Self-assembling virus-like particles

大自然已经进化出可以自发自我组装的蛋白质，以创造复杂的结构，如病毒颗粒和分子马达。这些胶囊和分子机器的尺寸通常在10-100纳米之间，因此构成了纳米技术的理想基石。生物纳米科学和合成生物学领域是基于这样一个概念，即通过将生物构建模块与合成分子相结合，将有可能构建出能够进行有用工作的新型纳米级物体和机器。生物纳米科学的应用范围从医疗保健的靶向药物/基因递送到分子电子学的纳米图案表面。在这个项目中，我们将开发新的策略来自组装病毒样颗粒，使用自然产生的蛋白质，这些蛋白质将通过合成分子连接在一起。

Nature has evolved proteins that can spontaneously self-assemble to create complex structures such as virus particles and molecular motors. These capsules and molecular machines typically have sizes of 10-100 nm and thus constitute ideal building blocks for nanotechnology. The fields of bionanoscience and synthetic biology are based on the concept that by combining biological building blocks with synthetic molecules it will be possible to construct novel nano-scale objects and machines that can do useful work. The applications of bionanoscience can range from targeted drug/gene delivery for healthcare to making nano-patterned surfaces for molecular electronics. In this project we will develop new strategies to self-assemble virus-like particles using naturally occurring proteins which will be linked together by synthetic molecules.