A General Method For Designing Self-Assembling Protein Nanomaterials

Self-assembling protein materials can be designed with higher accuracy at atomic levelThis method is applicable to the design of a broad range of symmetric materials

Self-assembling functional protein nanomaterialsBiomimetic materialsProtein cage for drug deliveryCustom designed molecular machines

Researchers at UCLA have developed a novel computational method for designing self-assembling protein materials. Protein building blocks are docked together symmetrically to identify complementary packing arrangements, and low-energy protein-protein interfaces are designed between the building blocks in order to drive self-assembly. When tested, the designed proteins assemble to the desired oligomeric state that closely match the designed models in solution.

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State Of Development

This design strategy has been successfully tested with atomic level accuracy.

Background

Molecular self-assembly is the process by which molecules adopt a defined arrangement directed through non-covalent interactions (e.g. hydrogen bonding, metal coordination, hydrophobic forces, van der Waals forces, π-π interactions, and/or electrostatic), as well as electromagnetic interactions. Molecular self-assembly allows the construction of challenging molecular topologies, and it is a powerful approach to create shapes and patterns on the atomic scale. The functional and physical properties of proteins make them attractive as building blocks for the development of advanced functional nanomaterials.

Previous approaches have used coiled-coil and helical bundle interactions, engineered disulfide bonds, chemical crosslinks, metal-mediated interactions, templating by non-biological materials in conjunction with computational interface design, or genetic fusion of multiple protein domains or fragments that naturally self-associate as the driving force for interactions between the subunits in self-assembling structure. Designing assemblies based on non-covalent interactions is difficult and has poor precision because of the complexities of modeling protein structures and energetics.   

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• A Method to Design Self-Assembling Proteins

Tech ID/UC Case

27467/2012-648-0

Related Cases

2012-648-0

USA

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