Direct confinement of individual viruses within polyethylene glycol (PEG) nanowells

Abstract

Individual M13 viruses were spatially confined within wells fabricated from nanomolding of a PEG-based random copolymer. The viruses were selectively adhered to the region pretreated with an antibody against the virus, resulting in individual virus arrays. The polymer surface was found to be highly resistant to the attachment of the virus (similar to 0.02 mu m(-2)), approximately 2 orders of magnitude lower than that on a bare silicon surface. The physical height of the template provided an additional barrier to the attachment of the virus due to entropic penalty in bending of a semi-flexible M13 virus. The effects of pattern size and barrier height were investigated, revealing that a certain critical height is needed to ensure successful confinement within the template for a given pattern size.