Description du projet
Technologie d’encapsulation des médicaments à base de protéines
Les techniques d’encapsulation sont couramment utilisées dans le secteur pharmaceutique, car elles permettent de masquer le goût désagréable des médicaments et protéger leur fonction, prolonger leur durée de conservation et faciliter l’administration d’une série de principes actifs. La biocompatibilité et la faible toxicité des protéines en font des éléments constitutifs très prometteurs pour les microcapsules. Surtout, les protéines peuvent s’auto-assembler en structures uniques dans des conditions douces. Le projet ProtCap, financé par l’UE, tirera parti des travaux précédents menés sur les microcapsules à base de protéines. La démonstration de la capacité de ces microcapsules à transporter une cargaison sensible et de grande valeur devrait élargir leurs applications et ouvrir la voie à la commercialisation de la technologie ProtCap.
Objectif
In the ProtCap project, we will translate basic technology, developed in the context of the ERC project PhysProt, towards
commercial applications. The technological focus will be on microscapsules assembled through microfluidic techniques
from natural proteins. Encapsulation increasingly underlies the storage and formulation of active components and is a
growing market which impacts areas from cosmetics to personal health-care. In this context, synthetic polymers are the
standard material for forming the shells of microcapsules and other encapsulation platforms. We propose an orthogonal
approach through the use of fully natural building blocks, proteins. Proteins are the fundamental building blocks of life,
underpinning the formation of sophisticated materials and structures in nature through self-assembly. We have been able to
demonstrate the ability to form robust capsules from a range of proteins of both plant and animal origin. This technique
allows for improvements over existing commercially available approaches in terms of biocompatible and biodegradable
products, and ability to undertake all processing steps under mild conditions in aqueous solution for processing sensitive
cargo species. In the present project, we will establish the viability of the protein capsule technology in particular sectors
and generate connections with key industrial players based on initial contacts established so far. A key component of this
approach is the proposed work to demonstrate the encapsulation of technologically important high value cargo materials, a
translational step which will allow us to move towards forging partnerships, and explore licensing of IP to existing industrial
partners in the context of this project, or through providing the basis for setting up a dedicated entity to take forwards the
commercialisation of this technology.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantInstitution d’accueil
CB2 1TN Cambridge
Royaume-Uni