From left: Axelyf CEO Dr Örn Almarsson, Maynooth University's Dr Rob Elmes and SSPC’s Jamie Guidera. Image: SSPC
The researchers behind the project claim new methods of biological drug delivery are needed to support vaccine development and create more precise medication.
SSPC and Maynooth University have teamed up with Icelandic biotech Axelyf to find new ways to deliver emerging drug treatments.
The Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centre for Pharmaceuticals (SSPC) will support a research team that aims to advance the field of bio-therapeutics. The researchers believe new biological therapeutics – such as small peptides and mRNA – can help medicinal chemists to develop next-generation medicines.
The researchers believe that innovation in the mRNA space has advanced, but new methods of biological drug delivery have been slower to emerge and are needed to support vaccine development and create precise medication.
The project is being led by associate professor Rob Elmes of Maynooth University and championed by Dr Örn Almarsson, the CEO and co-founder of Axelyf. Elmes said the focus in recent years has been in gaining a “fundamental understanding of how certain molecules interact with each other”.
“This understanding is now providing unique opportunities across a broad range of applications in the health sciences, particularly in new drug development,” Elmes said. “With the unique insight provided by Axelyf, we see this new project as a key partnership, and I am optimistic that we can rapidly progress innovative technologies in biologic drug development in the next few years.”
Almarsson said there is a need for the “potent yet safe and selective delivery” of various “biological cargos” into cells in the body.
“In vivo delivery options that broaden targetable tissues with lipid nanoparticles are still lacking,” Almarsson said. “We see a fantastic opportunity to work with the group of Elmes, who has emerged as a leader in supramolecular design and synthesis in Ireland.”
Last year, Prof Damien Thompson was appointed to the role of director of the SSPC. He is a professor of molecular modelling at University of Limerick, where the SSPC is based. In 2022, he led a team that discovered that brain-like computing was possible at a molecular level.
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