Engineered mRNA and Targeted Nanomedicine Core

Mission

The Engineered mRNA and targeted nanomedicine core is designed to address infrastructural barrier to clinical and translational research in gene therapy, vaccine development (cancer and infectious disease), stem cell reprograming, and other non-viral gene therapy based applications by providing high quality in vitro transcribed messenger RNA (IVT-mRNA) and lipid nanoparticles (LNPs).

The Engineered mRNA and targeted nanomedicine core supports the ITMAT and PSOM faculty, ITMAT partner institutions, and members of the Center for Targeted Therapeutics and Translational Nanomedicine (CT³N).

Goals 

Our goal and focus is to lower the experimental barriers to PIs interested in exploring the mRNA technology, and lipid nanoparticles for various applications including tissue and cell targeting. We currently offer the following services.

• Optimization and production of in vitro transcribed mRNA.
• Small and large scale production of sequence optimized in vitro transcribed mRNA.
• Incorporation of modified nucleosides to modulate activity.
• Off the shelf in vitro transcribed mRNA encoding reporter genes (i.e. eGFP, mCherry, and Luc), or cancer antigens (i.e. OVA).
• Encapsulation into proprietary (i.e. MC3, KC2 …) and non-proprietary lipid nanoparticles (i.e. DOTAP…).
• Surface modification of mRNA-LNPs for targeted delivery into specific tissues and cells.
• Labelled mRNA (i.e. Cy 5.5), labelled -LNPs (i.e. DiL, DiO, DiI), and Labelled mRNA-LNP (Dual labelling) for nanoparticle tracking and microscopy.

The core also offers self-replicating mRNA (non-nucleoside modified mRNA) as an alternative to the canonical IVT mRNA.

Contact Information

To explore how the engineered mRNA and targeted nanomedicine core might be helpful to your project, or for pricing/quote, please contact Dr. Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh and/or Dr. Drew Weissman to schedule an initial consultation. Custom made mRNA can be ordered using the following form whereas off-the shelf-products such as reporter mRNA or reporter mRNA-LNPs can be ordered directly via the following form.

Personnel

Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh, Ph.D. Core Director                                                                                                                                                        Email: mg.alameh@pennmedicine.upenn.edu                                                                                                                                                      Phone: (657) 253-9210

Drew Weissman, M.D. Ph.D. PTT Core Co-Director                                                                                                                                                Email: dreww@pennmedicine.upenn.edu                                                                                                                                                              Phone: (215) 573-8491