This idea was first presented in Raman et al., 2006 [21] ; the monomeric peptide is composed of two coiled coils connected by a short linker region. The association between the coiled coils induces self-assembly of the monomers into Figure 1 : Computer model (a): the pentameric-trimeric architecture of Mono-M2e and the fully assembled icosahedral nanoparticle. (b) Tetra-M2e, with tetrameric-trimeric architecture, and the resulting octahedral nanoparticle. In both images, green: pentameric coiled coil, turquoise: tetrameric coiled coil, and blue: trimeric coiled coil. Red represents M2e in either its monomeric or tetrameric state. spherical nanoparticles with either icosahedral or octahedral symmetry ( Figure 1 ) according to our computer models. The potential for these nanoparticles to serve as platforms for vaccines is apparent. As opposed to live attenuated vaccines, there is no risk of infection within the vaccinated population [21] . Furthermore, the ease and speed of protein expression, purification, and self-assembly into nanoparticles reduce the cost and time of large-scale production. The concept has been successfully used for the design of malaria [22] and SARS [23] vaccines prototypes.