Polymers for intracellular delivery of nucleic acids

Effective delivery of nucleic acids requires overcoming cellular barriers that would otherwise hinder transport of payload from the extracellular space to the cytoplasm or nucleus of a target cell, and preventing the degradation of the payload. As with many drug-delivery systems, toxicity is an important issue. Rational design of polymers for this purpose, assisted by high-throughput synthesis and screening methods, has had an enormous impact on the field.