Nanoparticles are emerging as a powerful mode of delivery for drugs, vaccines and even gene therapy, enabling the delivery of a wide variety of therapeutic agents beyond small molecules. With recent advances in nanoparticle technologies and design, scientists are now able to generate, load and target lipid nanoparticles systems for delivery of macromolecular drugs including siRNA, mRNA and DNA, as well as multicomponent gene editing complexes, essentially opening the door to new therapeutic modalities deploying nucleic acids to treat disease. These fundamental breakthroughs have led to novel vaccines for COVID-19, cancer drug treatments, and gene therapy advances.

This free ePanel event will showcase the latest developments in nanoparticle technologies and translational utility. Panelists will discuss past challenges and current solutions, focusing specifically on the development of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine as a success story. We will address questions of clinical implementation, from manufacturing to safety, immunogenicity and more, comprehensively examining the trajectory from bench to bedside from basic science and biotechnology industry perspectives. Finally, we will explore remaining hurdles, future opportunities and new horizons in nanoparticle technology development and applications, with the potential to transform vaccinology, cancer immunotherapy, gene therapy and more.

The ePanel will feature pioneering work by Dr. Pieter Cullis, winner of the VinFuture Grand Prize, which honors exceptional minds whose breakthrough scientific research, and technological innovations have enormous potential to create meaningful change at scale.

“Almost every disease, from cancer to Alzheimer’s, could be tackled by mRNA technology enabled by lipid nanoparticles.” – Prof. Cullis