{"id":58,"date":"2025-10-21T13:17:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/?p=58"},"modified":"2025-11-13T23:22:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:22:35","slug":"minovacca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/minovacca\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving human health through targeted drug delivery"},"content":{"rendered":"
Economic Impact<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

A Husker researcher is commercializing a technology that could deliver targeted treatments to people with diseases both common and rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the launch of startup company Minovacca, Janos Zempleni aims to commercialize designer milk exosomes \u2013 natural nanoparticles contained in milk \u2013 capable of transporting therapeutics, gene editing tools and more to targeted locations in the human body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NUtech Ventures, the university\u2019s nonprofit commercialization affiliate, has filed two patent applications for the technology. Jiantao Guo, professor of chemistry, is an inventor on one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause 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,\u201d said Zempleni, Willa Cather Professor of Nutrition and Health Sciences. \u201cRare disease groups are so thankful that there is maybe a light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategy overcomes a major flaw of current drug delivery approaches: The therapeutic often reaches cells beyond the targeted locations, causing adverse effects \u2013 a classic example being chemotherapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something we want to minimize,\u201d Zempleni said. The exosomes\u2019 precision is controlled by three attached peptides, which work in concert to ensure the cargo reaches its intended destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

If I had a choice between making $10 million in the company or saving 10 million lives, I would go for saving the lives.<\/p>\nJanos Zempleni<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Minovacca\u2019s launch culminates years of Zempleni\u2019s 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\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health\u2019s Targeted Genome Editor Delivery (TARGETED) Challenge, the Syngap Research Fund and the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research supported the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minovacca is licensing the technology through NUtech Ventures and acquired office space at Nebraska Innovation Campus, the university\u2019s public-private research hub. Husker students will have new opportunities to help Zempleni translate innovations into real-world solutions while gaining industry experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I had a choice between making $10 million in the company or saving 10 million lives, I would go for saving the lives,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about helping people.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Additional Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
News release<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Minovacca website<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Bioengineer.org<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
New Atlas<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Lincoln Journal-Star<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Epidemiology<\/a>, <\/span>Foundation for Prader-Willi Research<\/a>, <\/span>Genetic Engineering<\/a>, <\/span>Health<\/a>, <\/span>Janos Zempleni<\/a>, <\/span>National Institutes of Health<\/a>, <\/span>NUtech Ventures<\/a>, <\/span>Nutrition<\/a>, <\/span>Syngap Research Fund<\/a>, <\/span>U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the launch of startup company Minovacca, Janos Zempleni aims to commercialize designer milk exosomes \u2013 natural nanoparticles contained in milk \u2013 capable of transporting therapeutics, gene editing tools and more to targeted locations in the human body. The technology could benefit people with diseases both common and rare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[128,131,129,23,36,32,111,27,130,118],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-impact","tag-epidemiology","tag-foundation-for-prader-willi-research","tag-genetic-engineering","tag-health","tag-janos-zempleni","tag-national-institutes-of-health","tag-nutech-ventures","tag-nutrition","tag-syngap-research-fund","tag-u-s-department-of-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":477,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions\/477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}