Nonequilibrium synthesis and assembly of hybrid inorganic-protein nanostructures using an engineered DNA binding protein

The nonequilibrium synthesis of Cu2O nanoparticles is accomplished using an engineered derivative of the DNA-binding protein Tral in a room-temperature precursor electrolyte. The results show that a protein with no intrinsic inorganic synthesis activity can be endowed with the ability to control the formation of inorganic nanostructures under thermodynamically unfavorable conditions, reproducing a key feature of biological hard-tissue growth and assembly.