CIQUS’s TraffikGene project receives €2.5M from the European Innovation Council to bring its technology to market

The project led by Professor Javier Montenegro, principal investigator at CiQUS’, a CIGUS-accredited centre, has received the support of the European Innovation Council to drive the pre-clinical validation of an innovative delivery system for therapeutic nucleic acids.

On 8th February, the European Innovation Council (EIC) announced the successful candidates in the EIC Transition projects call, which seeks to advance the transfer of innovative technologies for future commercialisation. Of the 181 proposals submitted, only 34 obtained funding, including TraffikGene, which addresses the challenge of RNA-based therapies, and will receive €2.5 M in funding over a three-year period.

The project consists of the development of a peptide-based technology to create vehicles that facilitate the efficient delivery of nucleic acids and ribonucleoproteins, which have a potentially therapeutic application. This is a versatile technology that can be adapted to all types of nucleic acids, such as messenger RNA (mRNA) or RNA (RNAi) interference, and even carry out gene-editing tasks with ribonucleoproteins through the CRISPR/Cas system. The RNA drug vehicles developed by TraffikGene are biodegradable and therefore have very low toxicity levels.

The new EIC grant will allow the project team at CIQUS, a CIGUS Network centre, to focus on the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) therapies for cancer immunotherapy applications, as well as explore possible therapeutic alternatives with various nucleic acids. The team is also committed to securing collaboration with academia and industry to accelerate validation and technology transfer.