Acid-degradable cationic dextran particles for the delivery of siRNA therapeutics.

We report a new acid-sensitive, biocompatible, and biodegradable microparticulate delivery system, spermine modified acetalated-dextran (Spermine-Ac-DEX), which can be used to efficiently encapsulate siRNA. These particles demonstrated efficient gene knockdown in HeLa-luc cells with minimal toxicity. This knockdown was comparable to that obtained using Lipofectamine, a commercially available transfection reagent generally limited to in vitro use due to its high toxicity.

Conjugation effects of various linkers on Gd(III) MRI contrast agents with dendrimers: optimizing the hydroxypyridinonate (HOPO) ligands with nontoxic, degradable esteramide (EA) dendrimers for high relaxivity.

One essential requirement for more sensitive gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents is to slow the molecular tumbling of the gadolinium(III) ion, which increases the gadolinium's relaxivity (i.e., its ability to speed up the NMR relaxation of nearby water molecules).

Quinacridone-based molecular donors for solution processed bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells.

New soluble quinacridone-based molecules have been developed as electron donor materials for solution-processed organic solar cells. By functionalizing the pristine pigment core of quinacridone with solubilizing alkyl chains and light absorbing/charge transporting thiophene units, i.e.

High-water-content mouldable hydrogels by mixing clay and a dendritic molecular binder.

With the world's focus on reducing our dependency on fossil-fuel energy, the scientific community can investigate new plastic materials that are much less dependent on petroleum than are conventional plastics. Given increasing environmental issues, the idea of replacing plastics with water-based gels, so-called hydrogels, seems reasonable. Here we report that water and clay (2-3 per cent by mass), when mixed with a very small proportion (<0.

Two-photon degradable supramolecular assemblies of linear-dendritic copolymers.

Micelles of dendritic-linear copolymers have been developed to release a payload after infrared stimulus.

A versatile new monomer family: functionalized 4-vinyl-1,2,3-triazoles via click chemistry.

Using facile, highly modular synthetic approaches, a new monomer family based on a 1,2,3-triazole-4-vinyl building block has been prepared, and various functional derivatives have been obtained. Subsequent homo- and copolymerization of these novel functionalized monomers gives polymeric materials with unique physical properties, combining many attractive features of more traditional monomers, such as styrene, vinylpyridine, and meth/acrylates.

Xenon biosensor amplification via dendrimer-cage supramolecular constructs.

Polyamidoamine dendrimers were synthesized with a single biotin moiety and used with cryptophane-A cages to form supramolecular biosensor constructs. These new biosensors amplified the NMR signals obtained from polarized xenon 8 times more than the original Xe biosensor.

Doubly-dendronized linear polymers.

Doubly-dendronized polymers were synthesized by grafting polybenzyl ether dendrons onto a poly(hydroxy) styrene polymer with polyaliphatic esters.

Synthetic micelle sensitive to IR light via a two-photon process.

A micellar assembly of molecules constituted of poly(ethylene glycol) as the hydrophilic component and 2-diazo-1,2-naphthoquinone as the hydrophobic component was shown to be destroyed in a two-photon photoreaction triggered by infrared light with release of an encapsulated fluorescent probe molecule.

Dendronized linear polymers via "click chemistry".

Dendronized linear polymers are prepared from dendritic azides and poly(vinylacetylene) using "click chemistry." The Cu(I)-catalyzed Huisgen [2 + 3] cycloaddition is quantitative up to the third generation.