A European consortium has been awarded Eurostars funding for WiFIX, a project that aims to overcome the current delivery challenges holding back widespread adoption of nucleic acid therapeutics.
It brings together Danish company’s HHC Medical’s electroporation technology, Lithuania’s Caszyme’s CRISPR toolkit, and the Swiss firm AlveoliX’s organ-on-chip testbed – and showcases Europe’s innovation in the rapidly growing area of nucleic acid therapeutics.
The impact of NAT’s is limited by a translational gap: safe, efficient, and targeted delivery of these transformative treatments to the right cells. 45% of recent clinical trials held in NAT reported adeno-associated virus (AAV) safety issues, and 35% of AAV trials reported serious adverse effects due to delivery-related issues.
Electroporation is a robust transfection system dating back to the 1960s, but this new wireless version is novel. HHC Medical’s CEO and co-founder Niels Jerichau Clausen believes WiFIX could lead to universal adoption of NATs: “For researchers and developers, current tools (viral vectors, LNPs, galvanic electroporation) impose safety, scalability, or functional limits and drive costly transitions from laboratory to clinic. Therefore, we are delighted to receive this Eurostars grant and looking forward to working with our partners to deliver Nexopore. This could improve access to the latest therapies for the 300 million people with genetic disorders.”
As one of the leading developers of CRISPR Cas gene editing solutions Caszyme also understands the need for improved delivery systems.
CEO Giedrius Gasiūnas said: “This is an exciting project. Wireless electroporation provides enhanced delivery specificity and eliminates immunogenicity risks, improving the safety profile of gene therapies. We envision Nexopore changing the therapeutic delivery paradigm by enabling in vivo delivery without the use of proprietary buffers, nanoparticles, or viral vectors. Our task now is to present a fully functional prototype device compatible with CRISPR-Cas cargo delivery.”
Reducing reliance on animal testing represents an ongoing and strategic shift across multiple sectors. AlveoliX offers a unique organ-on-chip platform capable of mimicking a wide range of human organs in vitro, including advanced barrier models and an AXLiver-on-Chip model currently under development. This technology is used for safety and efficacy assessment as well as for fundamental research, providing human‑relevant insights across multiple applications.
Nina Hobi, CEO of AlveoliX, said: “Human‑relevant in vitro models are key to bridge the gap between laboratory research and clinical translation. Our technology helps de‑risk gene‑editing approaches at an early stage while significantly reducing reliance on animal models.”
The project is scheduled for completion in March 2028.