Enzymatic Grooming of Organic Thin Films

As if with a razor, single polypeptide chains that extend significantly above the bulk layer of polypeptides can be shaved off with ala-nine and leucine aminopeptidases. In the preparation of tightly packed layers of helical peptides, the lengths of the peptide chains cannot be controlled; with the enzymatic grooming process described here subsequent smoothing is possible, which is important for potential applications of these layers as waveguide materials.