Light assisted molecular immobilization has been used for the first time to engineer covalent bioconjugates of superparamagnetic nanoparticles and proteins. The technology involves disulfide bridge disruption upon UV excitation of nearby aromatic residues. The close spatial proximity of aromatic residues and disulfide bridges is a conserved structural feature in proteins. The created thiol groups bind thiol reactive surfaces leading to oriented covalent protein immobilization. We have immobilized a model carrier protein, bovine serum albumin, onto Fe3O4@Au core-shell nanoparticles as well as arrayed it onto optically flat thiol reactive surfaces. This new immobilization technology allows for ultra high dense packing of different bio-molecules on a surface, allowing the creation of multi-potent functionalized active new biosensor materials, biomarkers identification and the development of nanoparticles based novel drug delivery system. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2011;108: 999-1010. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.