Public Funding for Oxford Highq Ltd

Lipid nanoparticles and liposomes offer a revolutionary method of delivering previously infeasible therapeutics in a controlled manner for more effective treatment. These nanomaterials allow for increased penetration into target tissues, altered bioavailability, and have potential for improved targeting within the body. Exploiting these characteristics offers huge promise in terms of improved patient outcomes while minimising harsh side-effects. Currently it is difficult to rapidly measure drug-load distribution and drug-release profiles of nanomedicines without using proxies and extrapolations. As a consequence, the nanomedicine field suffers from poor reproducibility and reliability at the drug-screening level. Understanding of these parameters is required by researchers, manufacturers and regulators to optimise the dosing and performance of these highly-targeted nanotherapeutics. We have recently launched an instrument that can accurately measure real-time drug-load distribution and release profiles of drug-loaded nanoparticles, including liposomes and lipid-nanoparticles (LNPs). Our multiparameter sensors provide a novel and high-precision method for rapid characterisation of nanotherapeutics based on their unique optical signatures, measuring both size and refractive index simultaneously and independently on a particle-by-particle basis. Oxford HighQ's instrument is capable of measuring multiple critical attributes of nanoformulations, including: * Drug mass per nanoparticle (as a function of size) * Real-time drug-release profiles * Shell/coating thickness and density * Refractive index * Size and polydispersity This project will provide reference datasets for lipid-based nanoparticle formulations used in healthcare. The key objectives of this project are to provide orthogonal measurements of the physicochemical properties of therapeutic nanoparticles in order to demonstrate the performance parameters of Oxford HighQ's instruments, such as its resolution and limit of detection, and to provide a range of reference points for nanoparticle characterisation supporting the use of the instruments in the QA/QC testing of advanced therapies.

The last three decades have seen the widespread adoption and industrialisation of nanoparticles serving applications in many technology sectors, including healthcare, energy production, manufacturing industry and agriculture. In the pharmaceutical sector, at the heart of this progress is the ability to fill otherwise inert particle materials with highly toxic anti-cancer drugs or genetic materials and/or functionalise the surface to both mask their presence from the human immune response and to better target the release of the "payload" at a particular organ, tumour or cellular component. These developments have led to a series of scientific breakthroughs in the field of advanced therapeutics by using nanocarriers to deliver drugs where it is needed in the body and reducing toxicity to healthy organ and tissues. However, manufacturing of such "advanced therapies" is challenging as it requires fine tools to scrutinise nanoparticles 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Oxford HighQ has developed a new technique providing the ability to characterise the composition of nanoparticles through their optical properties, more specifically their refractive indices. One could use this parameter to measure on a particle-by-particle basis the amount of therapeutic molecules loaded within/on a nanoparticle carrier. The limited footprint, ease-of-use and potential for this technique to be built in-line within a manufacturing process makes it particularly attractive to the pharmaceutical industry. This project will see the launch of an ambitious 12-month alpha- and beta-users programme, as well as providing the opportunity to develop and test novel upgraded sample-handling capabilities to meet customer demand. Working with experts in the nanomedicines field, we will focus on demonstrating the application of our unique capabilities against a wide variety of analytes and sample matrices, allowing us to unlock the true potential of Oxford HighQ's technology.

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Oxford HighQ is a spinout from the University of Oxford's Departments of Materials and Chemistry that is developing next-generation chemical and nanoparticle sensors. Our core technology of optical microcavities provides fundamental enhancement of signal strength that will offer a step change in fluid-based sensing across a wide range of applications and markets. The company was incorporated in October 2017 building on 10 years of research within the University. This Innovate UK project will provide support for the construction and field-testing of four miniaturised remote autonomous total phosphate sensors for environmental monitoring in rivers and lakes. A parallel R&D programme will advance the technology to provide greater breadth of analytical targets, allowing the technology to speciate and quantify an array of pollutants in water supplies -- a key challenge for environmental regulatory authorities, water supply companies, and researchers. If successful, this project will provide a low-cost, portable, real-time method for speciating and quantifying pollutants in natural waterways, allowing targeted intervention, reducing capital expenditure and operating costs for water companies. This device would then act as a platform from which we can target emerging contaminants of concern, including pesticides, herbicides, and pharmaceutical contaminants in water supplies.

The last three decades have seen the widespread adoption and industrialisation of nanoparticles serving applications in many technology sectors, including healthcare, energy production, manufacturing industry and agriculture. In the pharmaceutical sector, at the heart of this progress is the ability to fill otherwise inert particle materials with highly toxic anti-cancer drugs or genetic materials and/or functionalise the surface to both mask their presence from the human immune response and to better target the release of the "payload" at a particular organ, tumour or cellular component. These developments have led to a series of scientific breakthroughs in the field of advanced therapeutics by using nanocarriers to deliver drugs where it is needed in the body and reducing therapeutic index, i.e. toxicity to healthy organ and tissues. However, manufacturing of such "advanced therapies" is challenging as it requires fine tools to scrutinise nanoparticles 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Oxford HighQ has developed a new technique providing the ability to characterise the composition of nanoparticles through their optical properties, i.e. more specifically their refractive indices. One could use this parameter to measure on a particle-by-particle basis the amount of therapeutic molecules loaded within/on a nanoparticle carrier. The limited footprint, ease-of-use and potential for this technique to be built in-line within a manufacturing process makes it particularly attractive to the pharmaceutical industry. This project will employ the expertise of the UK's National Physical Laboratory to design and manufacture highly engineered materials that can be used to fully characterise the capabilities of this new technology, and provide facilities to rigorously validate this new measurement against orthogonal analytical methods. The latter tends to be bulky, time consuming and expensive methods, which highlight the need for a more agile technological platform for rapid screening of materials and quality assurance purposes. The joint team will focus its efforts in developing a series of demonstrations to unlock the true potential of Oxford HighQ's technology. For example, the project will output an application note directly relevant to advanced therapeutics that will help promoting out new technology in the pharmaceutical sector.

The development of quantum technologies produces high precision instrumentation and components that can benefit a wide range of applications. In this project we use miniature optical resonators, developed for quantum communications and computing, to sense nanoparticles and chemicals. The ability to measure and analyse chemicals and nanoscale particles in fluids is of increasing importance to the modern world. Blood tests, screening for allergens and contaminants in food, developing new medicines for cancer treatment, or measuring air quality in buildings and vehicles are all applications for which high performance sensors are required with sensitivity to minute quantities of material. The ‘quantum’ resonators offer a step change in performance compared to existing devices. A new spin-out company from the University of Oxford, HighQ Instruments Ltd, is being set up both to develop the sensors and to market resonator components to the quantum technologies and photonics industries. This Innovate UK project will provide support for the construction of the first prototype for a nanoparticle sensor product, and for a parallel R&D programme to advance the technology and develop chemical sensors for a range of applications.