The University of Queensland (UQ) has been selected by a United States Government agency to develop manufacturing technology for personalised RNA medicines, as part of a consortium eligible for up to $57 million in funding.
According to UQ, its BASE mRNA Facility will lead the development of technology to verify the quality, accuracy and safety of RNA medicines before they are administered to patients. The work forms part of a program backed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an operational division of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The program aims to establish a network of US hospitals capable of producing personalised RNA medicines on demand, with the goal of delivering treatments within a week of diagnosis.
BASE facility director Professor Tim Mercer said the technology could support personalised cancer vaccines and treatments for rare genetic diseases.
“The same mRNA technology used in the COVID-19 vaccines is now increasingly being applied to cancer and other diseases,” Mercer said.
He said RNA medicines are currently produced in a limited number of specialised factories, with patients potentially waiting months to receive treatment.
“This program is about bringing production to the patient’s bedside, delivering RNA medicines within days of diagnosis, instead of months,” Mercer said.
The UQ team, part of the university’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, will develop an automated quality-control system using nanopore sequencing. The technique reads individual RNA molecules to help assess the quality, integrity and safety of the final medicine.
Mercer said the approach could consolidate several testing processes into a single test.
“It’s an approach we have developed and proven at BASE, and it means one test can do what used to require many different tests,” he said.
A prototype will initially be designed and built at BASE’s laboratories, where it could support the development of personalised mRNA medicines in Australia. Once operational, the system will be assembled at Houston Methodist Research Institute in Texas and installed to test RNA medicines.
Mercer said the selection recognised the expertise developed at BASE and Australia’s capabilities in mRNA technology.
The consortium could receive up to $57 million ($US40 million) through the ARPA-H program. UQ’s announcement did not specify how much of the potential funding would be allocated to the university or provide a timeline for the system’s deployment.
