Nanoparticle Blueprints Reveal Path to Smarter Medicines News / October 23, 2025 Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are the delivery vehicles of modern medicine, carrying cancer drugs, gene therapies and vaccines into cells. Until recently, many scientists assumed that all LNPs followed more or less the same blueprint, like a fleet of trucks built from the same design Now, in Nature Biotechnology, researchers from... Read More
Escaping the Endosome: BEND Lipids Improve LNP mRNA Delivery and Gene Editing News / January 28, 2025 Every time a shuttle docks with the International Space Station (ISS), a delicate dance unfolds between the shuttle’s docking system and its counterpart on the station. Thanks to international standards, these mechanisms are universally compatible, ensuring astronauts and cargo can safely and seamlessly enter the station. A similar challenge arises... Read More
Unlocking the Brain: Peptide-Guided Nanoparticles Deliver mRNA to Neurons News / December 17, 2024 Penn Engineers have modified lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to cross the blood-brain barrier and target specific types of cells, including neurons. Read More
Cooking Up a Breakthrough: Penn Engineers Refine Lipid Nanoparticles for Better mRNA Therapies News / November 22, 2024 Penn Engineers have cooked up a new way to improve mRNA delivery, developing an optimal “recipe” for ionizable lipids — key ingredients in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the molecules behind the COVID-19 vaccines and other innovative therapies. The method, described in Nature Biomedical Engineering, mirrors the iterative process of developing a... Read More
Penn’s Siloxane-Enhanced Nanoparticles Chart a New Path in Precision mRNA Medicine News / October 1, 2024 Penn Engineers have discovered a novel means of directing lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the revolutionary molecules that delivered the COVID-19 vaccines, to target specific tissues, presaging a new era in personalized medicine and gene therapy. While past research — including at Penn Engineering — has screened “libraries” of LNPs to find... Read More
