Wikipedia
Ormosil
Ormosil is a shorthand phrase for organically modified silica or organically modified silicate. In general, ormosils are produced by adding silane to silica-derived gel during the sol-gel process. They are engineered materials that show great promise in a wide range of applications such as:
- alternative to viral vectors for gene delivery, with higher transient transfection efficiencies
- suspension media and substrates for next generation solar cells (quantum dots)
- matrix material for UV-protection coating
- matrix material for laser dye-doped organic-inorganic solid state dye lasers
This technology has been demonstrated as a nonviral vector to successfully deliver DNA loads to specifically targeted cells in living animals. Confirmation of results demonstrated that new DNA was working and expressed genes in the animal.