Startup Develops Milk-Based Targeted Drug-Delivery Technology

Two University of Nebraska professors have launched a startup aimed at bringing to market an innovative method for delivering drugs and therapies to specific locations in the human body. The key ingredient? Milk.

Yes, ordinary milk. It has proven to be a promising tool, especially in the biopharmaceutical field. Reports indicate that genetically modified cows produce milk containing human insulin, enriched milk with antibodies against HIV, and milk nanoparticles used to deliver RNA therapies that usually require injections.

Startup Minovacca: A New Frontier in Medicine

Now, Janos Zempleni and Jiantao Guo, researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, have founded the startup Minovacca to commercialize a targeted drug delivery system using – you guessed it – milk. The technology is designed to treat both common and rare diseases.

Because our technology is highly versatile, we are not limited to one specific rare disease,” explained Zempleni, a professor of nutrition and health sciences. “Rare disease groups are hopeful to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The method is based on milk exosomes, nanometer-sized structures released by cells that act as messengers, carrying proteins, fats, and genetic information. By chemically and genetically modifying these exosomes, the researchers achieved precise delivery of substances to specific human cells.

Each exosome’s membrane contains three types of peptides—small chains of amino acids—attached to it.One peptide directs the exosome to a specific location in the body, another prevents the immune system from attacking it, and the third increases its stability once inside the target cell.

Enhancing Exosome Function with Peptides

Researchers typically use lipids (fatty compounds) to attach peptides to exosomes, but this method has limitations because lipids can detach when they encounter other lipophilic compounds in the body.



To address this, the researchers created docking points on a membrane protein called CD81, securely attaching the peptides through a bioorthogonal chemistry approach – a technique that allows chemical reactions to occur in living systems without disrupting biological processes.

This approach not only enhances the structural stability of the exosomes but also makes the system more uniform, a critical factor for commercial scalability. “Ensuring this uniform structure is essential for the FDA to verify that the exosomes can be produced consistently across batches,” Guo explained.

The technology also has the potential to reduce side effects from treatments like chemotherapy, which indiscriminately targets both healthy and cancerous fast-growing cells, causing issues like hair loss, nausea, and weakened immunity. “Chemotherapy kills not only cancer cells but any rapidly growing cell,” said Zempleni. “And that’s exactly what we aim to minimize with our technology.

Broader Applications: From Drugs to Gene Editing

Beyond drug delivery, the system could also transport gene-editing tools and other therapies. The researchers are working to license the technology through NUtech Ventures, the University of Nebraska’s nonprofit technology commercialization affiliate, and have already filed a patent.

While forming the company has been a challenging learning process, Zempleni and Guo plan to keep operations within the university, employing local students and advancing development to the point of submitting an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA.

For Zempleni, the primary goal is saving lives, not making money. It might sound cliché, but if I had to choose between making $10 million or saving 10 million lives, I’d choose saving lives, he said. I’m not in this for the money. It’s about helping people.

Read the original article on: New Atlas

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