Prussian Blue Ferritin

Prussian Blue Ferritin

Ferritin is a ubiquitous iron storage protein found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes allowing cells to keep iron in a soluble and non-toxic form. Ferritin across different species has very similar architecture and function. This is in despite of variations at the primary structure level (REF 15). The 450 kDa protein shell consists of 24 subunits that can be composed of both heavy and light chains. Inside of this shell is room for an iron core composed of up to 4500 Fe (III) atoms stored as ferrihydrite phosphate (REF12-14). The goal of our project is to make use of this natural nanoparticle as both a scaffold and a reporter system.