Exactmer awarded with SMART Grant from Innovate UK

Exactmer is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a SMART Grant from Innovate UK. Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and harness the potential of new ideas.

Through this 16-month long project, due to start later this year, Exactmer will develop a disruptive new approach for the synthesis of multi-functional Polyethylene Glycols (mfPEGs).

PEGs help to regulate the transport and retention of medicine in the body and can be used as linkers in Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs). ADCs have been developed as a ‘magic-bullet’ for cancer treatment, delivering toxic payloads directly to cancer cells; however, the linkers currently used in ADCs are unadaptable and ‘cargos’, such as drugs, dyes, or cell-penetrating agents, cannot be attached to the linker, ultimately limiting the efficacy of ADC therapeutics.

Through this SMART project Exactmer will use its proprietary Nanostar Sieving technology platform to produce PEGs, comprising sequences of Exactmer’s completely-new, EG-based monomers, each containing a side-group designed to attach useful cargos. When polymerised, these monomers will form multi-functional PEGs (mfPEGs) and will be used as linkers in ADCs. By increasing water-solubility, drug-to-antibody ratios and enabling incorporation of multifunctional components, mfPEGs could revolutionise ADC therapeutics.

Exactmer looks forward to contributing to the development of improved ADCs in the next years. Contact us at [email protected] if you would like to know more about our work in this area.