MIT automates production of lipid nanoparticles for RNA medicines

Researchers at MIT have found an automated way to produce lipid nanoparticles. These are fatty capsules used to deliver RNA vaccines and other nucleic acid-based drugs.

The size and shape of such particles used to be found by trial and error. They determine which organs and tissues a drug will reach, and earlier methods could not control this reliably.

The new method splits the mixing into two stages. First, a solution of lipids and mRNA is mixed at equal flow rates; then, after a short pause, a buffer is added that stops the particles from growing. The longer the pause, the larger the particles, and changing the buffer's composition turns spherical particles into elongated ones.

In the new work, the process was made automatic and paired with a dynamic light scattering instrument that measures particles at the very moment they form. The system holds a target size and, when it drifts, corrects the delay and other parameters on its own. Shape is still measured outside the automated system.

Using the collected data, the authors trained a machine learning model that predicts a combination of conditions for a desired size and shape.

Particle size determines where in the body it ends up: 150-nanometer and 70-nanometer particles behave differently under otherwise equal conditions.

The work was published in ACS Nano. The authors have filed a patent application and plan to commercialize it through the company BIZON Labs; the research was supported by the FDA and a Koch Institute grant from the National Cancer Institute.

Image: Yurko

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Translation editor: Ловушкин А.