Protein folding and nanostructure formation are driven by the same forces and follow a similar mechanism. Nanostructure design is a protein folding problem. Nanotechnology realizes the advantages of naturally occurring biological macromolecules and their building blocks for design. In current strategies, assembly often starts with the choice of a "good" molecule that is synthetically optimized towards the desired shape. By contrast, we propose starting with a pre-specified nanostructure shape. We propose selecting candidate protein building blocks from a library, mapping them onto the shape and testing the stability of the construct. Such a shape-based, assembly-of-parts strategy is conceptually similar to protein design through combinatorial assembly of building blocks. If the conformational preferences of the building blocks are retained and their interactions are favorable, the nanostructure will be stable. In particular, the richness of the conformations, the shapes and the chemistries of the protein building blocks suggest a broad range of potential applications.

Funded (in part) under contract number NO1-CO-12400 from the NCI.

Host: William Hlavacek