The Mary Lyon Centre and NanoVation Therapeutics (UK) collaborate in a £1.6M Innovate UK Smart Grant project to create a ‘one-shot’ cure for cancer

The Mary Lyon Centre at MRC Harwell is pleased to announce its involvement as NanoVation Therapeutics™ (NTx) partner in LIPICARE, a project aimed at revolutionising cancer treatment by combining advances in nanotechnology, gene editing and CAR-T therapy. The project is funded by a £1.6M Smart Grant from Innovate UK and is led by NATA (Nucleic Acid Therapy Accelerator) and also includes the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research as partner.

The project will focus on improving existing cancer immunotherapies that use Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T (CAR-T) cells, by genome editing of a patient’s T cells. LIPICARE will use lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology developed by NTx to deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) to a patient’s T cells. By combining these leading-edge medical technologies, the project will ultimately lead to the development of a single-dose, personalised cancer treatment that is potent and safe, at a fraction of current treatment costs. This Smart Grant is the first step in the journey.

Sara Wells, Director of the Mary Lyon Centre, said: “The Mary Lyon Centre and the National Mouse Genetics Network are thrilled to be involved in this innovative project and to be able to lend their collective expertise in to advanced in vivo therapies for cancer.”

“We are delighted to be partners in this exciting new project”, commented Nick Lench, Executive Director at NATA. “The combination of cutting-edge technologies promises to deliver new approaches to personalised cancer therapy.”

“We believe that LIPICARE’s approach to cancer therapy will be of enormous value to patients, offering a safe and effective treatment at reduced cost, and requiring only a single dose,” said project lead and NTx Managing Director, Arpan Desai.