Rationally engineering natural protein assemblies in nanobiotechnology

Multimeric protein assemblies are essential components in viruses, bacteria, eukaryotic cells, and organisms where they act as cytoskeletal scaffold, storage containers, or for directional transport. The bottom-up structures can be exploited in nanobiotechnology by harnessing their built-in properties and combining them with new functional modules. This review summarizes the design principles of natural protein assemblies, highlights recent progress in their structural elucidation, and shows how rational engineering can create new biomaterials for applications in vaccine development, biocatalysis, materials science, and synthetic biology.

► Protein assemblies occur in every virus or biological cell. ► They act as cytoskeletal scaffold, storage container, or for directional transport. ► Rational engineering can exploit protein assemblies for nanobiotechnology. ► Structural insight can guide the generation of designed biomaterials. ► Applications of engineered systems range from vaccine development, biocatalysis, materials science, to synthetic biology.