Figure 1.

Two self-assembled liquid crystalline structures of cationic liposomes (CLs) mixed with DNA at equilibrium. The nanometre-scale structures were solved by synchrotron X-ray diffraction studies. (a) The lamellar phase of CL–DNA complexes with alternating lipid bilayers and DNA monolayers. (b) The inverted hexagonal H^C_II phase of CL–DNA complexes, composed of DNA inserted within inverse lipid tubules which are arranged on a hexagonal lattice. Adapted with permission from AAAS from [27] and [28].