Dr. Volker Patzel is a German chemist who received his Ph.D. from the Ruprecht Karls University in Heidelberg and his MBA from the Steinbeis University in Berlin. He worked as postdoc at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, then as research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. He joined the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2009 under the NUS-Cambridge Scheme. He has >50 publications, filed 16 patent families, and is (co)-founder of three biotech companies. His research focusses on RNA technologies, non-viral vector development, and therapeutic applications. He coordinates and teaches six courses on biotechnology and entrepreneurship.

Our advanced dumbbell-shaped DNA vectors, also termed SPRING DNATM, are non-viral vectors which overcome the risks and obstacles associated with viral delivery vectors which are immunogenicity, genomic integration, high cost, and cargo size limitations. As opposed to plasmid DNA, SPRING DNA is not silenced in primary cells or in vivo. As opposed to alternative non-viral vectors including plasmids, nano-plasmids, minicircle DNA, and conventional dumbbells, SPRING DNA is much more efficiently delivered into the cells’ nuclei, more stable and not requiring a cold chain, immune quiet and redosable, and triggers longer-lasting gene expression in vivo. SPRING DNA is non-integrating, has no upper or lower cargo size limitations, and can easily be featured with helper functions for targeted delivery including GalNAc residues, aptamers, peptides, or antibodies. As opposed to mRNA, SPRING DNA is much more stable and does not require any chemical modification to enhance stability or suppress immunogenicity.

It is crucial to properly design the structure of every RNA (coding or non-coding) that is to be delivered with any kind of vector system (viral or non-viral), as RNA structure design can improve RNA processing, nuclear export, stability, and translatability. RNA structure design can improve RNA activity (non-coding RNA) or protein expression (coding RNA) by orders of magnitude. RNA structure design is also instrumental for the design of the mitochondria-targeting vectors we developed in our lab.

It will be crucial to:

Reliably design therapeutic RNAs with the highest on-target and lowest off-target activities - computational including AI-based approaches can assist here.
Develop efficient, safe, and affordable vector systems to deliver such optimised RNAs or their coding genes. This also includes setting up GMP manufacturing capacities. Most likely, non-viral vectors will be preferred.