The life science group Sartorius and UK-based start-up SPARTA Biodiscovery have agreed to partner on SPARTA’s analysis platform, which helps speed up the development, manufacture, and quality control of nanoparticles for bio-pharmaceutical 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 in a minority share-holding 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.

Dr Jelle Penders, CEO and co-founder of SPARTA Biodiscovery, commented: “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.”

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.

Prof. Dr Oscar-Werner Reif, Sartorius

Dr Jelle Penders, SPARTA Biodiscovery