Targeting RNA 2019

Targeting RNA

Moving from disease treatment to prevention by drugging RNA

Download Agenda
Frankfurt
26-27 November, 2019

Poster session now open for submissions. Present your poster at the congress. Submit your abstract before November 1.

“This meeting is an excellent opportunity to interact with one of the best collections of thought leaders and drug discovery experts in the field of epitranscriptomics, and I am looking forward to exchanging strategic insights with my colleagues aiming at unlocking an entire class of previously undruggable targets”

Dr. Gerhard Mueller, Chief Scientific Officer, Gotham Therapeutics

Why Attend

 The Targeting RNA congress will discuss the latest advancements in modulation of RNA (splicing/non-coding/micro) directly with small molecules and through epigenetics. The meeting will showcase structures of small molecules binding to disease relevant RNA and innovations in building hit-to-lead RNA specific platforms both essential for proof-of concept.

Bringing together leaders in academics and industry such as Novartis, Merck, Gotham Therapeutics and University of Cambridge, who are building platforms to identify and validate targets, in order to assess in disease relevance approaches in the relatively untapped RNA world. The meeting will also discuss translational strategies, addressing structural biology, biochemical and biophysical attributes, chemical hurdles associated with new drug discovery platforms.

What to expect:

  • Opportunities to engage with key players from biotech, pharma, and academia that are building platforms to target RNA with small molecules, modify the RNA with enzymes (epigenetics) and indirectly through protein-RNA interactions.
  • Hear how to overcome 2D structural biology parameters from leading European RNA biologists and computational biologists and emerging European epigenetics companies.
  • The first European translational event focusing on modifying RNA upstream regulation to enable preventive medicine instead of treating symptoms with small molecules and epitranscriptomics.
  • A meeting bridging the gap between the key research challenges such as target identification (chemo-proteomics, 2D/3D structures) and validation (small molecule binding efficiencies, selectivity and stability) and sharing new methodologies and process for obtaining hit to lead products in the RNA space.
100+
Attendees
20+
Leading Speakers
2
Days of sharing the latest developments

Speakers

 

Elliot Nickbarg

Principal Scientist
MSD Research Laboratories

Elliot Nickbarg received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in Chemistry from Harvard University. Originally from western New York, he has have lived in the Boston area for a while, working at both large and small biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He joined Merck in 2010 as part of the Schering Plough merger. 

Elliot Nickbarg

Principal Scientist
MSD Research Laboratories

Elliot Nickbarg

Principal Scientist
MSD Research Laboratories

Elliot Nickbarg received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in Chemistry from Harvard University. Originally from western New York, he has have lived in the Boston area for a while, working at both large and small biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He joined Merck in 2010 as part of the Schering Plough merger. 

 

Professor Eric Miska

Deputy Director of the Gurdon Institute
University of Cambridge

Professor Eric Miska

Deputy Director of the Gurdon Institute
University of Cambridge

Professor Eric Miska

Deputy Director of the Gurdon Institute
University of Cambridge
 

Dr Maria Duca

Group Leader
Institute of Chemistry of Nice

Dr. Maria Duca is head of the Targeting of Nucleic Acids research group in the Institute of Chemistry of Nice (Université Côte d’Azur - CNRS). After undergraduate studies in Pharmacy and Medicinal Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy, Bologna, Italy), she obtained her PhD in Molecular Biochemistry under the supervision of Dr. Paola B. Arimondo (National History Museum, Paris, France), working on topoisomerase II inhibitors targeting specific DNA sequences.

Dr Maria Duca

Group Leader
Institute of Chemistry of Nice

Dr Maria Duca

Group Leader
Institute of Chemistry of Nice

Dr. Maria Duca is head of the Targeting of Nucleic Acids research group in the Institute of Chemistry of Nice (Université Côte d’Azur - CNRS). After undergraduate studies in Pharmacy and Medicinal Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy, Bologna, Italy), she obtained her PhD in Molecular Biochemistry under the supervision of Dr. Paola B. Arimondo (National History Museum, Paris, France), working on topoisomerase II inhibitors targeting specific DNA sequences.

A two-year post-doctoral training in Sydney Hecht’s lab (Departement of Chemistry, University of Virginia, USA) allowed her to pursue the study of nucleic acids/small molecules interactions working on targeted protein mutagenesis upon tRNA chemical modification. After CNRS recruitment as a Research Scientist in 2007, her research activities focus on the targeting of non-coding RNAs using synthetic small molecules toward innovative therapeutic approaches both for anticancer and antimicrobial applications.

 

Dr Razvan Nutiu

Senior Investigator
Novartis

Dr Razvan Nutiu

Senior Investigator
Novartis

Dr Razvan Nutiu

Senior Investigator
Novartis
 

Dr Gerhard Mueller

Chief Scientific Officer
Gotham Therapeutics

Gerhard Mueller is Chief Scientific Officer at Gotham Therapeutics, a transatlantic biotech company located in New York City, US, and Munich, Germany, focusing on epitranscriptomic drug discovery. Prior to his appointment at Gotham Therapeutics, he held several research management positions at biotech companies such as Axxima Pharmaceuticals, Munich, and GPC Biotech, Munich and Boston. Most recently, he built from scratch the Medicinal Chemistry business unit at Mercachem, a chemistry service provider in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Dr Gerhard Mueller

Chief Scientific Officer
Gotham Therapeutics

Dr Gerhard Mueller

Chief Scientific Officer
Gotham Therapeutics

Gerhard Mueller is Chief Scientific Officer at Gotham Therapeutics, a transatlantic biotech company located in New York City, US, and Munich, Germany, focusing on epitranscriptomic drug discovery. Prior to his appointment at Gotham Therapeutics, he held several research management positions at biotech companies such as Axxima Pharmaceuticals, Munich, and GPC Biotech, Munich and Boston. Most recently, he built from scratch the Medicinal Chemistry business unit at Mercachem, a chemistry service provider in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Before his career within the biotech industry, Gerhard held several senior research and project management positions within the pharmaceutical industry, i.e. at Glaxo Group Research in Verona, Italy, at Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany, and he headed the medicinal chemistry unit at Organon N.V. in Oss, NL. Gerhard obtained his PhD from the Technical University Munich, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Horst Kessler establishing the research field of antiadhesive integrin antagonists.

