Keystone Nano prepares package delivery for chemical compounds on a rarely observed scale

Keystone Nano, a three-year-old biotech startup near State College, expects to go to market late this year with its first version of a unique package for delivery of industrial and pharmaceutical chemical compounds, made from the same material as teeth and bone, in a form that the company licenses from Penn State. The product, called NanoJackets, promises to deliver its payloads with exceptional protection in hostile environments. Because of its enhancement of survivability for the fragile matter it conveys, the calcium phosphate container can be designed to dissolve in a specified range of pH values and release its payload. This feature can make cancer treatments much more effective and easier for patients.

All of these promises, however, come down to size, which, according to CEO Jeff Davidson, “really matters, and that’s part of the magic” of the company’s NanoJacket technology, which creates one of the smallest packages ever designed for mass production–about 20 nanometers in diameter. That’s molecule-sized, with space inside its pocket to carry an active chemical compound. In effect, the NanoJackets would enable the billions of molecules in a chemical or biological compound to be delivered to sites in the body–or in a chemical process–inside dissolvable containers that protect the active ingredient until it reaches the site where it can perform its work. Conceivably, too, NanoJackets will connect the chemical agents to particle surfaces.

With industrial chemical manufacturer Nalco, in a joint venture called NanoSpecialities, Davidson expects this technology to reach the market late this year in the first of many potential applications for industrial chemicals.

“The technology also has great applications for improving the treatment of cancer,” he says, adding that Keystone Nano’s team, which in addition to its work with Nalco also draws together researchers from Penn State, the Hershey Medical Center, as well as independent collaborators, has performed successful trials in mice of an active chemotherapy compound carried in a NanoJacket.

“We are able to improve the efficacy of the material and either increase or decrease the volume of the active ingredient. In that way, the NanoJackets can regulate side effects,” he says about the technology’s potential for reducing the sometimes debilitating impact of chemotherapy for cancer patients.

With funding to date of $2.5 million, including nearly $400,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the privately held company is currently planning to add one or two scientists with experience in nano material sciences.

Source: Keystone Nano, Jeff Davidson
Writer: Joseph Plummer

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