基因治疗的关键是将基因片段运送到靶细胞中并得到较为高效的表达。基因载体的选择决定了基因的表达效果。有效的基因治疗需要满足以下过程，首先基因载体在胞外环境保持稳定，然后被靶细胞成功摄取，摄取后进行胞内运输，最后释放基因片段。深入了解这些过程的机理对于基因载体的设计至关重要。利用荧光成像来研究这些过程是目前最常用最有效的方法。因此，开发具有荧光性质的基因载体，并借助荧光显微镜观察基因载体与细胞相互作用的过程具有很大的意义。碳量子点以其优异的荧光性质和生物相容性，有望作为荧光基因载体，成为探究细胞摄取、胞内运输、基因释放等过程的有力工具。本文选用本课题组之前合成的四种具有优异荧光性质的碳量子点，通过凝胶电泳实验初步验证了其中两种碳量子点有作为基因载体的潜力。

 Gene therapy depends on successful gene delivery into cells and subsequent expression. Gene carrier plays a vital role during this process. The proper gene carrier needs to be stable in extracellular environments, be uptaken into cells efficiently, undergo intracellular trafficking and release gene afterwards. Deep insights towards these processes is of great importance to the design of gene carrier. Fluorescence imaging has been the primary technique for this purpose. Therefore, gene carrier with fluorescent property is highly desirable. Due to their excellent optical properties and biocompatibility, carbon quantum dots have great potential as a fluorescent gene vector, contributing to unravel gene delivery process. Here, four carbon quantum dots previously synthesized by our group were characteried by gel eletrophoresis, two of which showed good gene-binding ability.