After its first year, NanoBiCar has advanced key scientific and technical building blocks towards a new generation of immunotherapeutic strategies for resistant bacterial infections.
NanoBiCar has completed its first reporting period, marking an important step forward in the development of innovative immunotherapeutic approaches against tuberculosis and other resistant bacterial infections.
During this first year, the consortium has focused on building the scientific, technical and organisational foundations required to move from concept to experimental validation. The work carried out has brought NanoBiCar one step closer to its long-term vision: developing mRNA-loaded lipid nanoparticle technologies able to support the in vivo production of immunotherapeutic agents targeting infected cells and extracellular bacteria.
One step closer to recognising infection-related targets
A major objective during the first year was to generate and validate the molecular tools needed to recognise Mycobacterium tuberculosis and infected cells. The consortium has produced and shared key infection-related targets and molecular complexes among partners, supporting the development of recognition elements that will guide the future immunotherapeutic strategies.
These advances are essential for the project, as they provide the basis for identifying bacterial or infection-associated markers in a selective way, while maintaining the flexibility needed to address both extracellular bacteria and infected cells.
One step closer to mRNA-based immunotherapeutic agents
NanoBiCar has also progressed in the design of mRNA sequences encoding candidate immunotherapeutic agents. Several mRNA constructs have been designed and optimised, and selected candidates have already been produced and tested in preliminary laboratory settings.
This represents a key step towards the project’s central concept: using mRNA as an adaptable instruction molecule that can be delivered by lipid nanoparticles to enable transient production of therapeutic agents in vivo.
One step closer to targeted lipid nanoparticles
The project has made significant progress in the design, synthesis and characterisation of lipid nanoparticles. Different LNP formulations have been developed and evaluated using reporter mRNA to study their performance, including their capacity to deliver mRNA, their biodistribution profile and their compatibility with relevant biological systems.
Based on these studies, promising LNP formulations have been selected for further development. These formulations are now ready to progress towards encapsulation of therapeutic mRNA candidates and subsequent biological evaluation.
One step closer to relevant biological models
In parallel, NanoBiCar partners have started to establish and optimise the in vitro and in vivo models required to evaluate the future therapeutic candidates. These models are essential to understand how the different strategies perform against infected cells and extracellular bacteria.
Although some of these activities started towards the end of the first year, the consortium has already made important progress in defining experimental conditions, controls and readouts that will support the next stages of candidate evaluation.
One step closer to translation and impact
Beyond the experimental work, NanoBiCar has also established the management, communication, data, exploitation, intellectual property and regulatory frameworks needed to support the project’s long-term impact.
Together, these achievements show that NanoBiCar is progressing according to its ambitious roadmap. The next phase will focus on incorporating therapeutic mRNA candidates into selected lipid nanoparticle formulations, refining biological evaluation models.