Research News: Virus protein rages, capsids, which display a wide range of
sizes and shapes, can be used for constrained materials synthesis. The auth
ors briefly review recent work involving capsids, including the use of sphe
rical viruses for inorganic mineralization and organic polymer encapsulatio
n and the mineralization of anisotropic structures such as the tobacco mosa
ic virus, which can lead to mineralized fibers of iron oxide or silica with
very high aspect ratios. The topic of gating-which enables the selective e
ntrapment and release of materials from within the central cavity-is briefl
y touched upon.