Daisuke Unabara

1 Introduction Developing nanocarriers that simultaneously achieve controlled nanoscale dimensions, efficient cargo loading, and externally controllable release remains an important challenge in advanced drug delivery systems (DDS) [1-6], particularly for the delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics [7-9]. Unlike many small-molecule drugs, nucleic acids are highly hydrophilic, polyanionic macromolecules that are inherently difficult to incorporate into nanocarriers with high loading capacity.

Abstract Understanding how genetic polymer sequences became coupled with the reproduction of protocellular compartments is a fundamental challenge in the study of the emergence of living systems. Here, we demonstrate that the coexistence of peptides with defined amino acid sequences and fatty acid vesicles can establish a primitive form of this coupling.

Abstract Photocatalytic overall water splitting holds great promise for sustainable hydrogen production. For overall water splitting performed by one-step excitation, both the hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions are hindered kinetically; hence, it is necessary to employ site-selective modification of photocatalysts with hydrogen-evolving and oxygen-evolving cocatalysts.