As a continuation of previous work, the self-assembly process of cationic lipid formulations in the presence and absence of DNA was investigated with respect to binary lipid mixtures suitable as polynucleotide carrier systems. The lipid blends consist of one malonic-acid-based cationic lipid with a varying alkyl chain pattern, either N-{6-amino-1-[N-(9Z)-octadec-9-enylamino]-1-oxohexan-(2S)-2-y...

Doping of semiconductors by impurity atoms enabled their widespread technological application in microelectronics and optoelectronics. However, doping has proven elusive for strongly confined colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals because of the synthetic challenge of how to introduce single impurities, as well as a lack of fundamental understanding of this heavily doped limit under strong quantu...

The mechanical properties of liposome membranes are strongly dependent on type and ratio of lipid compounds, which can have important role in drug targeting and release processes when liposome is used as drug carrier. In this work we have used Brewster's angle microscopy to monitor the lateral compression process of lipid monolayers containing as helper lipids either distearoyl phosphatidyletha...

UNLABELLED The clinical application of gene silencing mediated by small interfering RNA (siRNA) has been limited by the lack of efficient and safe carriers. Phospholipid modification of low molecular weight polyethylenimine (PEI 1.8 kDa) dramatically increased its gene down-regulation capacity while keeping cytotoxicity levels low. The silencing efficacy was highly dependent on the nature of th...

We have synthesized five new cholesterol based gemini cationic lipids possessing hydroxyethyl (-CH(2)CH(2)OH) function on each head group, which differ in the length of the polymethylene spacer chain. These gemini lipids are important for gene delivery processes as they possess pre-optimized molecular features, e.g., cholesterol backbone, ether linkage and a variable spacer chain between both t...