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Industrial Technology Research Institute

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Novel Lipid Nanoparticles (LNPs) for Immune Cell Engineering

Technology Overview

The success development of mRNA vaccines played a critical role in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic and have saved countless lives, among which the technology of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) provides the necessary functions for protecting and delivering mRNA nucleic acids. It has attracted much attention during the pandemic and continues to expand its applications in different disease treatment fields. However, the key raw materials of LNPs and many patents are mainly in the hands of technology-leading pharmaceutical companies, most of the key technology patents still have a protection period of up to 10 years, and the licensing fees are expensive.

ITRI has developed a novel LNP platform with key lipids and formulations for effectively delivering nucleic acid to immune cells. Preclinical studies have shown that LNPs with ITRI’s proprietary lipids have demonstrated superior transfection efficiency, surpassing clinically approved LNP formulations. This innovation has the potential to revolutionize cell therapy, offering cancer patients efficient, economical, and safer treatment options. This significant milestone earned ITRI the distinction of 2023 Moderna Taiwan mRNA Innovation Awards.

Features & Advantages

  • Features
    • Establishing a lipid database and developing various lipid-based LNP formulas independently at ITRI.
    • Intravenously delivering mRNA in mice using our LNPs has demonstrated comparable protein expression efficiency to commercially available preparations.
    • The developed formula does not require additional ApoE, achieves a transfection efficiency of over 70% in immune cells, and effectively prevents immune cell death during the process.
    • Capable of loading various nucleic acid substances to develop therapeutic drugs for cancer, infectious diseases, chronic diseases, rare diseases, etc. LNPs can also deliver nucleic acids for immune cell modification, demonstrating a broad potential for medical applications.
  • Specifications
    • Novel LNPs based on proprietary ionizable lipids (US, EP, JP, TW, CN patents submitted in 2023)
    • In vivo transfection efficiency in mice comparable to or better than benchmark MC3-LNPs and SM102-LNPs
    • High transfection efficiency (>70%) and good cell viability (>95%) in primary human T and NK cells

Applications & Benefits

cancer, infectious diseases, chronic diseases, rare diseases
RNA-LNP formulation
RNA-LNP formulation

Evaluation of RNA-LNP efficiency.
Evaluation of RNA-LNP efficiency.

ITRI's lipid nanoparticles (LNP) for nucleic acid delivery and reusable nucleic acid synthesis technology are expected to establish a technology platform that delivers nucleic acid-based therapeutics for a better life in the future.
ITRI's lipid nanoparticles (LNP) for nucleic acid delivery and reusable nucleic acid synthesis technology are expected to establish a technology platform that delivers nucleic acid-based therapeutics for a better life in the future.

Delivery of mRNA to primary T cells and NK cells.
Delivery of mRNA to primary T cells and NK cells.