title: Design and development of polymers for gene delivery.
abstract: The lack of safe and efficient gene-delivery methods is a limiting obstacle to human gene therapy. Synthetic gene-delivery agents, although safer than recombinant viruses, generally do not possess the required efficacy. In recent years, a variety of effective polymers have been designed specifically for gene delivery, and much has been learned about their structure-function relationships. With the growing understanding of polymer gene-delivery mechanisms and continued efforts of creative polymer chemists, it is likely that polymer-based gene-delivery systems will become an important tool for human gene therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois, Box C-3, 600 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. dpack@uiuc.edu
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Pack
authors.forename: Allan S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.forename: Suzie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pun
authors.forename: Patrick S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Stayton
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003505:Cyclodextrins; D015195:Drug Design; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000737:chemistry; D011108:Polymers
chemical_list: D003505:Cyclodextrins; D007093:Imidazoles; D011108:Polymers