Use of Protein Cages as a Template for Confined Synthesis of Inorganic and Organic Nanoparticles (book chapter)
- Uchida, Masaki [ Department of Chemistry, Indiana University ]
- Qazi, Shefah [ Montana State University: Chemistry & Biochemistry ] [ Center for Bio-Inspired Nanomaterials ]
- Edwards, Ethan [ Montana State University: Chemistry & Biochemistry ] [ Center for Bio-Inspired Nanomaterials ]
- Douglas, Trevor [ Department of Chemistry, Indiana University ]
Protein cages are hollow spherical proteins assembled from a defined number of subunits. Because they are extremely homogeneous in size and structure, their interior cavities can serve as ideal templates to encapsulate and synthesize well-defined nanoparticles. Here, we describe the exemplary synthesis of a hard and a soft material in two representative protein cages, i.e., magnetite nanoparticles in ferritin and a poly(2-aminoethyl)methacrylate inside a viral capsid derived from the bacteriophage P22.