This disclosure provides compositions and methods for the targeted and localized in vivo delivery of oligonucleotides. Compositions containing targeted oligonucleotide-HES conjugates are provided as are methods of making and using the conjugates in therapeutic, diagnostic, and other applications. The oligonucleotide-HES complexes contained in the targeted oligonucleotide-HES conjugates can cross membranes in a receptor-independent manner and can deliver oligonucleotides to complementary sequences in the cytosol of live cells in vivo. The targeted oligonucleotide-HES conjugates have uses that include the targeted and/or localized delivery of antisense oligonucleotides, siRNAs, shRNAs, Dicer substrates, miRNAs, anti-miRNA, and other nucleic acid sequence in a living organism.

The invention relates to antisense molecules and methods for modulating splicing of polyomavirus T antigen pre-mRNA. In one aspect the invention relates to an antisense oligonucleotide 12 to 30, preferably 17, 18, 19 or 20 to 30 nucleobases in length which comprises a sequence that is the reverse complement of a contiguous stretch of at least 12 nucleobases of a polyomavirus T-antigen pre-mRNA and which antisense oligonucleotide can modulate splicing of said T-antigen pre-mRNA in a cell.

The lack of blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetrating ability has hindered the delivery of many therapeutic agents for tauopathy therapeutic treatment. A circular bifunctional aptamer reported here has been able to enhance the in vivo BBB penetration for improved therapy. The circular aptamer includes one transferrin receptor (TfR) aptamer to facilitate TfR-aptamer recognition-induced transcytosis across BBB endothelial cells, and one Tau protein aptamer selected to inhibit Tau phosphorylation and other tauopathy-related pathological events in the brain. This bispecific construct exhibits strong specificity towards Tau and enhanced plasma stability in comparison to linear Tau aptamer. In vivo administration of circular Tau-TfR aptamer results in a rapid uptake into relevant brain regions after crossing the BBB, such as hippocampus and cortex. A Y-shaped trispecific aptamer including one aptamer for L1CAM, one aptamer for Tau and one aptamer for TfR reported here has enhanced BBB and neuron cell membrane permeation. Bispecific and trispecific Tau aptamer coupled to a signaling moiety (such as dodecane tetraacetic acid (DOTA) or DOTA complexed to Gd+3) for neuroimaging, and bispecific or trispecific Tau aptamer coupled to protein aggregate binding moiety (such as methylene blue) for enhanced ability to disrupt tau aggregation are also contemplated in this invention.

A donor construct and a gene knockout method, as well as a system and kit for the gene knockout are provided. The donor construct is a linear donor DNA or can be cleaved in a cell to produce the linear donor DNA. The gene knockout method uses a marker gene contained in the donor construct to enrich cells in which a gene is knocked out, thereby improving the efficiency of generating the gene knockout by a sequence-specific nuclease.

A conjugate includes a binding substance having an activity to bind to a target substance and a label causing a detectable phenomenon. A molecular weight of the binding substance is less than a molecular weight of an immunoglobulin.

The embodiments disclosed herein utilized RNA targeting effectors to provide a robust CRISPR-based diagnostic with attomolar sensitivity. Embodiments disclosed herein can detect broth DNA and RNA with comparable levels of sensitivity and can differentiate targets from non-targets based on single base pair differences. Moreover, the embodiments disclosed herein can be prepared in freeze-dried format for convenient distribution and point-of-care (POC) applications. Such embodiments are useful in multiple scenarios in human health including, for example, viral detection, bacterial strain typing, sensitive genotyping, and detection of disease-associated cell free DNA.

The carborhodamine dyes disclosed herein are novel reagents suitable for automated incorporation of carborhodamine dyes into oligonucleotides that can be used in detection methods for nucleic acid targets. This disclosure provides an efficient and simple process for the preparation of carborhodamine compounds and introduces previously unknown reagents for the automated synthesis of oligonucleotide-carborhodamine conjugates.

This disclosure relates to DNAzymes and biosensors for detecting pathogenic bacteria, and in particular, for detecting Legionella pneumophila. This disclosure also provides a method for detecting the presence of Legionella pneumophila in a test sample, comprising: a) contacting said test sample with the DNAzyme or biosensor described herein, wherein the DNAzyme comprises a detectable label; b) allowing cleavage of the DNAzyme if a target is present, thereby releasing the detectable label; and c) measuring a detectable signal if the portion of the DNAzyme comprising the detectable label is released, wherein the RNA cleavage activity of the DNAzyme is activated by a target from Legionella pneumophila.

The present disclosure provides biochips and methods for making biochips. A biochip can comprise a nanopore in a membrane (e.g., lipid bilayer) adjacent or in proximity to an electrode. Methods are described for forming the membrane and inserting the nanopore into the membrane. The biochips and methods can be used for nucleic acid (e.g., DNA) sequencing. The present disclosure also describes methods for detecting, sorting, and binning molecules (e.g., proteins) using biochips.

Modified oligonucleotides that contain one or more of the phosphate groups substituted at phosphorus and methods for their synthesis are disclosed.