Miao Xie

Herein, we report a non-cationic DNA-crosslinked nanogel for intracellular delivery of a Cas9 and single guide RNA (Cas9/sgRNA) complex. A DNA-grafted polycaprolactone brush (DNA-g-PCL) is first loaded with the Cas9/sgRNA complex and then crosslinked by DNA linkers via nucleic acid hybridization to form a nanosized hydrogel, in which the gene editing tools are embedded and protected inside. With compact architecture, the Cas9/sgRNA complex-containing nanogel exhibited excellent physiological stability against nuclease digestion and enhanced cellular uptake efficiency, making the delivery system a promising tool for target genome editing.

We describe here a method to stabilize Pd(0) on the surface of hollow magnetic mesoporous spheres (HMMS), with Fe3O4 nanoparticles embedded in the mesoporous shell. The catalyst was characterized using TEM, XRD, VSM, BET and XPS. The catalyst afforded fast conversion for various aromatic nitro and unsaturated compounds in ethanol under an H2 atmosphere even at room temperature. The catalyst showed an efficient hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds rather than nitro compounds. Furthermore it was found that the catalyst also exhibited a high activity in the Suzuki coupling reaction. The catalyst could be recovered in a facile manner from the reaction mixture and recycled six times without any loss in activity.