ARPA-H has selected a team led by Mass General Brigham Gene & Cell Therapy Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital to receive up to $39.2 million to develop a first-of-its-kind platform for on-demand genetic medicine manufacturing. Brown University Professor of Engineering Anubhav Tripathi joins this multidisciplinary effort alongside academic and industry collaborators including NanoMosaic LLC, DINYA DNA, and Lilac Biosciences, bringing Brown Engineering’s deep expertise in microfluidics and bioanalytical systems to one of medicine’s most pressing manufacturing challenges.
The award supports Project FUSE (Fast Unified Synthesis and Evaluation), part of ARPA-H’s Genetic Medicines and Individualized Manufacturing for Everyone (GIVE) program. GIVE is designed to replace today’s slow, expensive, and centralized RNA medicine production model with a distributed, automated biomanufacturing network capable of producing individualized therapies on demand closer to patients, faster, and at lower cost.
Through FUSE, the team will develop a compact, automated system that integrates RNA manufacturing and real-time quality control into a single platform to be deployed in hospital and near-patient settings. Current manufacturing methods for RNA-based therapies are complex and largely centralized; this platform is designed to change that by bringing together DNA synthesis, RNA manufacturing, microfluidics, analytical testing, and device development under one roof.
Tripathi’s contributions draw directly on the engineering research conducted in his lab at Brown, where his group has pioneered microfluidic platforms for biological analysis and therapeutic applications. Within Project FUSE, his work spans the design of sensor interfaces, process analytical technologies, and quality control systems across multiple manufacturing modules, translating Brown Engineering’s foundational research into a platform with real clinical impact.
“Being part of the (Brown) Giuliani RNA Center has deepened my appreciation for how much the biology and the engineering have to speak to each other,” said Tripathi. “In this project, the microfluidic systems, the analytical sensors, and the quality control platforms we’re building aren’t accessories to RNA science, they’re what makes it manufacturable. Brown’s RNA community and biomedical engineering expertise are contributing to a platform that could genuinely change how and where patients receive these therapies.”