RNA Therapeutics: The Evolving Landscape of RNA Therapeutics

Dr. Paloma Giangrande is the VP of Biology at Wave Life Sciences, Cambridge, MA and Adjunct Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. Her career has been dedicated to the investigation and development of RNA-based therapeutic approaches (including RNA aptamers, siRNAs, and mRNA) for cancer, cardiovascular disease, rare diseases, and critical illness. As a consequence, she has developed a deep understanding of these technologies, diseases, and associated disease mechanisms. She is also an internationally recognized expert in oligonucleotide therapeutics and delivery. Towards this end, she was the first to demonstrate that RNA ligands (aptamers) can be used to deliver therapeutic siRNAs to target cells. Her 60+ publications and 9+ patents are a testament to this body of work and her commitment to the development of novel RNA-based therapies for many diseases.

Dr. Vittorio de Franciscis is Senior Collaborator at the CNR Institute of Genetic and Biomedical Research (IRGB) in Milan Italy. For more than ten years, the interest of the research has focused on translating the understanding of the molecular basis of neoplastic transformation in the design of selective therapies based on the use of therapeutic RNAs (aptamers, siRNAs, miRNAs). In his laboratory, they demonstrated the possibility of generating aptamers that bind to high affinity and inhibit transmembrane receptors involved in cancer progression (including, EGFR, AXL, PDGFR, IR, Eph). For the selection of aptamers they have developed a variant of the SELEX technology that makes use of living cells as a complex target. They have recently shown that such RNA aptamers against RTK can be used as targeting moieties for the selective delivery of therapeutic miRNAs and anti-miRs, against tumor cells and tissues.