AMBER, The SFI Centre for Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research, is investing up to €2m in the development of non-viral gene delivery platforms. In partnership with NIBRT, the Centre is seeking industry partner(s) to contribute to the development of stable and scalable nanotechnologies for nucleic acid delivery with matched funding.  

  

This collaboration aims to facilitate the translation of gene medicine from the lab to clinical settings. The team will address the currently unmet needs for improved materials for delivery of gene-based therapeutics and biomanufacturing innovation for these advanced therapies, developing innovative technologies to improve biopharmaceutical manufacturing research.  

AMBER has renowned expertise in the study and generation of non-viral gene delivery nanomaterials that could offer critical platforms for new gene-based therapies and combination product development. As examples, a number of projects funded by highly prestigious European Research Council grants (including two recently awarded ERC Advanced Grants) are focused on the development of nanomedicines in the form of gene therapeutics complexed with nanoparticles.

NIBRT Research makes transformative discoveries across multidisciplinary areas such as analytical science, cell and genetic engineering, systems biology and data analytics, and bioprocess engineering. These discoveries are utilised to advance the state-of-the-art in their fields and revolutionise the manufacturing of recombinant proteins, vaccines and cell and gene therapies. 

AMBER and NIBRT would like to further interrogate and understand the nucleic acid complexes to better characterise the gene-loaded nanoparticles using advanced characterisation techniques, refine the transfection procedure using current GMP-ready materials and/or assess the potential for new gene delivery materials as alternatives.  

As collaborators, NIBRT will secure the provision of unique bioprocessing facilities, testbed capabilities, and in-depth engineering, analytics, and characterisation expertise. AMBER will be responsible for pharmaceutical formulation development, characterisation, and material synthesis. 

Potential industry partner(s) will have the opportunity of working collaboratively with one or both centres.