First-in-class pharmaceutical radiation protectant and mitigant

Project Summary

This project will develop a broad-acting radiation protectant and mitigant that limits damage to multiple organs, reducing lethality and lessening both acute and delayed effects of radiation exposure from contaminated environments or events. Bringing together SA expertise in biological pathways, clinical therapeutics, radiation biology (University of Adelaide), animal radiation (Flinders University), pharmaco/toxicokinetics (UniSA), compound extraction from biomass (Plantworx), and Defence project guidance (DSTG), this project will enable production of a world-first pharmaceutical radiation protectant, addressing a significant unmet need and enhancing current PPE and mitigant approaches.

The project will achieve:
1. optimising harvest, extraction and purification protocols through analysing yield and purity of the active ingredient;
2. transferring optimised protocols into pilot-scale production, enabling sufficient active ingredient to generate in vitro and in vivo regulatory approval data; and
3. pre-clinical in vivo efficacy, toxicity and pharmacokinetic data from novel formulations of the active ingredient for regulatory submissions

This pharmaceutical agent has radiation protectant/mitigant applications across all sectors experiencing occupational radiation exposure, including space and aircrew at risk from cosmic radiation, allied health professionals, and civilian emergency service personal. This therapeutic is also being developed for oncology applications. The expected outcomes will progress sovereign commercial production of a significant therapeutic with strategic Defence applications and a broader market across radiation-exposed industry sectors.