Nutcracker to advance ‘first-of-its-kind’ biochip-based RNA platform

Nutcracker Therapeutics has raised $167 million in Series C financing to expand its mRNA pipeline and refine its RNA platform.

Nutcracker focuses on developing RNA therapeutics using its biochip-based manufacturing platform. The firm claims the financing, led by ARCH Venture Partners, will enable the company to grow its pipeline of messenger RNA (mRNA) medicines for cancer and advance its platform technology.

According to Nutcracker, producing RNA-based therapeutics with scalability and speed has remained a constant challenge in the industry. To tackle this, the firm said it is viewing the issue as a combined biochemical and engineering challenge.

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The “first-of-its-kind” biochip-based platform “combines RNA biochemistry with microfluidic engineering, semiconductor-like biochips, and a proprietary nanoparticle delivery technology to create a fully automated and isolated manufacturing pathway,” Geoff Nosrati, chief business officer at Nutcracker told BioProcess Insider.

“The platform is capable of supporting RNA therapeutic development from discovery to the clinic and commercialization, scaling up appropriately at each stage. Using this platform, the company aims to increase the speed and scale at which therapeutics can be discovered, developed, and manufactured.”

The firm now has a single machine, named the Nutcracker Manufacturing Unit (NMU), which uses biochips to complete the entire manufacturing process to make drug products, which can be scaled up.

The platform starts from a target or protein sequence, Nutcracker can then design and optimize the RNA drug substance. After this, it identifies the optimal delivery approach from its library of Nutshell nanoparticle delivery vehicles (what the firm packages the RNA in) and manufactures the drug substance and drug product using its NMU.

End-to-end capabilities

Nosrati said the platform offers end-to-end capabilities, which to his knowledge “no other company has” and “the flexibility and automation of the NMU itself is also unique to Nutcracker.”

He continued: “The ability to move rapidly from sequence-to-clinic and to scale manufacturing on-demand is also a key feature of our platform.”

Nutcracker has not disclosed any specific indications that the technology could be used for but said it is willing to share more information soon. Additionally, the funding will also be used to add members of staff and conduct “targeted investments in equipment to support both the development of our platform as well as our pipeline.”