Poles Apart

Like the world’s most complicated tents, many of our cells are propped up by a skeleton of thousands of protein strands. They inspire the design of drug-carrying nanoparticles, but there are challenges to this biomimicry. Simulated here, strands in spherical shapes bend against each other, forming different patterns – the 'globe' on the left, or the 'tennis ball' on the right. While the globe has two 'poles' where the strands meet at the top and bottom, making the strands more dense and rigid (right) produces a swirl with four poles. This structural puzzle has implications for nanoparticle and nanomaterial designs, but also for understanding the architecture supporting different cells pulled and pushed together in our bodies.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Images from work by Arash Nikoubashman and colleagues
• Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany
• Image copyright held by the American Physical Society 2017; reproduced with permission
• Published in Physical Review Letters, May 2017