Scientists develop proteins that self-assemble into supramolecular complexes
Shinshu University
The researchers created and developed the proteins with a specific function and their method reveals a possibility that certain protein functions can be created on demand. Arai and his team developed a simple and stable artificial protein, called WA20, in 2012. The researchers built on that success to develop extender PN-Blocks, which link WA20 proteins together to produce chain-like protein complexes and even more nanostructures. Getting these complexes together, the supramolecular nanostructure complexes were achieved by introducing a metal ion, which triggered the process through further self-assembly. These results demonstrate that the PN-Block strategy is a useful and systematic strategy for constructing novel nano-architectures, Arai said, noting that the ability to construct novel complexes is particularly important in biotechnology and synthetic biology.