Symmetry-Directed Design of Protein Cages and Protein Lattices and Their Applications.

The assembly of individual protein subunits into large-scale structures is important in many biological contexts. Proteins may assemble into geometrical cages or extended lattices that are characterized by a high degree of symmetry; examples include viral capsids and bacterial S-layers. The precisely defined higher order structure exhibited by these assemblies has inspired efforts to design such structures de novo by applying the principles of symmetry evident in natural protein assemblies. Here we discuss progress towards this goal and also examples of natural protein cages and lattices that have been engineered to repurpose them towards a diverse range of applications in materials science and nano-medicine.