Impact of Formulation on mRNA Lipid-nanoparticle Characteristics
Conference Year
January 2022
Abstract
Lipid nanoparticles are rapidly emerging as a new and powerful method of treatment for delivering drug therapies such as mRNA vaccines. Here, we have developed a rapid, scalable microfluidic strategy to encapsulate mRNA into lipid nanoparticles at laboratory scale. Whereas existing methods require large quantities of mRNA, this strategy enables production of uniform mRNA/lipid nanoparticles available for small-scale production in a research environment or in a limited resource setting. Using dynamic light scattering, encapsulation studies, and transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticles created using this novel microfluidic method is shown to produce uniform nanoparticles with high encapsulation efficiencies. Using these tools, feasibility of production of mRNA containing lipid nanoparticles is greatly increased in all settings, providing a solution for in vivo preclinical and resource limited clinical studies.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Dev Majumdar
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
Program/Major
Biomedical Engineering
Primary Research Category
Health Sciences
Secondary Research Category
Engineering & Physical Sciences
Tertiary Research Category
Biological Sciences
Impact of Formulation on mRNA Lipid-nanoparticle Characteristics
Lipid nanoparticles are rapidly emerging as a new and powerful method of treatment for delivering drug therapies such as mRNA vaccines. Here, we have developed a rapid, scalable microfluidic strategy to encapsulate mRNA into lipid nanoparticles at laboratory scale. Whereas existing methods require large quantities of mRNA, this strategy enables production of uniform mRNA/lipid nanoparticles available for small-scale production in a research environment or in a limited resource setting. Using dynamic light scattering, encapsulation studies, and transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticles created using this novel microfluidic method is shown to produce uniform nanoparticles with high encapsulation efficiencies. Using these tools, feasibility of production of mRNA containing lipid nanoparticles is greatly increased in all settings, providing a solution for in vivo preclinical and resource limited clinical studies.