Paving the way to particle perfection
Particle performance depends upon
Size
Targetable particle diameters, consistently achieved using our highly engineered systems, ensure your highly monodisperse particles complement your application, from cell encapsulation (microparticles) to molecular entities such as nucleic acids (nanoparticles).
Shape
Continuous flow methodology provides accurate and reproducible self-assembly processes ensuring a homogeneous shape for any particle, including including lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), polymer-based NPs, hydrogels and emulsions.
Structure
Consistent production of identical particles, with high encapsulation efficiency, allowing each particle to operate at its full potential.
Quality in. Quality out.
Accelerate your discovery and optimize your manufacture
Rooted in microfluidic technology
As part of Blacktrace Holdings Ltd, we are a world-leader in microfluidic technology and have over 25 years experience fabricating microfluidic devices, designing and making all of our own chips and equipment, with ranging microfluidic junction sizes and geometries to enable formation of a wide range of particles.
Our technology has been used in space, at the bottom of the deepest ocean and at the poles of the Earth, in a vast range of applications including chemical reactions, biological isolation & analysis, petrochemical processing, and drug delivery & release.
Benefits of microfluidics
Particles have historically been manufactured using batch methodologies which are prone to producing inconsistent, polydisperse, particles and to inducing damage to the encapsulated material/product due to the energies required to mix reagents within the reaction vessel. Microfluidic technology has been proven to be the smart method of choice for making great particles. As the process of particle creation occurs under flow, and within a very small reaction window, the parameters can be very tightly controlled to consistently produce particles of the desired size and formulation without the risk of damage. Such control and consistency provides our clients with significant competitive advantage though considerably reduced development time and costs.
Use in nanomedicine
Within the fields of targeted drug delivery and controlled drug release, the rate of drug uptake and clearance rely on parameters including particle size, formulation and the reproducibility of the fabrication process.
Specifically, dealing with complex and variable payload throughout the discovery stage requires the ability to freely optimize and perfect the delivery vehicle.
Using microfluidics enables you to work with smaller reaction volumes and significantly reduce waste of very expensive reagents whilst providing optimal encapsulation efficiencies and incredibly consistent particle sizes.
LNP production
Particles, and in particular Lipid Nanoparticles (LNPs), have been widely adopted as a safe delivery vehicle for a variety of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) including nucleic acids and small molecule drugs.
They’re suitable for the encapsulation of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic cargo. Particles can be formulated to not only stabilize and protect the API but to enable targeted delivery and controlled release of the cargo providing means to minimize patient dose and side-effects whilst optimising treatment efficacy.
The use of LNPs can prevent immunogenesis by shielding cargo from immune system.
Other particles, not just LNPs
Lipid Nanoparticles are not the limit! Our platforms can also be used to produce polymer based particles such as Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA). The block copolymer is widely used in drug delivery systems thanks to its excellent biodegradability, low toxicity and biocompatibility with cells and tissues.
Interested to learn whether your chosen reagents would work on our platforms? Our team of experts will experiment with your materials on our platforms to demonstrate system performance and particle engineering capabilities. We also try to identify suitable parameters – for example, flow rate – for your workflow and suggest improvements, such as using a specific chip, for more efficient particle formation.
Want to read more about how microfluidics benefits nanomedicine?
Microfluidic workflows offer a number of key benefits over alternative manufacturing methods, leading to better process control and more reproducible particle production. This makes it easier to identify the formulation that works best in terms of both maximized therapeutic effects and minimized side effects, without particle-to-particle and batch-to-batch variations obscuring results.
More effective delivery of the payload has the potential to allow the injection of mRNA vaccines at a significantly lower dose, reducing the risk for vulnerable people who require more frequent boosters. It may also create a new therapeutic window that allows a much higher dose of mRNA to be effectively delivered without adverse side effects, maximizing therapeutic efficacy. More importantly, this approach could greatly progress genomic medicine, offering solutions to currently unmet clinical needs. If you want to read more about this, take a look at some of our press articles.
Recorded Webinar: How microfluidics benefits nanomedicine
In this 30 minute recorded webinar, we discuss how microfluidics benefits making nanoparticles for nanomedicine and how particle performance is attributable to process.
Seeing is believing! Let us prove it.
Are you struggling to imagine what is achievable for your materials on our platforms? Do you want a clearer and more representative indication of how your experiments can be run on our platforms to get the best results? Whether you’ve tried microfluidics before or want to move from a batch to a flow protocol, our proof of principle studies will provide peace of mind and de-risk your purchase. We collaborate closely with you when offering this premium service, quickly testing your materials on our site.
See our platforms in action
Would you like to see how our technology can help you with your drug development pipeline?
We would love to show you in person. Simply click on the button below to arrange a demonstration with one of our scientists and we will be in touch very soon!
High-throughput formulation screening: Introducing ALiS
Accelerate your discovery stage with Automated Library Synthesis (ALiS) System with rapid screening of formulations and mRNA candidates in early-stage development.
Introducing ALiS
Rapid development optimization: ANP System
Speed up your development stage with Automated Nanoparticle System (ANP System), optimizing process development and initial production of larger samples of nanoparticles.
Rapid development optimization: ANP System
Low-volume GMP manufacturing with ANP Pilot
ANP Pilot is the version of the ANP System that will be suitable for GMP environments. Ideal for final process development and initial sample manufacture of clinical trials/low volume applications.
Low-volume GMP manufacturing with ANP Pilot
Large scale GMP manufacture: Titan
A high-throughput GMP manufacturing platform, producing up to 1,440 L in 24 hours.
Large scale GMP manufacture: Titan
Accelerate your discovery and optimize your manufacture
FAQ’s
I’m new to microfluidics, how do I know my methodology will work?
Don’t worry, we will work with you to develop your skills, providing training courses and a support hub to allow you to become experts within your company. If you are unsure about how your batch methodology converts to microfluidics, our experts within the Science and Applications team are here to talk through developing your process; we even offer proof of principle studies to help you convert to microfluidics.
How can Particle Works help me produce monodisperse nanoparticles?
Microfluidics is at the heart of what we do, giving unprecedented control over the production of nanoparticles. Although new technology can be daunting, our systems have been engineered to make them as simple as possible to use! Our range of systems are tailored for different parts of your workflow, from discovery and development, through to scale up of your nanoparticles.
Where can I learn more?
Get in contact with us to learn more, organize demonstrations and hear the latest information from Particle Works.