Winners of 2016
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Lifetime Achievement Award
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Stanley T. Crooke, MD, PhD
Founder, Chairman & CEO of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Talk Title: The Present and Future of Antisense Technology
Past Award Recipients:
- 2015: Fritz Eckstein, PhD, Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine
Young Investigator Award
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Aurélie Goyenvalle, PhD
University of Versailles Saint Quentin
Talk Title: Preclinical Development of Tricyclo-DNA Antisense Oligonucleotides for the Treatment of Neuromuscular Diseases
Biography: Aurélie Goyenvalle received her PhD in Virology at the University of Paris VII in 2006 from her work at Genethon in France, where she developed an exon-skipping gene therapy strategy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) using adeno-associated virus vectors (AAV) encoding chimeric U7snRNA constructs carrying antisense sequences. This promising work which induced an almost complete restoration of dystrophin expression in muscles treated with a specific AAV-U7snRNA resulted in several publications and led to a clinical evaluation being planned in France. Read More
Past Award Recipients:
- 2015: Frank Rigo, PhD, Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- 2014: Michael Gantier, PhD, Monash Institute of Medical Research
- 2013: Jonathan K. Watts, PhD, University of Southampton
- 2012: Xianbin Yang, PhD, AM Biotechnologies
Dr. Alan M. Gewirtz Memorial Scholarship
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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. Read More
Past Scholarship Recipients:
- 2015: Jana McCaskill, PhD, University of Edinburgh
- 2014: Dale Guenther, University of Idaho
- 2013: Guizhi Zhu, PhD, University of Florida
- 2012: Christopher J. Cheng, PhD, Yale University
- 2011: Aurelie Goyenvalle, PhD, University of Oxford
Travel Grants
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The Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society offers Travel Grants for outstanding doctorate graduate students and post-docs. The grant includes a stipend to offset travel expenses for the OTS Annual Meeting.
Veronique Bolduc
PhD, NIH
Amy E. Brinegar
PhD Student, Baylor College of Medicine
Andrew Coles
PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Bruno M.D.C. Godinho
PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Matthew Hassler
PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Colton M. Miller
PhD Candidate, University of Nebraska
Yoshihiro Morita
DDS, PhD, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center
Kevin Urak
PhD Student, University of Iowa
Lian Willetts
University of Alberta
Sorah Yoon
DVM, PhD, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope
Gang Han
PhD Student, Tianjin Medical University
Y. Vladimir Pabon-Martinez
PhD Student, Karolinska Institutet at Novum
Haiyan Zhou
MD, PhD, University College London
Poster Awards
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The Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society grants a number of Poster Awards to outstanding students and post docs presenting posters at the OTS Annual Meeting. The posters are judged onsite at the meeting and award winners are chosen based on exceptional and promising science as well as presentation of the data.
2016 Poster Award Winners
006 Yazan Abbas, PhD Student, McGill University
008 Hala Abou Assi, PhD Student, McGill University
014 Annabelle Biscans, PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School
015 Jovanka Bogojeski, PhD Student, McGill University
019 Amy E. Brinegar, Baylor College of Medicine
024 Andrew Coles, PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School
025 Laura Croft, PhD, Queensland University of Technology
036 Suzan Hammond, PhD, University of Oxford
043 Masahiko Horiba, PhD Student, Osaka University
049 Zachary Kartje, PhD Student, Southern Illinois University
062 Kassie Manning, Baylor College of Medicine
101 Louise Usher, University of Westminster
Paper of the Year
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Authors: William “Wes” Salomon, Samson Jolly, Victor Serebrov, Melissa Moore, Phillip Zamore – RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical Center
Presenter:
Victor Serebrov, PhD
RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical Center
Talk Title: Single-Molecule Imaging Reveals that Argonaute Reshapes the Binding Properties of Its Nucleic Acid Guides
Biography: Victor is a research instructor in Melissa Moore and Phillip Zamore labs. Victor is interested in everything RNA, and has been working in the RNA field since his undergraduate years. A biochemist by training, several years ago he turned to single molecule imaging as a perfect tool to study the mechanisms of RNA-protein interactions. This occupation makes him spend long hours in a small microscope room without windows and with walls painted black, but Victor jokes that this is a perfect environment conducive to scientific ‘aha’ moments. Outside scientific research, Victor enjoys time outdoors with his family, building electronics projects and making every appliance in his home controllable with a smartphone. Read Article