Lab of UW Nobel winner cracks challenge of creating roomier protein cages to deliver genetic medicines

A computer-designed protein that forms a cage-like structure of pentagons and hexagons. (UW Institute for Protein Design Illustration) Medical experts use gene therapies for a variety of ailments — treating hemophilia with a clotting-factor gene or dosing a cancer patient with therapeutic DNA or RNA. But doctors need a means of delivering that curative gene to a target in a patient’s body.