Experts from industry and science pool their expertise to transfer solutions from the development laboratory to the clinic.
Therapeutic nucleic acids or oligonucleotides have enormous potential for the treatment of currently untreatable diseases, for the targeted and convenient treatment of serious diseases and for patient-individualized therapy. The biggest challenge for the development of a new therapy is the step from the developmental laboratory to the clinic, as completely different skills and experience are required and completely different questions need to be answered. Instead of the question of the optimal sequence of a molecule, questions regarding acceptance criteria for GMP material, validation parameters for analytical methods, formulations or inclusion criteria for clinical trial must be answered. The “Therapeutic Nucleic Acids” network aims to connect developers of new therapeutic ideas with the manufacturing of clinical trial material and the clinical trial centers and to facilitate to entry into clinical trials. Developers of therapeutic nucleic acids and oligonucleotides including silencing oligonucleotides and mRNA, developers of novel formulations, device developers for the production and analysis of oligonucleotides and drug products, manufacturers of oligonucleotides and formulations, as well as clinics are to be connected with each other, thus leveraging potential that is currently not yet being exploited.
For this reason, the network partners met on 24.04.2025 for a joint kick-off meeting at the network partner GWT-TUD GmbH in Dresden for the first time and to drive the joint promotion of demand-oriented project approaches.
The network will primarily support the partners with the implementation and initiation of projects in order to lead innovations to commercial success. In addition, the targeted transfer of know-how and image is promoted by establishing new business contacts and fields and opening up access to new markets.
The network partners will each contribute their specific expertise along the value chain for the development and evaluation of technical solutions. This gives the Therapeutic Nucleic Acids Network a great opportunity to achieve long-term competitive strength in the target field throughout Germany.
The network partners in alphabetical order are: emp Biotech GmbH, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, GWT-TUD GmbH, Institut für Nanophotonik Göttingen e.V., Intana BioScience GmbH, Ionovation GmbH, iPolis GmbH, Kapelan Bio-Imaging GmbH, KNAUER Wissenschaftliche Geräte GmbH, PRAMOMOLECULAR GmbH, siTOOLs, Biotech GmbH, Universitätsklinikum Jena, Universitätsklinikum Münster and XNApharma GmbH.
Kapelan Bio-Imaging will provide its experience in life science imaging and workflow based systems. Furthermore the competence in ISO 13485 compliant software development and 21 CFR Part 11 solutions will be extend the network’s core competences.
Participants of the first meeting of the Network for Therapeutic Nucleic Acids (NTN) at the location of the network partner GWT-TUD GmbH in Dresden