Commercial opportunities for scaling up therapeutic exosome production
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Infectious Disease
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Paul Freemont (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Kelwick R
(2024)
Accelerating extracellular vesicle research and biotechnological applications using synthetic biology approaches
in Extracellular Vesicle
Kelwick RJR
(2023)
Opportunities to accelerate extracellular vesicle research with cell-free synthetic biology.
in Journal of extracellular biology
| Description | BBSRC Pathfinder award was utilised to engage in EV market and commercialisation research including the commissioning of a report. These insights have underpinned all subsequent EV translational research activities. |
| Exploitation Route | Outcomes have positively impacted EV translational research directions. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Healthcare Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Description | We anticipate academic-industry engagements as a direct consequence of this and a continuum of subsequent EV engineering/manufacturing grants. Specifically: >Sumitomo Pharma reached out to the Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation Team in Imperial's Enterprise Division in Jan 2023 expressing their interest in our cell-free EV engineering work and we will begin to explore potential collaborative opportunities in the very near future. >A US biotechnology company, Edge Foods, is also interested in our EV manufacturing/engineering work and is in the process of signing an Imperial CDA so that we can continue discussions on potential collaborative opportunities. >Fujifilm Nordic AB is also interested in our EV manufacturing/engineering work and is in the process of signing an Imperial CDA so that we can discuss potential collaborative opportunities and the possibility of licensing previously developed exosome isolation IP (Imperial managed and at PCT stage PCT/GB2020/052302). The insights from our pathfinder award have focused our ongoing EV manufacturing and engineering work towards translational applications and have been useful for ongoing and extensive academic-industry networking and discussions that are still valuable. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | 21ENGBIO PROJECT ECHO: Modular exosome prototyping & engineering |
| Amount | £100,695 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/W012987/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 10/2022 |
| Description | Commercial opportunities for an automated extracellular vesicle biofoundry |
| Amount | £150,081 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/T017147/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2020 |
| End | 05/2021 |
| Description | Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub |
| Amount | £10,668,316 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S01778X/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2019 |
| End | 03/2026 |
| Description | Proof of Concept (PoC) Project Programme |
| Amount | £3,000,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/Z533142/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2024 |
| End | 05/2026 |
| Title | METHOD FOR ISOLATING EXTRACELLULAR VESICLES |
| Description | The present invention provides a gentle and low cost means to isolate extracellular vesicles, including exosomes, from a surrounding sample. In particular the invention relates to the use of a fusion protein and biopolymer beads in such methods. Methods, compositions and medical uses of such compositions are also provided. |
| IP Reference | US2022356269 |
| Protection | Patent / Patent application |
| Year Protection Granted | 2022 |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | Patent asset: Method for isolating extracellular vesicles; GB priority patent filing completed on 24/09/19, entering PCT Stage 23/09/20 (PCT/GB2020/052302/ WO2021058950A1). National entry and substantive examination pursued in EPO (EP4034646A1), USPTO (US20220356269A1), APO (AU2020354608A1). Know-how and expertise: Regarding manufacturing and engineering of PHA-based biopolymer particles and EV applications. Consultancy projects can be arranged, via ICON, to facilitate pilot testing of the technology prior to licensing, custom biopolymer functionalisation or bespoke application development towards client specific requirements. Ongoing licensing discussions with several companies. |
| Description | Chaired conference session and led panel discussion at Precision EV Forum Cambridge 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Richard Kelwick attended, chaired a conference session "Molecular Mechanisms, EV-Engineering and Therapeutic Delivery" and led a panel discussion "What are the pivotal challenges and emerging innovations shaping the future of extracellular vesicle-based therapeutics and vaccines?" at Precision EV Forum Cambridge 23rd-24th October 2024. Academic, clinical, industry and medical regulatory participants were in attendance. Networking has led to new collaborations and opportunities (e.g., ONI supporting our BBSRC FoF application, Beckman enabling nano flow equipment demo and important discussions with industry/regulatory experts on clinical bacterial vesicle development and commercialisation). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.precisionmedicineforum.com/extracellular-vesicles-2024/agenda/ |
| Description | EV/nano-flow cytometry presentation at Department of Infectious Disease (DoID) Early Career Researchers day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Around 50 postgraduate students/postdoctoral researchers attended (in person or digitally) the Department of Infectious Disease Early Career Researchers Day 2022. I (Dr Kelwick) presented our research on cell-free EV engineering and characterisation using nano flow cytometry. This sparked useful discussions around EV engineering and analyses. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/department-of-infectious-disease-early-career-researchers-day-2022-ti... |
| Description | Invited speaker at cell-free specialist working group as part of UCL's Future Targeted Healthcare Manufacturing Hub |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Kelwick (research associate Prof. Freemont group) was invited to present a talk entitled cell-free strategies for engineering extracellular vesicles as part of an meeting organised by the cell-free specialist working group as part of the Future Targeted Healthcare Manufacturing Hub at UCL. I presented on May 19th 2023 to an audience of academic researchers, students and industry professionals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar - Oral presentation at UKEV Forum 10th Dec 2019. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Richard Kelwick attended and was invited to give an Oral presentation on our research at UKEV Forum 10th Dec 2019 entitled "AL-PHA beads: bioplastic-based biosensors for detection of extracellular vesicle-associated metalloproteinase biomarkers". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.ukev.org.uk/ukev-forum-2019/ |
| Description | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar - Poster presentation at ISEV workshop: Open, transparent and reproducible EV research in Ghent |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Participation and Poster presentation at ISEV workshop: Open, transparent and reproducible EV research in Ghent on the 2nd-3rd Dec 2019. The presented poster was entitled: "Heterogeneity and batch variation of extracellular vesicles manufactured from hollow fibre cell culture." The workshop involved networking and open discussion with UK and EU researchers, industry and/or regulators on standards for EV therapeutics and diagnostics applications. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.isev.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1196703 |