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.