Protein cages as building blocks for superstructures. 2021

Ruoxuan Sun, and Sierin Lim
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Nanyang Technological University Singapore.

Proteins naturally self-assemble to function. Protein cages result from the self-assembly of multiple protein subunits that interact to form hollow symmetrical structures with functions that range from cargo storage to catalysis. Driven by self-assembly, building elegant higher-order superstructures with protein cages as building blocks has been an increasingly attractive field in recent years. It presents an engineering challenge not only at the molecular level but also at the supramolecular level. The higher-order constructs are proposed to provide access to diverse functional materials. Focussing on design strategy as a perspective, current work on protein cage supramolecular self-assembly are reviewed from three principles that are electrostatic, metal-ligand coordination and inherent symmetry. The review also summarises possible applications of the superstructure architecture built using modified protein cages.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Ruoxuan Sun, and Sierin Lim
March 2013, Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English),
Ruoxuan Sun, and Sierin Lim
February 2020, ACS synthetic biology,
Ruoxuan Sun, and Sierin Lim
May 2016, Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry,
Ruoxuan Sun, and Sierin Lim
December 2016, Nature nanotechnology,
Ruoxuan Sun, and Sierin Lim
July 2013, Journal of the American Chemical Society,
Ruoxuan Sun, and Sierin Lim
February 2024, Chemical communications (Cambridge, England),
Copied contents to your clipboard!