A Microfluidic-Based Approach to Generate Cell-Derived Nanovesicles for In Vivo Transport and Delivery of Therapeutic Materials

Different drug delivery agents, including synthetic polymers, virus-based vectors, lipid-based vectors, and extracellular vesicles (EVs), have been explored previously. EVs are promising nanovesicles to deliver therapeutic drugs, vaccines and therapeutic nucleic acids such as microRNAs because these vesicles can be functionalized using targeted ligands to selectively deliver to a particular cell type in the body. However, to date, their clinical translation is limited by insufficient quantities production, size heterogeneity, and poor drug or small RNA loading efficiency.

To address these issues, Stanford researchers have developed a scalable microfluidic platform that can load therapeutic materials while controlling the size of microfluidically-processed EVs (mpEVs) using a pressure-based disruption and reconstitution process.

Stage of Development
Pre-clinical: in vivo validation in mice