Bioprospecting in high temperature environments; application of thermostable protein cages

Abstract

The first researchers to discover life in high temperature environments could not have anticipated the impact of their findings on the biotechnology industry. Today biotech companies benefit from multimillion dollar sales of enzymes originating from microorganisms that thrive in diverse high temperature environments. In this review we highlight significant advances made towards the development of self-assembling oligomeric protein cages from hyperthermophilic organisms as amenable platforms for diverse applications in biotechnology, electronics and medicine.