Virus-Inspired modular Assembly for cargo loading in Extracellular Vesicles-Inspired CArdiac REpair

ongoing

The fundamental objective of the VIA-EVICARE ERC Proof of Concept project is to ascertain the technical and commercial feasibility of a ground-breaking technology to revolutionize the delivery of therapeutics via extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs are naturally occurring nanosized vesicles that facilitate the transfer of biological cargo between cells and offer numerous benefits over conventional drug delivery systems. By leveraging a novel, virus-inspired mechanism, we aim for a modular design that combines a significant improvement of targeting, loading, and release of therapeutics that overcomes the limitations of existing strategies. By designing and synthesizing self-assembling viral proteins and recruiting EV biogenesis components, we aim to: I. Validating the efficiency and specificity of EV-therapeutic loading, EV-generation, and EV uptake mechanisms upon introduction of different self-assembling proteins. II. Optimizing the modular design for large-scale production, ensuring reproducibility and cost-effectiveness and validate our innovative VIA-EVICARE loading strategy by assessing biodistribution and functional delivery in vivo. III. Conduct a comprehensive intellectual property (IP) landscape analysis to establish freedom-to-operate (FTO) and ensure that our technology can be commercialized without infringing on existing patents. IV. Develop a robust and detailed business plan to effectively guide the commercialization of our loading technology, thus bringing a transformative solution to treating various diseases.