Leeds scientists to play key role in £10m project transforming nanomedicine
Researchers at Leeds are part of a £10 million initiative to fast-track nanotechnologies from the lab to the clinic – dramatically improving how we diagnose, treat, and potentially prevent disease.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded the funding to a consortium led by King’s College London (KCL), with Leeds and Queen Mary University of London as core partners. Around £2 million will come directly to Leeds over the next five years.
Nanomedicine – the use of tiny materials to deliver drugs, perform imaging, or guide surgery – has already revolutionised healthcare. The technology underpins mRNA COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna, as well as cancer treatments such as Vyxeos. However, scientists still have significant questions about how these particles behave in the human body.
The programme will harness total-body positron emission tomography (TB-PET), an advanced imaging technique that can safely track minute amounts of nanomaterials throughout the entire human body with exceptional sensitivity. This will allow researchers to see precisely where a treatment travels, how long it stays, and whether it reaches its target – without the risks of high radiation exposure.
Scalable production and world-leading analysis
Professor Tom Chamberlain’s group at Leeds will lead the synthesis of radio-labelled nanoparticles and small molecules, using continuous flow reactors to make the process fast, efficient, and easily scalable. This means that if the project identifies a promising nanomedicine at King’s College London or Leeds’ St James’s University Hospital, it can be produced quickly in quantities suitable for clinical trials.
Professor Tom Chamberlain.
Professor Chamberlain, of the School of Chemistry, said: “This exciting research programme will harness the UK's leading process development facilities in the Institute of Process Research and Development (iPRD) in Leeds to synthesise novel nanomaterial products. We will exploit small-scale lab data and machine learning approaches to generate an understanding that will underpin scalable and sustainable manufacturing routes.”
Dr Nicole Hondow, from the School of Chemical and Process Engineering, will also play a vital role by using the state-of-the-art Leeds Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy Centre (LEMAS) to characterise the nanoparticle products. This detailed analysis ensures the materials are consistent, safe, and effective before they reach patients.
The project will explore four major applications:
- Image-guided diagnosis and drug delivery, improving nanoparticles for sensitive cargo like mRNA vaccines.
- Radionuclide therapy, enhancing cancer-targeting to deliver radiation directly to tumours.
- Image-guided surgery, enabling greater surgical precision through multimodal imaging.
- Combination therapies, pairing nanotechnology with cutting-edge treatments such as cell immunotherapy.
Dr Rafael TM de Rosales, of KCL's School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, said: “With this funding from the EPSRC, and the multidisciplinary team of researchers that will support, we will be able to understand at an unprecedented level how healthcare nanomaterials behave inside the human body.
“This knowledge will be transformative in how basic researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and clinicians identify and select the best healthcare nanotechnologies of the future, for the ultimate benefit of patients.”
