Project description DEENESFRITPL Getting the right polymer sequence at the right cost Millions of molecules are made of repeating units of individual building blocks (monomers). DNA and RNA are important natural polymers made of repeating nucleotides as building blocks. The manufacture of short strands of chemically modified RNA (oligonucleotides) has shown great promise for the development of novel therapies. It is currently achieved using solid-phase synthesis in which the growing oligo is bound to an insoluble substrate and monomers are added one at a time. Solid-phase synthesis is difficult to scale and the resulting purity is low, leading to high prices. The UK start-up Exactmer has developed patented technology enabling polymer synthesis entirely in the liquid phase to overcome these obstacles. The EU-funded NANOLIGO project will bring this technology to market with the potential to significantly speed the development of novel complex polymeric pharmaceuticals and slash manufacturing costs. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective Since the Nobel Prize winning discovery of small interfering RNA its specificity and selectivity have driven the pharmaceutical industry to design 15- to 25-mer oligonucleotide analogues as a new class of drugs. These offer exciting new therapeutic possibilities for example in rare diseases, but also large patient population indications including cardiovascular disease, and viral pandemics such as Covid-19. However, the high cost and limited scalability of manufacturing these complex polymeric molecules using solid phase synthesis is holding back benefits for thousands of patients – and has motivated us to seek an improved technology for oligo synthesis.ERC Advanced Grant 786398 is funding research investigating a new technology platform for the fabrication of defined monomer sequence polymers - Nanostar Sieving. Our preliminary research into oligo synthesis using Nanostar Sieving has found that it is potentially both feasible and game-changing. NANOLIGO seeks proof-of-concept that Nanostar Sieving can unlock the tremendous potential of oligos through dramatically reducing production cost and increasing production capacity. We will work with RNA oligos – key targets for novel APIs – which are currently produced by solid phase synthesis, and show that these can be made entirely in the liquid phase, with unprecedentedly high purity, efficient chemistry and lower solvent consumption. Crucially, membrane separations are readily scaled up, making this process a strong candidate for kg-scale oligo production.The PI and members of his research team have founded a start-up, Excatmer, to ensure the results of the ERC Grant have impact. We will carry out the PoC project at Exactmer, so that if we are successful the technology can be more rapidly developed and scaled up, leading to significant economic benefits. We are driven by a desire to make oligonucleotide therapies affordable and so available to patients as rapidly as possible. Fields of science medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthepidemiologypandemicsnatural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciencesmedical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusescoronavirusesmedical and health sciencesclinical medicinecardiologycardiovascular diseasesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsRNA Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2020-POC - Call for proposals for ERC Proof of Concept Grant Call for proposal ERC-2020-PoC See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-POC-LS - ERC Proof of Concept Lump Sum Pilot Host institution EXACTMER LIMITED Net EU contribution € 150 000,00 Address WINDSOR HOUSE CORNWALL ROAD HG1 2PW HARROGATE United Kingdom See on map SME The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed. Yes Region Yorkshire and the Humber North Yorkshire North Yorkshire CC Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all EXACTMER LIMITED United Kingdom Net EU contribution € 150 000,00 Address WINDSOR HOUSE CORNWALL ROAD HG1 2PW HARROGATE See on map SME The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed. Yes Region Yorkshire and the Humber North Yorkshire North Yorkshire CC Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost No data
