Credit: David Belnap, Jörg Votteler
Scientists at the University of Utah and University of Washington have designed a self-assembling, biologically-based system that can deliver custom cargo between human cells. Cargo is encased in protein nanocages (yellow, enlarged on left) that are carried from one cell to another within vesicles built from membranes (green, shown in cross-section). Each vesicle can hold multiple cargo-carrying nanocages.