Characterisation of the protein corona structure in organ selective lipid nanoparticles

Since their success as the delivery technology in the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are revolutionizing nanomedicine. Key challenges in developing new technologies include increasing their ability to target specific organs and cells in the body. In biological environments, proteins present in solution adhere to the lipid nanoparticle surface and can impact the performance of LNP nanomedicines. However, there is still limited knowledge on how these adhered proteins - also known as the protein corona - differ between LNPs with different structures and lipid compositions. By understanding the differences in protein corona structure in LNPs known to show specific organ selectivity, we aim to quantify develop tools that will longer term enable us to engineer these interactions and design the next generation of LNP nanomedicines.