2017 Award Winners
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Lifetime Achievement Award
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Mike Gait, PhD
Medical Research Council
Talk Title: A Life’s Work in Oligonucleotides: From Chemical Synthesis to Peptide-PMO For Treatment of Neuromuscular Diseases
Past Award Recipients:
- 2016: Stanley T. Crooke, MD, PhD, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- 2015: Fritz Eckstein, PhD, Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine
Young Investigator Award
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Keith Gagnon, PhD
Southern Illinois University
Talk Title: A ‘Guided’ Tour of an Early Career in RNA and Nucleic Acid Therapeutics
Biography: Dr. Keith T. Gagnon earned his Ph.D. from NC State University under the direction of Dr. E. Stuart Maxwell. His thesis investigated the structure-function relationship of archaeal box C/D small RNA-guided enzymes. Keith then joined Dr. David R. Corey’s research group at UT Southwestern Medical center for a postdoctoral fellowship. While in the Corey laboratory, Keith investigated ASO-based and RNAi-based therapeutics for Huntington’s disease, with an emphasis on molecular mechanisms. Read More
Past Award Recipients:
- 2016: Aurélie Goyenvalle, PhD, University of Versailles Saint Quentin
- 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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Karyn Schmidt, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Talk Title: Inhibiting the Androgen Receptor Interaction with the Long Non-Coding RNA SLNCR using 2’-FANA-Modified Oligonucleotides Decreases Melanoma Invasion and Proliferation.
Biography: Karyn Schmidt received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester in 2013, where she studied in the laboratory of J. Scott Butler. There, her work focused on determining the specificity of nuclear RNA degradation mediated by the TRAMP polyadenylation complex. Wishing to apply her fundamental protein-RNA biochemical expertise to clinically relevant questions, she next joined Carl Novina’s lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School. Read More
Past Scholarship Recipients:
- 2016: Mayumi Takahashi, PhD, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope
- 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
Paper of the Year
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Authors: Richard Finkel, MD, Nemours Children’s Hospital
Talk Title: Treatment of Infantile-onset Spinal Muscular Atrophy with Nusinersen: a Phase 2, Open-label, Dose-escalation Study
Biography: Richard S. Finkel, MD is Professor of Neurology at the University of Central Florida School of Medicine, and Chief, Division of Neurology at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, USA. He received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and completed his Pediatrics, Neurology and Neuromuscular training at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Clinical practice and research interests have focused upon pediatric neuromuscular disorders, especially spinal muscular atrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, inherited neuropathies and neurometabolic disorders. Dr. Finkel has participated in numerous clinical trials, natural history genotype-phenotype studies, development of outcome measures, clinical trial design, standard-of-care topics and biomarker identification for neuromuscular disorders. Interest in SMA has included a focus on infants with type I – from natural history studies and the development of the CHOP INTEND motor scale to clinical trial topics and ethical issues. He has published over 120 peer reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and is an associate editor of neuromuscular journals and a pediatric neurology textbook. Dr. Finkel is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Neurological Association, and is a member of the World Muscle Society, TREAT-NMD, American Academy of Neurology and Child Neurology Society. He serves as an advisor to Cure SMA, SMA Foundation and SMA Europe.
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.
Brooke A. Anderson
PhD.,The Scripps Research Institute, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy Lab
Annabelle Biscans
PhD., UMass Medical School, RNA Therapeutics Institute
Melina Christou
PhD Student, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics
Annika de Jong
MSc,PhD Candidate Leiden University Medical Center
Alexandre J. Debacker
PhD Student, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Mahdi Ghavami
MSc, PhD Student, University of Copenhagen
Maud-Emmanuelle Gilles
PhD., Institute for RNA Medicine, BIDMC, Harvard Medical School
Alejandro Gonzalez Torres
BSc, MSc, Cinvestav
Roun Heo
PhD., Sungkyunkwan University
Hasan Issa
MSc, PhD Student, Newcastle University
Nachiket Kamatkar
MSc, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Socheata Ly
PhD Candidate, UMASS Medical School, RNA Therapeutics Institute
Shouta Miyatake
PhD., National Institute of Neuroscience
Maria Montiel
PhD., The Marine Biological Laboratory
David Porciani
PhD., University of Missouri-Columbia
Karyn Schmidt
PhD., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Takenori Shimo
MSc, PhD Student, Osaka University
Maaikevan Putten
PhD., Leiden University Medical Center
Daniel Vasconcelos
PhD.,Stockholm University
Faouzi Zarrouki
PhD Student, Université de Versailles St Quentin
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.
2017 Poster Award Winners
001 Brooke Anderson, The Scripps Research Institute
019 Annika de Jong, Leiden University Medical Center
035 Francois Halloy, ETH Zurick
063 Socheata Ly, UMass Medical School, RNA Therapeutics Institute
068 Liliana Matos, National Health Institute Dr. Ricardo Jorge
076 Maire Osborn, UMass Medical School, RNA Therapeutics Institute
082 Hannah Pendergraff, Roche Innovation Center Copenhagen A/S
086 Irina Randrianjatovo-Gbalou, Institut Pasteur
089 Fernando Romero-Palomo, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd
092 Shruti Sasaki, Ionis Pharmaceuticals
098 Ryan Setten, City of Hope: Irell& Manella Graduate School of Biological Science
110 Maaikevan Putten, Leiden University Medical Center