Lipid nanodiscs spontaneously formed by an amphiphilic polymethacrylate derivative as an efficient nanocarrier for molecular delivery to intact cells.

There is a great demand for the technology of molecular delivery into living cells using nanocarriers to realise molecular therapies such as gene delivery and drug delivery systems. Lipid-based nanocarriers offer several advantages for molecular delivery in biological systems, such as easy preparation, high encapsulation efficiency of water-insoluble drug molecules, and excellent biocompatibility. In this paper, we first report the interaction of lipid nanodiscs spontaneously formed by the complexation of an amphiphilic polymethacrylate derivative and phospholipid with intact cells.

Complexation study of a 1,3-phenylene-bridged cyclic hexa-naphthalene with fullerenes C and C in solution and 1D-alignment of fullerenes in the crystals.

To investigate the host ability of a simple macrocycle, 1,3-phenylene-bridged naphthalene hexamer N6, we evaluated the complexation of N6 with fullerenes in toluene and in the crystals. The complexes in the solid-state demonstrate the one-dimensional alignment of fullerenes. The single-crystals of the C@N6 composite have semiconductive properties revealed by photoconductivity measurements.

Buckybowl and its chiral hybrids featuring eight-membered rings and helicene units.

Here we report the synthesis of a novel buckybowl (7) with a high bowl-to-bowl inversion barrier (Δ = 38 kcal mol), which renders the rate of inversion slow enough at room temperature to establish two chiral polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). By strategic fusion of eight-membered rings to the rim of 7, the chiral hybrids 8 and 9 are synthesized and display helicity and positive and negative curvature, allowing the enantiomers to be configurationally stable and their chiroptical properties are thoroughly examined. Computational and experimental studies reveal the enantiomerization mechanisms for the chiral hybrids and demonstrate that the eight-membered ring strongly affects the conformational stability.

Bottom-Up Synthesis of Multiply Fused Pd Anthriporphyrinoids.

Anthriporphyrinoid and its dimeric homologues were synthesized by Suzuki-Miyaura coupling and subsequent oxidation. Both porphyrinoids were smoothly converted to their Pd complexes and were further decorated by Suzuki-Miyaura coupling with thiophene derivatives and subsequent oxidative fusion reaction to provide multiply fused compounds. Most Pd anthriporphyrinoids have been structurally well characterized to be planar for monomeric and helically twisted for dimeric species.

Open-circuit-voltage shift of over 0.5 V in organic photovoltaic cells induced by a minor structural difference in alkyl substituents.

The recent surge in the efficiency of organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) largely hinges on the reduction of energy loss ( ) that leads to improvements in open-circuit voltage ( ). However, there are still many unclarified factors regarding the relationship between the molecular structure and , hampering the establishment of widely applicable, effective principles for the design of active-layer materials. In this contribution, we examine the origin of the large shifts induced by minor structural differences in end-alkyl substituents on a series of anthracene-based p-type compounds.

Overcoming Steric Hindrance in Aryl-Aryl Homocoupling via On-Surface Copolymerization.

On-surface synthesis is a unique tool for growing low-dimensional carbon nanomaterials with precise structural control down to the atomic level. This novel approach relies on carefully designed precursor molecules, which are deposited on suitable substrates and activated to ultimately form the desired nanostructures. One of the most applied reactions to covalently interlink molecular precursors is dehalogenative aryl-aryl coupling.

Suppression of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay permits unbiased gene trapping in mouse embryonic stem cells.

An international collaborative project has been proposed to inactivate all mouse genes in embryonic stem (ES) cells using a combination of random and targeted insertional mutagenesis techniques. Random gene trapping will be the first choice in the initial phase, and gene-targeting experiments will then be carried out to individually knockout the remaining 'difficult-to-trap' genes. One of the most favored techniques of random insertional mutagenesis is promoter trapping, which only disrupts actively transcribed genes.