All talks will be held in The Jarvis Doctorow Hall, St Edmund Hall, Queen’s Lane, Oxford
9.00-10.20: Registration, welcome coffee, posters and networking
10.20: Housekeeping
10.25: Welcome by the Symposium Chair – Dr Jonathan Watts
Session 1: Chair Dr Jonathan Watts
10.30: Professor Tom Brown – Keynote address
Professor of Nucleic Acid Chemistry, University of Oxford, UK
Title: Click nucleic acid ligation: Chemistry and Applications
11.10: Dr Jonathan Watts
Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton, UK
Title: Chemically modified single-stranded oligonucleotides for therapeutic applications
11.30: Dr Nanna Albæk
Principal Scientist, Discovery technologies, Roche Innovation Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
Title: Conjugated LNA antisense oligonucleotides
11.50: Coffee break, posters and networking
12.10: Professor Andrew Miller
Professor of Biochemistry, Kings College London, UK
Title: Challenges of taking dinucleoside polyphosphates from laboratory agent to clinical therapeutic
12.30: Dr Jean-Jacques Toulmé
Directeur, Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie, Pessac, France
Title: Imaging human tumors with aptamers to Matrix MetalloProtease-9
12.50: Dr Graeme Doran
Director of Genomic Assays, Firefly BioWorks Inc, One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA, USA
Title: Direct quantification of small nucleic acid delivery to tissues
13.00: Lunch and networking
Session 2: Chair Professor Andrew Miller
14.00: Dr Brian S Sproat
Managing Director, Chemconsilium GCV, Jaarmarktstraat 48, 2221 Booischot, Belgium
Title: Challenges in the synthesis of DT01, a DNA hairpin in clinical trials for cancer therapy
14.20: Dr Stephen Hughes
Therapeutic Oligonucleotide DPU, Alternative Discovery & Development, GSK Research & Development Ltd, Stevenage, UK
Title: Protease Activated Receptor-2 (PAR-2) LNA antisense oligonucleotides: a promising potential treatment for renal fibrosis
14.40: Dr Mike Gait – Keynote address
Group Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
Title: Peptide-PMO conjugates for antisense treatment of neuromuscular diseases
15.20: Dr Igor Vorechovsky
Principal Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Title: Targeting auxiliary splicing motifs by antisense oligonucleotides
15.40: Dr Sylvain Ladame
Lecturer, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
Title: Regulating gene expression with PNA conjugates targeting 5’-UTR RNA G-quadruplexes
16.00: Coffee break, posters and networking
Session 3: Professor Ian Blagbrough
16.30: Dr Bernard Khoo
Senior Lecturer in Endocrinology, UCL Medical School, London, UK
Title: Splice-switching oligonucleotides for treatment of hypercgolesterolaemia
16.50: Dr Paloma H Giangrande
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Title: Next generation smart drugs: Aptamer-based cell-targeted therapies
17.10: Dr Vittorio de Franciscis
Research Director, CNR Institute of Experimental Endocrinology and Oncology, Naples, Italy
Title: Development of a combined strategy for selective targeting of glioma by aptamer-miRNA/antimiR conjugates
17.30: Dr Pierluigi Fant
WIL Research Europe-Lyon, 329, impasse du domaine Rozier, Saint Germain-Nuelles, France
Title: Preclinical evaluation of a 2nd generation antisense oligonucleotide after repeated subcutaneous administration: Anatomo-pathological aspects
17.50: Professor Ian Blagbrough
Professor, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Bath, Bath, UK
Title: Designed lipopolyamines for efficient non-viral gene and siRNA delivery
