Mayumi Takahashi, PhD

Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope

Talk Title: Inhibition of HIV-1 by Gymnotically Delivered 2′-Deoxy-2′-Fluoro-D-Arabinonucleic Acid Modified Antisense Oligonucleotides (2′-FANA ASOs)

Biography: Mayumi Takahashi, PhD, received B.Sc in 2005, M.Sc in 2007 and Ph.D. in 2011 under the supervision of Prof. Akira Matsuda in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Hokkaido University, Japan. In 2012, she joined Dr. John Rossi’s lab at the City of Hope National Medical Center as a postdoctoral fellow. Her research interest in the past years has been to discover highly potent oligonucleotide therapeutics, such as small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and aptamers, for the treatment of various diseases, such as cancer and infectious diseases, and their targeted delivery strategies. Her graduate research focused on developing highly nuclease resistant nucleic acid analogues, in particular, chemical synthesis and the biological evaluation of 2′-modified-4′-thionucleosides and 2′-modified-4′-thioRNAs. Currently, her research encompasses the basic science and development of nucleic acid based therapeutics and gene therapy against HIV-1 and Lymphoma/leukemia, including development of anti-HIV 2′-deoxy-2′-fluoro-D-arabinonucleic acid (2′-FANA) modified ASOs, and cell-type specific aptamers for targeted disease therapy.