Therapeutics

We can help design and build therapeutic oligos to your specifications

Find out how Velocity may help you in your synthesis of RNA molecules and advance your clinical strategy

Contact Us

Synthesis Capabilities from Small to Mid-Scale, Research to GMP Level Quality 

  • RNA Oligos from 30mer up to 110mers without chemical conjugation​

  • Multiple candidates in batches of 192 at 200 nmole-1 µmole for initial screening and evaluation

  • ​​Larger volumes of fewer candidates (batches of 12) at 150 µmole synthesis scale for 20-30mers, typically yielding several hundred micrograms​

  • We synthesize promising candidates for further evaluation and introduce further efficacy-optimizing modifications for designing in stability, PK/PD, and other features.

Successful candidates can be synthesized and/or conjugated with Velocity HPAs for targeted delivery, improved cellular uptake, and increased therapeutic efficacy ​

VELOCITY’S PROPRIETARY CAPABILITIES SUPPORTS YOUR INNOVATION​

Velocity Sciences Supports Your Pursuits to Targeted Drug Delivery – Small Molecules to PROTACS

  • As our science advances we can move beyond "classical druggable targets​"

  • Opportunities to innovate in RNA therapeutics can involve the creation of protein-targeted delivery of RNA therapy to cells expressing certain receptors

  • Velocity Sciences capabilities extend to generating chimeric oligonucleotide molecules that integrate protein binders based on its proprietary modified nucleotides

  • Targeted protein degradation represents an alternative to small molecule agonists or antagonists when these become irrelevant.

  • Velocity Sciences can be your partner:

    • in generating new aptamer-based protein-targeting agents​

    • applying its expert engineering capabilities to support your generation of novel bi-specific reagents.

Adding HPAs to your Therapeutic Payload Can Improve Delivery and Improve your Therapeutic Index

HPAs for targeted delivery of any payload are superior to antibodies

Smaller Size​

At <10x the molecular weight of antibodies, no target is off-limits. Aptamers penetrate faster into tissues and are retained longer1, are able to enter the cytosol1, cross nuclear membranes2, and even navigate the blood-brain barrier3.

Synthetic Flexibility​

HPA-drug conjugates with tunable linker length and chemistry are prepared reproducibly including conjugates with siRNA, miRNA, and small-molecule therapeutics. Combine two HPAs to create bispecific targeting agents.​

  1. Dongxi Xiang, Conglong Zheng, Sarah Shigdar, Wei Duan et al., Superior Performance of Aptamer in Tumor Penetration over Antibody: Implication of Aptamer-Based Theranostics in Solid Tumors, Theranostics 2015, 5, 10.​
  2. ​Jonathan W. Kotula, Elizabeth D. Pratico, Xin Ming, Osamu Nakagawa, Rudolph L. Juliano, and Bruce A. Sullenger, Aptamer-Mediated Delivery of Splice-Switching Oligonucleotides to the Nuclei of Cancer Cells, NUCLEIC ACID THERAPEUTICS, 22, 3, 2012.​
  3. Bakhtiar Bukari, Rasika M. Samarasinghe, Jinjutha Noibanchong and Sarah L. Shigdar, Non-Invasive Delivery of Therapeutics into the Brain: The Potential of Aptamers for Targeted Delivery, Biomedicines 2020, 8, 120.

Bottom-up Construction of Nanovectors​

HPAs are readily conjugated to metal, polymer, magnetic, quantum dot, and liposomal nanoparticles to create imaging agents or other multifunctional tissue-targeting nanostructures.1​

Tunable Pharmacokinetics​

Create HPA-drug conjugates with long (>12 hrs) and tunable circulation half-lives2 and introduce cleavage mechanisms that trigger drug release in response to the local tissue microenvironment.

  1. B. Guan, X. Zhang, Aptamers as Versatile Ligands for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Applications, International Journal of Nanomedicine 2020:15 1059–1071.​
  2. McCauley et at., Pharmacokinetics and Biodistribution of Novel Aptamer Compositions, Pharmaceutical Research, Vol. 21, No. 12, December 2004.