The PfEMP1 protein family of Plasmodium falciparum is one of the most closely studied surface protein families, with about 60 members encoded in each genome (Smith et al., 2013; Gardner et al., 2002).
GaAs(0 0 1) has been one of the most intensively studied surfaces for the past 30 years due both to its importance as a substrate for epitaxial growth and to the challenge its phase diagram of complex structures presents to computational methods.
As the contact angle study was investigated without development of micromachining technology, most studied substrates were simply flat surface but treated with different chemicals such as low surface energy material like Teflon (surface energy ~ 18.5 mN/m).
The P. falciparum surface antigen most studied is P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1), which is encoded by a family of var genes (reviewed in Craig and Scherf, 2001; Rowe et al., 2009; Miller et al., 2013).
Among this class of enzymes the most studied are class I that are activated by cell surface receptors.
Although most studies describe surface roughness rather than wettability as the dominant factor for bacterial adhesion, the data on this matter is somewhat ambiguous [9 11, 20, 32 37].
Due to experimental constraints most studies of surface diffusion are limited to well below the melting point of the substrate, and much has yet to be discovered regarding how these processes take place at higher temperatures.
In addition, most studies used surface electrodes which may cause confounding by various factors including pressure, skin moisture, electrode contact and abrasion of the stratum corneum.
