Self-assembled protein nanotubes

What is it about?

We describe a protein that can form rings of nanometric dimensions. These rings can be forced to stack and form nanometric tubes, i.e. very small tubular structures that can be filled with metals (forming nanowires) or other compounds (i.e. drugs). We found the conditions to control these processes and make the system work "on demand"

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Why is it important?

The ability to control an assembly process may be greatly beneficial in inducing the formation of very very small materials carrying molecules of interest for biomedical applications or inorganic matter (say metals) for electronic applications. Among the known autoaasembling systems, the one we describe is innovative in the conditions used to allow the formation of nanotubes and the possibility to manipulate its structure adapting it to different requirements