This paper reports self-assembly of a lysine conjugated with a biantennary mannose to form spherical structures. These supramolecular structures are found to be hollow in nature and they afford effective encapsulation of alkaline phosphatase enzyme, plasmid DNA and a GFP reporter gene, which was transfected in COS-7 cells. Loaded hollow structures also get disrupted upon mild sonication, releasing encapsulated molecules thereby illustrating their potential for confinement and delivery applications. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.