[8] Despite not being fully elucidated, vaults have been associated with the nuclear pore complexes and their octagonal shape appears to support this.

[9][10] Vaults have been implicated in a broad range of cellular functions including nuclear-cytoplasmic transport, mRNA localization, drug resistance, cell signaling, nuclear pore assembly, and innate immunity.

[16] If vaults are involved in essential cellular functions, it seems likely that redundant systems exist that can ameliorate their loss.

[17] Although this does not prove that increased number of vaults led to drug resistance, it does hint at some sort of involvement.

[3] The Vault model used by the Pfam database identifies homologues in Paramecium tetraurelia, Kinetoplastida, many vertebrates, a cnidarian (starlet sea anemone), molluscs, Trichoplax adhaerens, flatworms, Echinococcus granulosus and Choanoflagellate.

[18] The Rome lab at UCLA has collaborated with a number of groups to use the baculovirus system to produce large quantities of vaults.

[16] A number of modified vault particles have been produced in order to test the concept that vaults can be bio-engineered to allow their use in a wide variety of biological applications including drug delivery, biological sensors, enzyme delivery, controlled release, and environmental remediation.

A vault has been packaged with a chemokine for potential use to activate the immune system to attack lung cancer.