Figure 2.

Overview of the nanoparticle-loading procedure and crystals based on nanoparticle-loaded protein cages. (A) The in situ synthesis of CeO₂ nanoparticles inside the ferritin cavity is shown. Precursors diffuse inside the cavity through the pores of the nanocage. Particles are synthesized at higher temperature. (B) For the second cage, gold nanoparticles are encapsulated into the encapsulin container by dis- and reassembly. During reassembly, the ex situ-synthesized nanoparticles are added and encapsulated by a peptide-directed encapsulation process. (C–E) Protein cages can be crystallized in different combinations: eFtn^(pos) with AuEnc^(neg), CeFtn^(pos) with eEnc^(neg), and CeFtn^(pos) with AuEnc^(neg). The scale bars equal 50 μm.