A protein-based three terminal electronic device

Because of their natural functional characteristics, involving inter- and intramolecular electron transfer, metalloproteins are good candidates for biomolecular nanoelectronics. In particular, blue copper proteins, such as azurin, can bind gold via a disulfide site present on its surface and they have a natural electron transfer activity that can be exploited for the realization of molecular switches whose conduction state can be controlled by tuning their redox state through an external voltage source. We report on the implementation of a prototype of protein transistor operating in air and in the solid state, based on this class of proteins. The three terminal devices exhibit various functions depending on the relative source-drain and gate-drain voltages bias, opening a way to the implementation of a new generation of logic architectures.