Protein cages are hollow, often spherical, protein structures. They are scientifically interesting for reasons including their capability to serve as protective containers for delivering medically useful cargoes to cells. Design and construction of artificial protein cages is a powerful strategy enabling them to be endowed with bespoke properties not seen in natural forms. To this end, structural studies are a vital tool: Structural analyses of naturally existing protein cages can provide an inspiration for artificial designs while determining structures of artificial proteins can confirm that they match expected designs and cryo-EM is now the tool of choice to achieve this. In this review we describe how natural protein cage structures can inform the design of artificial versions and how, in turn, these can exceed the limitations of their natural counterparts.

中文翻译：

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人造蛋白质笼 - 灵感、构造和观察。

蛋白质笼是中空的，通常是球形的蛋白质结构。它们在科学上很有趣，原因包括它们能够充当保护容器，将医学上有用的货物运送到细胞。人工蛋白质笼的设计和建造是一种强大的策略，使它们能够被赋予在自然形态中没有的定制特性。为此，结构研究是一个重要工具：对天然存在的蛋白质笼的结构分析可以为人工设计提供灵感，同时确定人工蛋白质的结构可以确认它们与预期的设计相匹配，而冷冻电镜现在是实现这一目标的首选工具这个。在这篇综述中，我们描述了天然蛋白质笼结构如何为人工版本的设计提供信息，以及如何反过来，