What if vaccines could stay in liquid form without refrigeration? That is the goal of a new nanoparticle technology developed by chemical engineers at Imperial College London, which could offer a different route to tackling the costly cold-chain requirements of vaccine distribution.
AlphaVectors Biotech has co-developed nanoparticles designed to stabilise vaccines in liquid form at room temperature.
The technology could reduce reliance on temperature-controlled transport and storage, potentially making vaccines easier to distribute in regions with limited cold-chain infrastructure.
The Imperial spinout was recently named a finalist in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) 2026 Emerging Technologies Competition, which recognises technologies using chemistry to address global challenges.
A different approach to fridge-free vaccines
The development comes as the pharma industry explores multiple ways to overcome vaccines' temperature sensitivity.
Most recently, UK biotech Stablepharma demonstrated encouraging Phase I results for its SPVX02 tetanus-diphtheria vaccine, which can remain stable at 30°C for at least two years.
However, the two approaches differ significantly — Stablepharma’s StablevaX platform converts vaccines into stable, dried formulations, typically using lyophilisation, which are reconstituted before administration.
AlphaVectors is instead developing nanoparticles that aim to maintain vaccines in their liquid state at room temperature.
For AlphaVectors co-founder and CEO Dr Apanpreet Kaur (pictured), the need for new approaches became particularly apparent during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
“When COVID happened, we realised cold-chain infrastructure was creating a massive bottleneck,” she said.
We had already started developing these nanoparticles and thought our platform technology had real potential to actually solve this problem.
From PhD research to vaccine development
Kaur initially co-developed the technology during her PhD in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London.
She subsequently founded AlphaVectors Biotech with fellow Imperial chemical engineer Professor Rongjun Chen last year, with the aim of bringing the platform towards commercialisation.
The technology is now undergoing a validation study with a global pharma company. The company hopes to begin human trials within the next two years.
Kaur said the technology could ultimately help address the “multi-billion-dollar infrastructure challenge” that can prevent vaccines from reaching patients in some parts of the world.
The RSC’s Ben Voysey, Entrepreneurship Manager, said AlphaVectors’ work demonstrated the potential of chemistry to address real-world problems.
We believe in the power of chemistry to transform lives and Apanpreet’s story truly exemplifies chemistry at its best. We can’t wait to watch AlphaVectors Biotech go from strength to strength.
For AlphaVectors, the next step will be to validate the technology and establish whether its room-temperature liquid formulations can progress toward clinical development and, ultimately, wider vaccine deployment.
