{"id":234012,"date":"2026-03-25T03:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/new-lipid-nanoparticle-design-improves-precision-of-mrna-vaccine-delivery"},"modified":"2026-03-25T03:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:06:17","slug":"new-lipid-nanoparticle-design-improves-precision-of-mrna-vaccine-delivery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/new-lipid-nanoparticle-design-improves-precision-of-mrna-vaccine-delivery","title":{"rendered":"New lipid nanoparticle design improves precision of mRNA vaccine delivery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/new-lipid-nanoparticle-design-improves-precision-of-mrna-vaccine-delivery2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Penn Engineers have redesigned a key component of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the delivery vehicles behind mRNA vaccines, to steer the particles toward lymph nodes while reducing off-target delivery to the liver. The advance could make mRNA vaccines more efficient, potentially achieving strong immune protection at lower doses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more particles that reach the lymph nodes, the fewer particles each dose needs,\u201d says Michael J. Mitchell, Associate Professor in Bioengineering (BE) and senior author of a new study in <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/jacs.6c00080\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/i><\/a> that describes how the researchers modified the ionizable lipid, a key LNP ingredient that helps mRNA enter cells.<\/p>\n<p>In animal models, the new \u201caroLNPs,\u201d whose name refers to the addition of a chemical structure called an \u201caromatic ring\u201d to the ionizable lipid, delivered at least 10-fold less mRNA to the liver compared to the LNP formulation in the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, while maintaining similar levels of lymph-node delivery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Penn Engineers have redesigned a key component of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the delivery vehicles behind mRNA vaccines, to steer the particles toward lymph nodes while reducing off-target delivery to the liver. The advance could make mRNA vaccines more efficient, potentially achieving strong immune protection at lower doses. \u201cThe more particles that reach the lymph nodes, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,11,19,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-nanotechnology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}