EURASNET RNA Therapeutics Workshop

Meeting Location:
Lisboa, Portugal
Meeting date:
4-5 March 2010

RNA Therapeutics Workshop sponsored by Harvard Medical School – Portugal Program and European Network of Excellence on Alternative Splicing, EURASNET

Meeting organization: Francisco Enguita and Maria Carmo-Fonseca, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

RNA molecules have been already proven to be a key target for disease therapy as well as a tool for the development of new drugs. Since the discovery of small non-coding RNAs and all the associated phenomena like RNA interference, the possibility of using RNA-based drugs has become a subject of great interest in the pharmaceutical and clinical fields. RNA is at the core of many cellular processes and might become an outstanding landmark in the way how we will fight disease in the future.

This Workshop will join together specialists in the clinical area and in the basic experimental research within the field in a pleasant atmosphere to discuss the forthcoming and present goals of RNA therapeutics. State of the art technologies and applications of RNA molecules as drugs or targets for therapeutics will be presented by prestigious invited speakers. Topics will range from targeted delivery of RNA molecules to applications of RNAi technology, miRNAs and their antagonists, use of therapeutic aptamers, and splice-switching strategies.

The Workshop is intended for a wide audience of biomedical scientists from academia as well as industry. Students and post-docs enrolled in MD/PhD or translational research programs are particularly welcome.

We invite all interested to participate. No registration fee.
For more information, or for assistance concerning accommodation in Lisboa, please contact: patrodrigues@hmsportugal.org

Program:

Thursday, March 4

16:00 Welcome

16:10 – 16:40 Gert Jan Van Ommen (Leiden, The Netherlands)

16:40- 17:10 Adrian Krainer (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA)

17:10 – 17:40 Mariano Garcia-Blanco (Duke University Medical Center)

17:40 – 18:10 Jamal Tazi (Institute of Molecular Genetics, Montpellier)

Friday, March 5

9:00-9:30 Tony de Fougerolles (Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, USA)

9:30-10:00 Haezel Pinheiro (Exiqon, Vedbaek, Denmark)

10:00-10:30 Troels Koch (Santaris Pharma, Hoersholm, Denmark)

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break