The bionanoscience of plant viruses: templates and synthons for new materials

Abstract

At the interface of chemistry, biology, physics, medicine, engineering and materials science sits the field of bionanoscience; this involves the exploitation of biomaterials, devices or methodologies on the nanoscale. One sub-field of bionanoscience explores the exploitation of biomaterials in the fabrication of new nano-materials and/or -devices. This article shows how plant viruses are being used as templates for the production of new materials and how they are being used as building blocks in the construction of new assemblies by a bottom-up approach.