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Magnetic nanoparticles have continuously gained importance for the purpose of magnetically-aided drug-delivery, magnetofection, and hyperthermia. We have summarized significant experimental approaches, as well as their advantages and disadvantages with respect to future clinical translation. This field is alive and well and promises meaningful contributions to the development of novel cancer therapies. 

Advances in the synthesis and processing of graphene-based materials have presented the opportunity to design novel lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode materials that can meet the power requirements of next-generation power devices. In this work, a poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA)-induced self-assembly process was used to design super-mesoporous Fe 3 O 4 and reduced-graphene-oxide (Fe 3 O 4 @RGO) anode materials. We demonstrate the relationship between the media pH and Fe 3 O 4 @RGO nanostructure, in terms of dispersion state of PMAA-stabilized Fe 3 O 4 @GO sheets at different surrounding pH values, and porosity of the resulted Fe 3 O 4 @RGO anode. The anode shows a high surface area of 338.8 m 2 g −1 with a large amount of 10–40 nm mesopores, which facilitates the kinetics of Li-ions and electrons, and improves electrode durability. As a result, Fe 3 O 4 @RGO delivers high specific-charge capacities of 740 mA h g −1 to 200 mA h g −1 at various current densities of 0.5 A g −1 to 10 A g −1 , and an excellent capacity-retention capability even after long-term charge–discharge cycles. The PMAA-induced assembly method addresses the issue of poor dispersion of Fe 3 O 4 -coated graphene materials—which is a major impediment in the synthesis process—and provides a facile synthetic pathway for depositing Fe 3 O 4 and other metal oxide nanoparticles on highly porous RGO. 

The structure of novel binary nanosponges consisting of (cholesterol-(K/D) n DEVDGC) 3 -trimaleimide units possessing a trigonal maleimide linker, to which either lysine (K) 20 or aspartic acid (D) 20 are tethered, has been elucidated by means of TEM. A high degree of agreement between these findings and structure predictions through explicit solvent and then coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations has been found. Based on the nanosponges' structure and dynamics, caspase-6 mediated release of the model drug 5(6)-carboxyfluorescein has been demonstrated. Furthermore, the binary (DK20) nanosponges have been found to be virtually non-toxic in cultures of neural progenitor cells. It is of a special importance for the future development of cell-based therapies that DK20 nanosponges were taken up efficiently by leucocytes (WBC) in peripheral blood within 3 h of exposure. The percentage of live cells among the WBC was not significantly decreased by the DK20 nanosponges. In contrast to stem cell or leucocyte cell cultures, which have to be matched to the patient, autologous cells are optimal for cell-mediated therapy. Therefore, the nanosponges hold great promise for effective cell-based tumor targeting.