Engineering pore forming proteins as machines for the delivery of proteins and nanoparticles into cells

the efficient targetted delivery of large macromolecules across the cell membrane and into the cytoplasm remains a largely unsolved technological challenge. Existing approaches to address this problem suffer from low efficiency or poor specificity in terms of target cell population. Such limitations hamper both the therapeutic and research application of molecules such as intracellular toxins and enzymes, antibodies specific for intracellular binding partners and nanoparticles the permit contain specific activities. This application seeks to address this problem by engineering pore forming proteins as sophisticated and specific carrier and delivery systems