Welcome to the next PoreLab lecture!
Who: Associate Professor Cecilia Leal from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
When: Wednesday November 22 at 13:00 (Norway time).
Where:
The lecture will be streamed in the Kelvin room (PoreLab Oslo) and in the common room (PoreLab Trondheim). From anywhere else, you will be able to join via the following Zoom link:
https://uio.zoom.us/j/65837085049?pwd=WjZianUyN3FJa2liQkxBbzQrOCtGdz09
Title: Structural complexity of lipid nanoparticles: implications for efficient gene delivery
Abstract:
Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are the most successful RNA delivery carriers to date and are used in FDA-approved products like the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. Expanding LNP-based therapies hinges on efficient delivery to a variety of tissues and cells, a process often hindered by endosomal entrapment. It is well known that depending on lipid molecular properties, LNPs assemble into different nanostructures, but how these impart endosomal escape remains unknown. We demonstrate that combining lipid composition with nanostructure synergistically impacts the ability of LNPs to escape endosomes. LNP–RNA complexes prescribed with bicontinuous cubic and inverse hexagonal internal structures facilitate the topological transition of LNP–endosome fusion-pore formation. We show that nanostructure is a potent handle to engineer highly efficient LNPs for the delivery of gene editing agents to cells.