Nanotechnology is the rapidly expanding field and nanoparticles are omnipresent. Biological nanoparticles are assembled from molecules or atoms synthesized in a biological system. They include magnetosomes, lipoproteins, viruses, exosomes and ferritins A typical instance of a protein cage possessing this native biological function is ferritin. This engineered ferritin, which has the same architecture as natural H-ferritin, is termed magnetoferritin. The iron storage protein ferritin consists of a spherical polypeptide shell (apoferritin) and accommodates various metal ions. During the last two decades, the manipulation of protein cages for the encapsulation of single inorganic nanoparticles into their core to design novel hybrid bioinspired nanoparticles Such hybrid nanoparticles represent an opportunity for advanced nanotechnology applications in the nanodevices, disease diagnosis and therapy, drug delivery, vaccine development and bioassay.
