cmRNAbone – A NOVEL GENE THERAPY FOR BONE REGENERATION
Please note: cmRNAbone concluded its activities in June 2024.
After four and a half years of intensive research, the cmRNAbone project came to a successful conclusion.
The consortium managed to show that delivery and expression of chemically modified mRNA into bone defects is possible, and provided efficacy data. We have taken the COVID mRNA vaccine principle and demonstrated it can be applied to tissue regeneration. At the same time, we utilized clinically approved scaffold materials and developed gene delivery agents that can deliver the cmRNA in situ and a new bioprinter that has the potential to be used in a clinical setting.
While the EU funded cmRNAbone consortium has now finished, the work continues. Data obtained helped form the basis of an application that will go on to carry out the final pre-clinical studies required to obtain the data to apply for a first in man trial. cmRNAbone has helped show this is a clinically feasible technology.
4.5 Years
6.3 Mio
7 Countries
Get an introduction to cmRNAbone in this short animated clip
OUR VISION & GOALS
Due to demographic change, bone degenerating diseases like osteoporosis have a growing societal and financial impact on industrialised nations. It is estimated that worldwide one in three women and one in five men over the age of 50 will experience osteoporotic bone fracture. Moreover, although most fractures will heal without complications under appropriate treatment, there are additional cases of impaired bone regeneration, e.g. large trauma with infections after car accidents.
With bone being the most transplanted tissue after blood, the need for graft materials is enormous. In search of optimised regeneration solutions, the EU-funded cmRNAbone project set out to develop a novel gene therapy to improve the lives of people with large traumatic injuries or bone degenerating diseases such as osteoporosis.
“One of our top priorities is the timely translation of the project results to the clinic. In order to reach our ambitious project goals and achieve more effective patient care worldwide, we have brought together balanced team combining the innovation potential of SMEs with the market experience of research institutes and the large international track records of our participating universities and university hospitals. ”
Prof Martin Stoddart, Coordinator
AO Research Institute Davos, Switzerland
Core Activities
- Creation of an innovative bone regenerative therapeutic approach for trauma and osteoporotic patients
- Development of specific chemically modified RNAs and vector systems
- Design and fabrication of transcript activated ink matrices for 3D Printing
- Co-development of injectable therapeutic solutions and purpose-built 3D printer for in-situ production of patient specific biofunctional implants
- Preparation of the regenerative solution for clinical trial readiness under expert regulatory guidance