(127g) Production of Functional Protein Materials Via Recombinant Expression and Self-Assembly

Proteins have high potential for a wide range of therapeutic or biocatalysis applications. However, a number of challenges limit their use, including inability to express and purify sufficient material, retain bioactivity, localize the protein in the desired site, whether in the body or a reactor. While a protein’s folded structure is critical to its biological function, it makes proteins sensitive and difficult to produce and package. However, this structure also provides an opportunity to create materials from proteins that could improve not only their presentation in a specific application, but also the opportunity to utilize self-assembly to improve protein production and function. In this presentation I will discuss examples of the design, fabrication, and use of self-assembling protein complexes with physical and biological properties that enable new therapeutic and biocatalytic functions and also provide advantages in protein production over non-complexed proteins.