Improving human health through targeted drug delivery
A Husker researcher is commercializing a technology that could deliver targeted treatments to people with diseases both common and rare.
With the launch of startup company Minovacca, Janos Zempleni aims to commercialize designer milk exosomes – natural nanoparticles contained in milk – capable of transporting therapeutics, gene editing tools and more to targeted locations in the human body.
NUtech Ventures, the university’s nonprofit commercialization affiliate, has filed two patent applications for the technology. Jiantao Guo, professor of chemistry, is an inventor on one of them.
The technology’s safety and flexibility are major advantages and hold promise for rare disease communities, which struggle to secure research funding because of the relatively small patient base.
“Because our technology is so versatile, we are not limited to one specific rare disease. We can tailor it to a large number of rare diseases,” said Zempleni, Willa Cather Professor of Nutrition and Health Sciences. “Rare disease groups are so thankful that there is maybe a light at the end of the tunnel.”
The strategy overcomes a major flaw of current drug delivery approaches: The therapeutic often reaches cells beyond the targeted locations, causing adverse effects – a classic example being chemotherapy.
“That’s something we want to minimize,” Zempleni said. The exosomes’ precision is controlled by three attached peptides, which work in concert to ensure the cargo reaches its intended destination.
If I had a choice between making $10 million in the company or saving 10 million lives, I would go for saving the lives.
Janos Zempleni
Minovacca’s launch culminates years of Zempleni’s research at Nebraska, first proving the safety and viability of milk exosomes as a transport mechanism, then incorporating the genetic engineering techniques enabling targeted delivery. Funding from the Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health’s Targeted Genome Editor Delivery (TARGETED) Challenge, the Syngap Research Fund and the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research supported the work.
Minovacca is licensing the technology through NUtech Ventures and acquired office space at Nebraska Innovation Campus, the university’s public-private research hub. Husker students will have new opportunities to help Zempleni translate innovations into real-world solutions while gaining industry experience.
“If I had a choice between making $10 million in the company or saving 10 million lives, I would go for saving the lives,” he said. “It’s about helping people.”
Additional Content
Minovacca founders Jiantao Guo and Janos Zempleni. Guo, professor of chemistry, is an inventor on one of the patent applications focused on designer milk exosome technology.