Simone Grasso

Plant Virus Engineering: Development of a Tool for Nanotechnology Simone Grasso

The development of a multifunctional tool for nanobiotechnology based on a plant virus is here described. It has been demonstrated the ability of the Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV) system to remarkably sustain genetic modi?cations and in vitro chemical derivatizations of its outer surface. These strategies resulted in the successful display of large chimeric fusion peptides as well as of small chemical molecules. Physicochemical conditions for foreign molecules loading and retention in the inner cavity of this nanoparticles' system have been defined. Furthermore, a strategy for the production and puri?cation from plants has been optimized.