| Project/Area Number |
25560231
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Biomedical engineering/Biomaterial science and engineering
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| Research Institution | Institute of Physical and Chemical Research |
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Principal Investigator |
Malay Ali 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 環境資源科学研究センター, 研究員 (40467006)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2015)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
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| Keywords | protein cage / self-assembly / bionanotechnology / gold nanoparticle / metal coordination / artificial capsid / smart nanomaterial / supramolecular assembly / gold cluster / gold chemistry / self assembly / capsid / protein engineering / coordination chemistry / protein / synthetic biology / gold catalysis / cryo EM / drug delivery / protein structure / protein shell |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
We present a new method for assembling protein cages with well-defined, symmetrical structures. The starting material, a mutated TRAP protein, folds into an 11-membered ring with cysteine residues on the outer surface. Reaction with the gold cluster Au55 leads to the formation of a hollow cage (TRAP-cage), which exhibits extreme stability, yet disassembles under reducing conditions. Potential applications in biomedicine (drug delivery) are suggested.
The TRAP-cage structure yielded unexpected results. Neighboring TRAP rings were linked by gold atoms coordinated via cysteines: TRAP-cage represents the first de novo assembled protein cage by metal coordination. Furthermore, with 264 protein subunits, TRAP-cage shows a unique symmetry. Instead of icosahedral symmetry, TRAP-cage has snub cube symmetry, with an 11mer ring occupying each of the 24 vertices with near-perfect regularity. Our findings suggest novel strategies for building large protein cages by exploring alternative symmetries.
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