Fig. 4. Summary of published engineered self-assembling nanoparticles and naturally assembling nanoparticles, sorted by symmetry type.

For the names of engineered nanoparticles, the first letter indicates symmetry of the design T, O, or I for tetrahedral, octahedral, icosahedral, respectively. The first number indicates the oligomeric state of the primary building block, while the second number represents the oligomeric state of the secondary building block, if present in the design. The abbreviation “CC” stands for a coiled-coil motif. A plus (+) between the first and second number indicates that self-assembly is generated by genetic fusion between two monomers of the primary and secondary building block, versus Interface design with Rosetta. As a visual aid, the primary building block (red) and secondary (cyan) are aligned to the vertices or faces of a polyhedra^98,99 that resembles the geometry of the nanoparticle. Genetically fused building blocks are emphasized with a yellow-dashed box.