Exploiting high throughput materials discovery for the stabilisation of sensitive therapeutics

Biologics such as nucleic acids and proteins play an increasingly important role in modern healthcare approaches (e.g. RNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, immunotherapy for treating cancer etc.) by providing mechanisms for highly specific and selective treatment of a host of disease states. A significant limitation of such approaches is associated with the instability of these biological therapeutics to physical, chemical and environmental stresses. As a result, the global distribution of such therapies represents a significant public health challenge due to the economic and logistical challenges of cold-chain transportation particularly to remote, low-resourced or otherwise difficult to access regions. In this project, you will exploit advances in high throughput polymer synthesis to produce novel polymeric adjuvants designed to protect sensitive therapeutics (enzymes and/or RNA) from environmental stresses. This will involve identifying the key structure-activity relationships that lead to retention (or even enhancement) of biological activity under a range of environmental stresses. The knowledge gained from this project will provide significant steps towards the development of a simple and cost-effective approach for alleviating the burdens associated with cold-chain transportation of sensitive therapeutics.