UCLA

Protein nanoparticles are self-assembling, symmetric, supramolecular protein structures with diverse applications that have significantly furthered the fields of structural biology and molecular biology. Within structural biology, both the size limitation of cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and preferred specimen orientation have proven to be outstanding challenges in understanding the protein structure of small protein targets. Similarly, there is a deficit of robust methods for imaging proteins and protein complexes at high resolution within the cellular context. Here, I describe the development of protein nanoparticles, or protein cages, as rigid, symmetric scaffolds capable of resolving the structure of small proteins with cryo-EM and as fluorescent, fiducial biomarkers for targeted cellular imaging with confocal microscopy. This study underscores the profound impact of protein nanoparticle technology and its capacity to further revolutionize biochemical research.