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NMIN seed-funds COVID-19 therapeutics project

NMIN has granted Strategic Initiative funding to kick-start an effort to develop nanomedicines to fight COVID-19.

NMIN’s Scientific Director Dr. Pieter Cullis leads this initiative, which is exploring the use of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations of mRNA as therapeutics and vaccines for CVID-19.

“In collaboration with industry partners, this project will contribute to the global response to COVID-19,” notes Dr. Cullis.

“The project is aimed at using gene therapy approaches to either engender an immune response to COVID-19 or to stimulate the liver to produce antibodies targeted to the coronavirus to treat established disease. An advantage of the LNP mRNA approach is that it provides a relatively rapid method for developing vaccines and targeted therapeutics. We hope to have formulations available for clinical trials within a year.”

Drs Dominik Witzigmann and Jayesh Kulkarni are co-investigators on the project, which will draw upon expertise from across the Network and leverage NMIN’s NanoCore and PharmaCore facilities.

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