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Engineering and exploiting protein assemblies in synthetic biology.
David Papapostolou1, Stefan Howorka
1Department of Chemistry, Institute of Structural Molecular Biology, University College London, London, WC1H 0AJ, UK.
Molecular Biosystems
|June 30, 2009
Summary
Researchers are engineering biological assemblies, like those found in viruses, for new applications in medicine and materials science. This bottom-up approach creates novel nanoscale materials with designed properties.
Area of Science:
- Biomolecular engineering
- Synthetic biology
- Nanobiotechnology
Background:
- Many essential biological structures, such as virus capsids and cytoskeleton components, are formed through the self-assembly of identical protein units.
- These natural self-assembling systems exhibit precise nanoscale periodicity and hierarchical organization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review how the structure and function of natural biological assemblies inspire the design of engineered systems.
- To explore the application of these engineered assemblies in synthetic biology, cell biology, biomedicine, and materials science.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of self-assembling biological structures.
- Analysis of how natural assembly principles are translated into engineered systems.
- Discussion of applications in creating novel materials and biomolecular tools.
Main Results:
- Engineered protein assemblies can mimic natural structures for controlled self-assembly.
- These systems offer platforms for creating materials with designed nanoscale periodicity.
- Applications span from templating inorganic materials to developing advanced biomolecular tools.
Conclusions:
- The principles of biological self-assembly provide a powerful blueprint for designing novel functional systems.
- Engineered assemblies hold significant potential for advancing fields like synthetic biology, nanobiotechnology, and regenerative medicine.
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The genome refers to all of the genetic material in an organism. It can range from a few million base pairs in microbial cells to several billion base pairs in many eukaryotic organisms. Genome assembly refers to the process of taking the DNA sequencing data and putting it all back together in a correct order to create a close representation of the original genome. This is followed by the identification of functional elements on the newly assembled genome, a process called genome annotation.