Lighting up brain tumors: Highly fluorescent nanodots that consist of semiconducting polymer blends were attached to the peptide ligand chlorotoxin. The nanodot–chlorotoxin conjugates were specifically targeted to malignant brain tumors in a transgenic mouse model, thus proving their potential as in vivo probes for clinical cancer diagnostics (see picture).

Photosynthetic microbes are of emerging interest as production organisms in biotechnology because they can grow autotrophically using sunlight, an abundant energy source, and CO2, a greenhouse gas. Important traits for such microbes are fast growth and amenability to genetic manipulation. Here we describe Synechococcus elongatus UTEX 2973, a unicellular cyanobacterium capable of rapid autotrophic growth, comparable to heterotrophic industrial hosts such as yeast. Synechococcus UTEX 2973 can be readily transformed for facile generation of desired knockout and knock-in mutations. Genome sequencing coupled with global proteomics studies revealed that Synechococcus UTEX 2973 is a close relative of the widely studied cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, an organism that grows more than two times slower. A small number of nucleotide changes are the only significant differences between the genomes of these two cyanobacterial strains. Thus, our study has unraveled genetic determinants necessary for rapid growth of cyanobacterial strains of significant industrial potential.

Herein, this review article aims to provide a relatively comprehensive summary of research progress in the dissolution and processing of cellulose with ionic liquids.

Fluorescent semiconducting polymer dots (Pdots) have attracted great interest because of their superior characteristics as fluorescent probes, such as high fluorescence brightness, fast radiative rates, and excellent photostability. However, currently available Pdots generally exhibit broad emission spectra, which significantly limit their usefulness in many biological applications involving multiplex detections. Here, we describe the design and development of multicolor narrow emissive Pdots based on different boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) units. BODIPY-containing semiconducting polymers emitting at multiple wavelengths were synthesized and used as precursors for preparing the Pdots, where intra-particle energy transfer led to highly bright, narrow emissions. The emission full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of the resulting Pdots varies from 40 nm to 55 nm, which is 1.5~2 times narrower than those of conventional semiconducting polymer dots. BODIPY520 Pdots was about an order of magnitude brighter than commercial Qdot 525 under identical laser excitation conditions. Fluorescence imaging and flow cytometry experiments indicate the narrow emissions from these bright Pdots are promising for multiplexed biological detections.