On 2017 Sep 15, Raphael Levy commented:

A new paper confirms that spherical nucleic acids / nano-flares / SmartFlares do no detect mRNA. SmartFlares fail to reflect their target transcripts levels

See also the Guest post by the authors of the above study at my blog.

On 2015 May 04, Raphael Levy commented:

This post is co-authored by Raphael Levy and David Mason.

Note: We contacted Chad Mirkin and EMD Millipore for comments. Chad Mirkin replied but prefers to keep his comments for the peer reviewed literature rather than blogs. EMD Millipore has provided a response (reproduced below) and is keen to further engage in the discussion. They wrote that they "look forward to responding to [the questions you pose at the end of the post] after your blog is posted so other researchers who may have the same questions can follow our discussion online."

To image proteins in cells, biologists have powerful tools based on the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) for which Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien obtained the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. RNA molecules play crucial roles in cells such as coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes, yet they are much more difficult to study. SmartFlares are nanoparticle-based probes for the detection and imaging of RNA in live cells. Could they become the GFP of the RNA world?

Read more at https://raphazlab.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/how-smart-are-smartflares/

On 2015 May 04, Raphael Levy commented:

This post is co-authored by Raphael Levy and David Mason.

Note: We contacted Chad Mirkin and EMD Millipore for comments. Chad Mirkin replied but prefers to keep his comments for the peer reviewed literature rather than blogs. EMD Millipore has provided a response (reproduced below) and is keen to further engage in the discussion. They wrote that they "look forward to responding to [the questions you pose at the end of the post] after your blog is posted so other researchers who may have the same questions can follow our discussion online."

To image proteins in cells, biologists have powerful tools based on the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) for which Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien obtained the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. RNA molecules play crucial roles in cells such as coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes, yet they are much more difficult to study. SmartFlares are nanoparticle-based probes for the detection and imaging of RNA in live cells. Could they become the GFP of the RNA world?

Read more at https://raphazlab.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/how-smart-are-smartflares/

On 2017 Sep 15, Raphael Levy commented:

A new paper confirms that spherical nucleic acids / nano-flares / SmartFlares do no detect mRNA. SmartFlares fail to reflect their target transcripts levels

See also the Guest post by the authors of the above study at my blog.