Aptavex's platform incorporates novel, AI-optimized cell-targeting binders into mRNA-lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNPs), so a single infusion finds circulating T cells directly and arms them in place — no apheresis, no ex vivo manufacturing, no cell-therapy cold chain.
Designing and optimizing targeting binders and therapeutic cargo sequences for next-generation precision RNA therapeutics. Aptavex is built as an AI-native gene delivery design company — the models are not an add-on to the chemistry, they are how the chemistry gets designed.
Generative sequence models propose candidate binders and score them for predicted 3D structure and target affinity before a single molecule is synthesized, replacing slow empirical selection with computational search.
Codon usage, UTR architecture, and secondary structure are computationally tuned for translational efficiency, stability, and reduced innate immune activation — for every construct the platform delivers.
Experimental binding and expression data feed back into the models after every design cycle, continuously improving prediction accuracy and compounding the platform's advantage over time.
Every approved CAR-T product is built the same way: collect a patient's T cells, ship them to a facility, engineer and expand them outside the body, then infuse them back. That process is what limits access.
Every patient starts with leukapheresis before any therapy can be made — an added clinical step before treatment even begins.
Cells travel to a manufacturing site, are engineered and expanded in batch, then travel back — during which a fast-moving cancer keeps moving.
Cryopreservation, chain-of-identity tracking, and dedicated manufacturing slots make each dose its own bespoke operation.
Aptavex pairs a T-cell-selective cell-free novel binder with an mRNA-LNP carrying a CAR construct. The binder is the address label; the LNP is the delivery vehicle; the mRNA does the engineering — all inside the patient.
An AI-designed, engineered binder sequence is optimized to adopt a stable three-dimensional structure that specifically recognizes a T cell surface marker. Acting as a molecular address label, the binder can be manufactured by chemical synthesis instead of cell culture, enabling faster, more scalable, and cost-effective production.
The binder is displayed on the surface of a lipid nanoparticle encapsulating CAR-encoding mRNA, redirecting the particle's natural tropism away from the liver and toward circulating lymphocytes.
A single infusion circulates like any biologic. The targeting ligand concentrates uptake in the intended cell population instead of relying on passive, liver-dominant distribution.
Once internalized, the mRNA is translated transiently, and the T cell expresses a chimeric antigen receptor on its own surface — becoming a tumor-seeking effector cell without ever leaving the bloodstream.
The mechanism doesn't depend on T cells specifically — it depends on the binder. Swap the targeting ligand for one selective to a different cell surface marker, and the same mRNA-LNP chassis can be redirected to other cell populations and other therapeutic payloads.
Retarget the binder to hematopoietic stem cell markers to deliver gene-editing payloads directly, without myeloablative conditioning or ex vivo cell handling.
A binder selected against a blood-brain-barrier transport receptor could carry the same mRNA-LNP payload across the BBB non-invasively, without intrathecal dosing.
Paired with neuronal or glial cell-surface targeting, brain delivery extends the same systemic-dosing approach to CNS-directed mRNA therapeutics.
NK cells, macrophages, and other lymphocyte populations are addressable the same way, opening a path to additional in vivo engineered-cell therapies.
Antibody-conjugated LNPs have shown selective delivery is possible. Our cell-free novel binder keeps that principle while changing the economics and immunology of the ligand itself.
Sets clinical and regulatory strategy and leads company operations, translating platform biology into a fundable, executable development plan.
Over 12 years of experience leading lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulation, process development, and targeted delivery initiatives across academia, biotech, and industry, with deep expertise in LNP-based therapeutics, next-generation drug delivery platforms, protein therapeutics, and RNA biology.
We're speaking with collaborators, non-dilutive funding programs, and scientific advisors who work in RNA therapeutics, nanomedicine, or cell engineering.
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