Chemical Engineering Seminar

RNA can change the expression of any gene. However, whether the drug is comprised of siRNA, mRNA, or another nucleic acid, it is limited by one problem: drug delivery. Chemists design thousands of distinct nanoparticles to deliver RNA to the desired cell type. However, after nanoparticles are synthesized, their ability to deliver drugs is often evaluated using in vitro systems devoid of a liver, kidney, spleen, immune system, blood flow, and other selection pressures known to affect nanoparticle delivery in vivo. 

Here we describe DNA barcoding platforms to quantify how thousands of nanoparticles deliver nucleic acids in vivo. These systems enable us to quantify how hundreds of chemically distinct nanoparticles deliver mRNA or siRNA with cell type (i.e., not just tissue) resolution in a single experiment. Using this high throughput, iterative, in vivo approach, we have identified chemically simple, manufacturable nanoparticles with tropism to novel cell types without active targeting ligands.