Turbulent Mixing: Scaling Up Nanoparticle Manufacturing For The Future

The article highlights the importance of turbulent and microfluidic mixing in manufacturing lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which are used in mRNA therapeutics. Microfluidic mixing uses microscale chips and requires low sample volumes, reducing costs; however, it's slower than turbulent mixing. Turbulent mixing ensures complete homogeneity of fluids containing building blocks for nanoparticles and is useful for large-scale production.

Scaling up presents challenges, including channel clogging for microfluidic systems and maintaining ideal conditions for turbulent mixing. The Nova™ Benchtop system by Helix Biotech uses impinging jet mixers for nanoprecipitation, is microfluidic chip compatible, and facilitates easy scaling up. The choice between turbulent and microfluidic mixing depends on production scale, cost, and specific LNP therapeutic requirements.