Laura Dietz: Exosome membrane-coated nanoparticles for drug delivery

Transporting therapeutic molecules to their target site in the human body is crucial for the development of successful treatments. Currently, nanoparticles are on the rise as carriers for therapeutic molecules as they protect and guide their payload in the human body. The most prominent examples of this are the highly effective vaccines against COVID-19 from Biontech/Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna. Here, therapeutic mRNA molecules are protected by lipid droplets. Nature itself uses lipid droplets for cell-to-cell communication in the human body. These lipid droplets are called exosomes and transport biomolecular payloads such as mRNA and protein. Due to their designation for payload transport, exosomes have recently come into focus as natural drug carrying nanoparticles. In my PhD, I want to combine the natural drug delivery properties of exosomes with the engineering precision of synthetic nanocapsules. Therefore, I aim to envelope synthetic nanocapsules with the functional membrane of exosomes to create hybrid nanoparticles for drug delivery.