Engineering of self-assembled vault protein nanocapsules

BIOT 378

Marcella Yu, marcella@seas.ucla.edu1, Lisa E. Goldsmith, Lisa.Goldsmith@ucla.edu1, Valerie A. Kickhoefer2, Leonard H. Rome3, and Harold G. Monbouquette, hmonbouq@ucla.edu1. (1) Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, University of California, Los Angeles, 5531 Boelter Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1592, (2) Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, BOX 951737, 33-131 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1737, (3) Department of Biological Chemistry and California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, 12-138 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Vaults are 40 x 70 nm self-assembled protein nanocapsules, which may be useful for drug/nanomaterial delivery. Although vaults exist in most eukaryotic cells with unknown function, this naturally occurring “organelle” has significant potential as a drug delivery system due to its biocompatibility, large and accessible lumen, and ability to be taken up by mammalian cell lines. We are studying inducible vault conformation changes in solution, covalent modification of vaults, and the controlled loading of material in these nanocapsules. This talk will summarize our current studies of vault nanocapsules in three main areas: (1) Vault conformational change in response to solution conditions; (2) Reversible crosslinking of vaults for controlled vault opening and closing; and (3) Biosynthesis of encapsulated polymer within vaults using an enzyme/vault protein fusion.
 

Poster Session
5:30 PM-7:30 PM, Wednesday, August 22, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster

Division of Biochemical Technology

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007