Viral‐Capsid‐Type Vesicle‐Like Structures Assembled from M12L24 Metal–Organic Hybrid Nanocages

Without the thorn: In polar solvents, cationic M12L24 nanocages slowly assembled into hollow spherical “blackberry” structures, the size of which could be tuned by changing the counterion concentration or solvent polarity. The self-assembly process showed similar kinetic and thermodynamic features to viral-capsid formation. (Copyright (2005) National Academy of Sciences, USA. The image of the hepatitis B virus capsid is from the RCSB PDB (ID: 1QGT).)