Nano-Engine Consortium
Nano-Engine consortium is a public-private collaboration between with 4 partners from 3 different European countries: Utrecht University, Imperial College London, Karolinska Institute and Sintef AS. Together the consortium houses all the expertise, competencies and drive required to push the innovation forward:
NANOCELL
NANOCELL is a Dutch in vivo cell engineering-focused biotech company with the vision to make cell and gene therapy truly affordable, scalable and widely accessible for patients across disease indications, across all territories in the world. Its mission is to establish clinical validation of its technology platform triggering widespread collaborative efforts with academia and industry, in order to maximize the benefit potential for patients and society across life-threatening diseases.
Utrecht University
Utrecht University is a leading academic research institution in the Netherlands with extensive collective expertise in drug delivery, nanomedicine, and protein engineering. UU will contribute to this project by providing scientific input on experimental design, assay development, and the development of specific moieties that enable cell-directed targeting. In addition, UU will perform in vitro trafficking studies and provides NANOCELL with state-of-the-art laboratory facility infrastructure and specialized equipment.
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a world-leading research institution focused on the advancement of engineering, materials, and medical science. The Department of Materials has extensive research infrastructure and technical and administrative services to facilitate research. Prof. Molly Stevens’ internationally recognized multidisciplinary team has extensive expertise in Raman spectroscopy and has built state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for 3D Raman imaging and single particle analysis.
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a world-leading centre of learning, teaching and research, ranked first in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Based at the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery, the Stevens Group has extensive research infrastructure and technical and administrative services to facilitate research. Professor Dame Molly Stevens’ internationally recognized multidisciplinary team has ample expertise in Raman spectroscopy and state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for 3D Raman imaging and single particle analysis.
Karolinska Institutet (KI)
Karolinska Institutet (KI) is one of the world’s leading medical universities. The Stevens Group at KI are part of the Division of Medical Systems Bioengineering and focus on innovating biomaterials design for biosensing and therapeutics. The group has specific expertise in mechanistic understanding of nanoparticles including super resolution microscopy to study lead formulations from the consortium. Molly Stevens’ group at the Kavli Institute at the University of Oxford and the Stevens group at KI are joining forces to characterise the chemical compositions of the lead formulations from the consortium at the single particle level.
SINTEF
SINTEF is a not-for-profit independent research institute based in Norway and among the largest in Europe. The institute is a frequent participant in – and coordinator of – European research projects. The participating unit, the Department of Biotechnology and Nanomedicine, Research Group Mass Spectrometry, has extensive experience with physicochemical characterization of nanomedicines, and will provide an early and in-depth characterization of the nano-formulations, and iteratively provide input for their rational optimization.
QSAR Lab Ltd.
QSAR Lab Ltd. is a company based in Poland, offering specialized services in the field of computational chemistry and toxicology. QSAR Lab will contribute to Nano-Engine by application of in silico methods i.e., machine learning algorithms and molecular docking simulations to identify the most effective nanoparticle formulation and the optimal ratio of each of the individual components for stable, durable, safe and efficacious in vivo T cell targeting. Additionally, through integration of in silico approaches, the Consortium will gain support in optimizing the process of product development and manufacturing in terms of relevant parameters, such as time and costs.
