Immunocompatibility of Complex Medicines, Advanced Therapeutics, and Biomaterials
Modern therapeutics increasingly rely on complex delivery systems, including nanoparticles, lipid carriers, viral vectors, and long-acting drug depots. While these technologies enable new treatment strategies, they also interact directly with the innate immune system.
Our research investigates how advanced therapeutics and biomaterials are recognised by immune cells and how these interactions influence safety, efficacy, and clinical translation. We study key innate immune pathways involved in these responses, including complement activation, inflammasome signalling, and cytokine release.
This work aims to define the principles governing the biocompatibility of complex medicines, enabling the rational design of therapeutic systems that elicit the desired immune response while avoiding unwanted inflammation or toxicity.
Key areas include:
Nanomedicine and lipid nanoparticle delivery systems
Long-acting therapeutics and drug depots
Biomaterial–immune interactions
Complement activation and inflammasome signalling
Immunocompatibility and immune-mediated toxicity
Keywords: advanced therapies and therapeutics, liposomes, lipidic nanoparticles (LNP), CARPA, pseudoallergy, hypersensitivity, complex medicines, extracellular vesicles, nanomedicines, nanotherapeutics, biocompatibility, immunology, immunotoxicology, intracellular drug delivery (ICD)
Sub-project;
- Development of techniques and technologies for the characterisation of nanomaterials.
The field of nanoimmunotoxicology is constantly evolving as new materials are developed. To meet these challenges, it is necessary to ensure that current techniques and methodologies are sufficient to identify potentially undesirable nanomaterial interactions with biological systems. New characterisation techniques are studied for their utility and introduced into our assay cascade as appropriate. Interaction with agencies such as EMA and FDA is also key to staying ahead of regulatory requirements.