A Durham company developing new vaccines and other products using tiny particles has raised $20 million in venture capital financing.

Liquidia Technologies plans to use the money to continue clinical testing of its experimental vaccine based on nanotechnology.

The company, which employs 46, previously raised more than $30 million in venture financing. In addition, Liquidia and its founder, N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill chemist Joseph DeSimone, won a $3 million federal grant in December.

The latest funding will carry Liquidia "well into 2011" and pay to hire at least 10 new workers to prepare for human testing later this year, CEO Neal Fowler said. "You celebrate for about a day, then it's back to execution."

Liquidia Technologies will receive about $3 million in funding from a division of the U.S. Commerce Department to further develop a process of making vaccines and other products from tiny particles.

The funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology follows more than $30 million in venture capital financing that Liquidia has attracted.

The Durham-based company is using so-called nanotechnology to find new medicines and other products. Its PRINT manufacturing process allows the company to produce precisely engineered particles for various uses.