Figure 3.

(Left) Schematic representation of the ability of grafted polymers to prevent protein adsorption. For polymers attracted to the surface, there is no kinetic barrier but the protein competes with the polymer for adsorption sites. Polymers that are not attracted to the surface present a large steric barrier but not very good thermodynamic prevention because of the ability of the protein to deform the polymer layer. (Right) The curves on the right show the calculated average shapes of two neighboring polymers as a function of time. The shape is defined here (20) by the lateral average radius of gyration of the chains as a function of the distance from the surface. Also, a protein is shown to scale, demonstrating that the deformation of the polymer layer is exactly what is needed for the protein to reach the surface. The black curves correspond to t = 0, the green and blue curves are for the times marked by the same color arrows in Fig. 2A, and the red curve is the final equilibrium state.