losing negligible amounts of protein over the subsequent 21 days therefore a four hour rinse time is sufficient to fabricate stable elp d thin films regardless of initial film mass in addition this protocol was found to be a highly reproducible method to produce thin films of a specific final mass as evidenced by the narrow standard deviation for both sets of films due to this we can reliably alter the final quantity of protein retained on the coated surface and thus the total concentration of presented bioactive ligand stability is an integral parameter dictating potential biomedical applications the high level of stability displayed by photo crosslinked elp d thin films makes them promising materials for use as implant coatings which commonly need to remain intact over long periods of time native elastin is highly persistent in the body although it can be rapidly degraded by the enzyme elastase a high level of film stability was demonstrated for elp d conjugated at u02dc 60 efficiency leaving u02dc 5 unreacted primary amines per protein chain these reactive groups could be used to tether various drugs or growth factors into the elp d thin film alternatively elp d conjugated with more crosslinker per.