Recent efforts to template hydrophilic nanoparticles in the interstitial spaces of the thermoreversible close-packed micellar structure seen in Pluronic block copolymers has been shown successful. Previous work focused on systems forming cubic soft crystals of spherical micelles and is currently being extended to cylindrical micelles. The pluronic copolymer P123 (PEO₂₀-PPO₇₀-PEO₂₀) forms both an ordered cubic micelle gel and packed cylindrical micelle gel. Phase transitions are determined from rheology and birefringence and verified with small-angle scattering. Proteins are used as monodisperse nanoparticles; two different sizes of particle, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lysozyme are added to the P123 system forming a nanocomposite. We observe an apparent hysterisis during the transition between the cubic and cylindrical micelle gel during heating and cooling in the nanocomposites, while no hysterisis is observed in the neat system. BSA at 2-3 wt% disrupts the formation of the packed cylindrical micelle gel while the smaller lysozyme does not. This indicates formation of a weaker gel and is caused by the size of the particles relative to interstitial spaces. A mechanical protocol for studying the nanocomposites has been developed and limits for placing particles in the nanocomposite have been established.