New microfluidic device delivers mRNA nanoparticles a hundred times faster

Date posted
Funding Agency
(Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation)

Bioengineers and medical researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have designed a proof-of-concept microfluidic device containing 128 mixing channels working in parallel. The channels mix a precise amount of lipid and mRNA, crafting individual lipid nanoparticles on a miniaturized assembly line. The researchers tested the lipid nanoparticles produced by their device in a mouse study, showing that they could deliver therapeutic mRNA sequences with four-to-five times greater activity than those made by conventional methods.