The LMU pharmaceutical scientist has been awarded a fourth grant by the European Research Council (ERC) to test a new platform for nanocarriers of RNA therapeutics.

Olivia Merkel, Professor of Drug Delivery at LMU’s Department of Pharmacy has been awarded a Proof of Concept (PoC) Grant by the European Research Council. Her new project builds on insights from her ERC Consolidator Grant project. Through the PoC program, which awards grants of around 150,000 euros, the European Research Council helps researchers translate their research findings into practice.

Olivia Merkel researches novel nanocarrier systems for the targeted local delivery of drugs. Her work focuses on the therapeutic use of RNA. Although these so-called RNA therapeutics hold enormous potential, their development is hindered by slow, expensive, Edisonian nanocarrier development approaches. Moreover, nanocarrier successes often have poor transferability from in-vitro to in-vivo settings. Current strategies rely largely on trial and error in which only one factor is varied at a time. “This often leads to only marginal improvements and is therefore very time-consuming,” says Olivia Merkel.

Her project ALINA – Active-Learning Inference for Nucleic Acid Delivery, which has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept Grant, tests a new conceptual approach for an integrated platform combining machine learning and molecular dynamics. The goal is to accelerate the design and optimization of formulations for RNA-loaded nanoparticles such that significantly fewer experiments will be required. Ultimately, the team will create an industry-relevant version of the ALINA platform. “ALINA will enable faster, more precise development of RNA therapeutics while using fewer resources, and will make it possible to target organs beyond the liver,” says Merkel. At the same time, it will accelerate the broader adoption of data-driven nanocarrier development approaches in biotech and pharma. This could benefit between two and four million patients annually.

Olivia Merkel studied pharmacy at Marburg University, where she also completed her doctorate. Since October 2015, she has been Professor of Drug Delivery at LMU’s Department of Pharmacy.