Enzymes on material surfaces

Enzyme interactions with material surfaces are of interest for industrial food and pharmaceutical transformations, biosensors, artificial cells, cell free reactions, drug and nutrition delivery technologies, and imaging. When in contact with a material surface, an enzyme may lose or appear to lose activity due to the nature of the enzyme, the nature of the material, and/or the nature of the interface between the enzyme, material, and substrate environment. The purpose of this review is to survey recent advances that have been made towards the preservation, optimization, and enhancement of enzyme activity on material surfaces within the context of well-known concepts that describe the loss of activity after immobilization. This review breaks down the immobilized enzyme system to look at the individual components of the system—namely the enzyme, the material, and the interface. For each piece, possible causes for the loss of enzyme activity are described as well as strategies that have been applied to limit the affect. At the conclusion we identify areas of future research needed to overcome limitations in the current state-of-the art for immobilized enzyme systems.