Manipulating the Size of Hen Lysozyme Nanoparticles Created by Controlled Self-Assembly

Abstract

Natural protein-based nanostructures like viral capsids, ferritin present attractive platforms for vaccine development, catalysis, nanomaterial synthesis, drug/gene delivery owing to their biocompatability and rich functional chemistry. These container-like protein cage architectures possess multiple interfaces (interior, exterior and between subunits) for imparting functionality. However, assembling such structures artificially, with defined molecular dimensions has proved challenging. Current approaches do not permit spatial tuning, yielding bulky nanostructures (>50 nm).