Business & Finance
iECURE Partners to Develop Next-Generation Liver-Targeted Lipid Nanoparticles with University of Pennsylvania
17 December 2021 - - US-based mutation-agnostic in vivo gene editing company iECURE has entered into an exclusive agreement with the University of Pennsylvania to develop next-generation lipid nanoparticles for liver gene editing applications, the company said.

This LNP technology comes out of the laboratory of Michael Mitchell, Ph.D.

iECURE will have certain exclusive rights to gene editing in the liver with LNP technology developed in collaboration with Dr. Mitchell.

In addition, the agreement expands the number of potential pipeline programs to be developed by iECURE with Penn from 13 to 15.

Dr. Mitchell is the Skirkanich Assistant Professor of Innovation in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Dr. Mitchell's laboratory is in the discovery and development of biomaterials for overcoming biological barriers to drug delivery, with a particular focus on the development of next-generation LNPs for the delivery of mRNA, siRNA, and gene editing therapeutics.

The laboratory has collaborated for multiple years with Penn's Gene Therapy Program, which is directed by James M. Wilson, M.D., Ph.D.; this collaboration will continue under the Penn-iECURE partnership.

Prior to joining Penn in 2018, Dr. Mitchell was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Robert S. Langer, Sc.D., of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

iECURE's initial internal developmental programs rely on the use of endonuclease-based gene editing technology delivered via AAV for rare neonatal indications. Subsequent pipeline candidates may use LNPs for delivery of other gene editing technologies.

Financial disclosure: The University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Wilson hold equity interests in iECURE.

The University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Mitchell receive sponsored research support from the company and will be entitled to receive licensing revenues from iECURE based on successful technology development and commercialization of the licensed technology. Dr. Mitchell is a scientific advisor for iECURE.

iECURE is a mutation-agnostic in vivo gene editing company striving to cure devastating diseases with significant unmet need.
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