During his career, Gerhard has worked on several disease areas prosecuting different target families, among them protein kinases, proteases, GPCRs, integrins, protein-protein interaction targets and epigenetic enzymes and receptors. From this work, close to 10 clinical candidates emerged, and Gerhard is co-author of more than 75 scientific publications and numerous patents.

 

Dr Barak Akabayov

Senior Lecturer
Ben-Gurion University

Dr Barak Akabayov

Senior Lecturer
Ben-Gurion University

Dr Barak Akabayov

Senior Lecturer
Ben-Gurion University
 

Professor François Fuks

Director
Université libre de Bruxelles and Epic Therapeutics

Professor François Fuks

Director
Université libre de Bruxelles and Epic Therapeutics

Professor François Fuks

Director
Université libre de Bruxelles and Epic Therapeutics
 

Dr Pawel Sledz

Senior Scientist
University of Zurich

 Dr Pawel Sledz is interested in structure-based development of small molecules to combat cancer, in particular targeting proteins involved in epitranscriptomic and epigenetic regulation. Postranscriptional modifications of RNA constitute a novel and very exciting opportunity for drug discovery, particularly in oncology.

Dr Pawel Sledz

Senior Scientist
University of Zurich

Dr Pawel Sledz

Senior Scientist
University of Zurich

 Dr Pawel Sledz is interested in structure-based development of small molecules to combat cancer, in particular targeting proteins involved in epitranscriptomic and epigenetic regulation. Postranscriptional modifications of RNA constitute a novel and very exciting opportunity for drug discovery, particularly in oncology. His team pioneered structural and chemical biology studies of m6A-modification machinery, and leveraged on these findings to develop chemical probes targeting m6A-relevant protein targets (protein-RNA interactions and RNA-modifying proteins), active in the cellular models of cancer.

 

Dr Michal Minczuk

Programme Leader MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
University of Cambridge

Dr Michal Minczuk

Programme Leader MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
University of Cambridge

Dr Michal Minczuk

Programme Leader MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
University of Cambridge
 

Dr John Schneekloth

Jr. Principal investigator
National Cancer Institute-Frederick

Dr John Schneekloth

Jr. Principal investigator
National Cancer Institute-Frederick

Dr John Schneekloth

Jr. Principal investigator
National Cancer Institute-Frederick
 

Dr Kamal Azzaoui

CEO / Co-founder
Saverna Therapeutics AG

Saverna Therapeutics’ main aim is to discover and develop new molecules for therapeutically areas such inflammation, oncology and infectious diseases. They use a platform based on Fragment Screening using NMR coupled with Machine Learning to identify molecules targeting none coding RNAs.

Dr Kamal Azzaoui

CEO / Co-founder
Saverna Therapeutics AG

Dr Kamal Azzaoui

CEO / Co-founder
Saverna Therapeutics AG

Saverna Therapeutics’ main aim is to discover and develop new molecules for therapeutically areas such inflammation, oncology and infectious diseases. They use a platform based on Fragment Screening using NMR coupled with Machine Learning to identify molecules targeting none coding RNAs.

 

Fredrick Allain

Professor
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics ETH Zürich

Fredrick Allain

Professor
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics ETH Zürich

Fredrick Allain

Professor
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics ETH Zürich

Talk to our speakers about...

1. Correlation between RNA structure to small molecule binding

2. Novel methodologies for RNA target identification

3. How to build hit-to-lead platforms for RNA drug targets

4. How to associate RNA drug target to disease relevance

5. Advancements in biophysical and biochemical assays

6. What animal models or organoids are applicable for RNA studies

7. Upregulation via modulating RMPs

8. How to effectively map identification to drug discovery

9. Assessing the role RNA plays in cancer drug discovery

10. Assess the stability and selectivity of RNA modifications

Poster Session

Looking to showcase your recent work to the RNA therapeutics community?

Our dedicated poster session is the perfect way to get your research noticed and further involve yourself in the congress. In order to present a poster at the forum you need to be registered as a delegate. Please note that there is limited space available and poster space is assigned on a first come first served basis (subject to checks and successful registration).

At the Congress, your presentation will be displayed in a dedicated poster area. The poster presentation session will take place at the afternoon networking break on day one.

The poster abstract submission deadline is on 1 November 2019. Posters should be sized A0 (841mm x 1189mm) in portrait orientation. 

SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT

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The Agenda

Please download our agenda to find out more information about the congress including the main topics of discussion for the two days and preview lineup of speakers.

What you can expect at Targeting RNA 2019:

  • 100+ participants from leading industry players within big pharma and biotech along with expert academics
  • An open forum to share the latest in vivo and in vitro data and insights and foster collaboration. 
  • 20+ thought leaders on the speaking agenda and ready to answer your big questions on overcoming translational hurdles.
  • 2 days of progressing translation of protein degradation probes into safe, effective therapeutics.

Download Agenda

Venue

Radisson Blu Hotel Frankfurt, Franklinstrasse 65, 60486, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Rate from €159 including VAT and buffet breakfast, single occupancy

Telephone reservations on +49 69 770 155 3500

Email [email protected]

Quote booking reference KISACO2019 when booking

Book before 25 October 2019

Conference Packages

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