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SPARTA technology to accelerate the development, manufacture and quality control of nanoparticles used for gene therapies, vaccines, and cancer drugs

The life science group Sartorius and UK-based startup SPARTA Biodiscovery have agreed to partner on SPARTA’s analysis platform, which helps speed up the development, manufacture, and quality control of nanoparticles for biopharmaceutical drugs. Nanoparticles are small polymer or lipid capsules that act as carriers to deliver active agents to the target cells. As part of the cooperation, Sartorius will invest up to 3.5 million British pounds in a minority shareholding in SPARTA Biodiscovery through its corporate investment unit Sartorius Ventures.

“The SPARTA platform will help customers optimize the design of nanoparticles at an early stage, even before the drug candidates move on to the clinic. We have teamed up to bring additional product commercialization and application expertise to the table to facilitate a swift transitioning from prototype to launch,” said Prof. Dr. Oscar-Werner Reif, Head of Corporate Research and CTO at Sartorius.

“Often the challenge in bringing new therapies to life is not the development of new active agents, but safe and robust delivery of such agents into the body, e.g., through nanoparticles. We see an unmet need in R&D, manufacturing, and quality control in analyzing the composition of these nanoformulations. Together with Sartorius, we will be able to bring this technology to customers faster,” said Dr. Jelle Penders, CEO and co-founder of SPARTA Biodiscovery.

The SPARTA Biodiscovery team spun off from Imperial College London, where it developed the core technology and prototype for the platform in the group of co-founder Professor Molly Stevens FRS, FREng. The SPARTA technology – Single Particle Automated Raman Trapping Analysis – uses spectroscopy to analyze populations of individual nanoparticles quickly and automatically at high throughput – helping to accelerate nanoparticle development and optimize quality control during production.

About Sartorius

Sartorius is a leading international partner of life sciences research and the biopharmaceutical industry. With innovative laboratory instruments and consumables, the Group’s Lab Products & Services division focuses on laboratories performing research and quality control at pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies as well as academic research institutes. The Bioprocess Solutions division, with its broad product portfolio focusing on single-use solutions, helps customers manufacture biotech medications and vaccines safely, rapidly and economically. The company, based in Göttingen, Germany, has a strong global reach with around 60 production and sales sites worldwide. Sartorius delivers significant organic growth and regularly expands its portfolio through the acquisition of complementary technologies. In 2022, the company generated sales revenue of around 4.2 billion euros. Currently, around 15,000 employees were working for customers around the globe.

About SPARTA

SPARTA Biodiscovery is a spin-out company from Imperial College London based in White City, London, developing and commercializing the SPARTA® technology. SPARTA® (Single Particle Automated Raman Trapping Analysis) is a new analytical platform technology that aims to transform the characterization of nanoformulations, such as novel cancer and gene therapies as well as vaccines, through its unique ability to determine the chemical fingerprint of single particles in an automated, label-free manner. SPARTA® reveals detailed information and features about nanoformulations, such a drug loading, composition, heterogeneity and stability, and answers an unmet need to accelerate R&D and improve quality control of this very promising class of new medicines. SPARTA® is available as a service and soon as a benchtop instrument.

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