News | CQDM unveils RNA Therapy Development and Production Network, led by McGill, IRCM, and University of Sherbrooke
On June 11, 2024 CQDM announced the creation of the RNA Therapy Development and Production Network, which will offer RNA therapy biomanufacturing services to academic and industrial researchers.
This initiative is led by the McGill University, IRCM, and Sherbrooke University, and it is one of the five key initiatives of the mobilizing project on RNA therapies announced on April 30 by the Government of Quebec. The aim of this initiative is to strengthen the RNA therapy ecosystem in Quebec and fast-track the province to become a world leader in this field.
This Network will be based on three complementary platforms at the partner institutions:
- Therapeutic messenger RNA platform at McGill University’s Centre for RNA Sciences
- Sherbrooke University’s RNomic Platform
- IRCM’s Sidney-Altman RNA Therapeutic Hub
Information about McGill's Centre for RNA Sciences new therapeutic messenger RNA platform:
McGill will contribute to the Network with a new therapeutic messenger RNA platform. This platform will cater to the requirements of ongoing activities and research being conducted by McGill's Centre for RNA Sciences, D2R funded projects, as well as Network partner institutions and industries in the province. Messenger RNA modalities are key to the main therapeutic approaches emerging in precision medicine. These include neo-antigenic vaccines against cancer, CART programming and self-amplifying RNA. The platform will provide services in bioproduction and the formulation of LNP nanoparticles on a pre-clinical level of various messenger RNA modalities, individually or collectively. Their quality control will be based on strict standardized criteria, as well as a functional base validation. Access to this platform will be possible at the beginning of 2026.
Congratulations to all the researchers involved!
For more details, read CQDM's press release here and this article about the service platforms as part of this Network.