Featured Members

Vasant Jadhav, PhD. SVP Head of RNAi Platform Alnylam Pharmaceuticals   How did you become interested in the field of oligonucleotides and who were your early mentors? During undergrad, I was intrigued by the molecular machines and mechanisms behind secrets of life- replication, transcription, [...]

My introduction to the field was through functional nucleic acids called aptamers – small pieces of DNA that act as molecular recognition tools. I learned about them as an undergraduate student while completing my B.Sc. in neuroscience and chemistry at Carleton University, from Prof. Maria C. DeRosa, who would become my Ph.D. supervisor.

Tom Brown Ph.D. Professor of Nucleic Acid Chemistry University of Oxford, Founder of ATDBio Ltd (and now Chief consultant).   How did you become interested in the field of oligonucleotides? All my family members were manual workers, and I was the first to go [...]

Annabelle Biscans, PhD AstraZeneca R&D Sweden How did you become interested in the field of oligonucleotides? My introduction and interest in the oligonucleotide therapeutics world began in 2012 during my PhD at the University of Montpellier, France. When I started my PhD, I did [...]

Mark Behlke, MD, PhD Chief Scientific Officer Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. How did you become interested in the field of oligonucleotides? I had always thought that I would pursue a career in academic medicine, but in the Fall of 1995, I was visiting my [...]

Julia Alterman, PhD RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School How did you become interested in the field of oligonucleotides? After finishing my bachelor’s degree at the University of Vermont I started my scientific career in the vibrant Boston biotech community. My first [...]

Eric P. Van Der Veer, PhD Chief Scientific Officer Hybridize Therapeutics   How did you become interested in the field of oligonucleotides? After years of highly fundamental research geared towards understanding how splice modulation mediated by RNA-binding proteins impacts cellular differentiation, I was challenged [...]

Aurélie Goyenvalle, PhD University of Versailles Group Leader Biotherapy for Neuromuscular Diseases U1179 UVSQ-INSERM How did you become interested in the field of oligonucleotides? I started my PhD in 2002 in Genethon in France working on therapeutics for muscular dystrophies, and it was the [...]

Christian Berk, Ph.D., ETH Zurich How did you become interested in the field of oligonucleotides? Frankly, I did not know much about RNA therapeutics when I joined Jonathan Hall’s group at ETH Zurich. After finishing my studies, I just knew that I wanted to [...]

Science: Q: Paul Zamecnik and Mary Stephenson in 1978 reported the very first studies on antisense mechanisms of gene silencing. Since the inception of this field – how far have we come – both in basic and therapeutic research & development? A: The original antisense mechanism has been joined