DARTER – Winter School on Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Therapy
The venue took place on 13 to 17 of January 2019 in Karolinska Instituet in Stokholm. It was organised by DARTER with the grate help of Prof. Roger Strömberg, the host of the DARTER Winter School. The lectures focused on nucleic acid chemistry (basic reactions of nucleic acids and their components, synthesis of oligonucleotides, common modifications and oligonucleotide conjugates), oligonucleotide (ON) therapy overview, and basic structures of nucleic acids.
The venue took place on 13 to 17 of January 2019 in Karolinska Instituet in Stockholm. It was organised by DARTER with the great help of Prof. Roger Strömberg, the host of the DARTER Winter School. The lectures focused on nucleic acid chemistry (basic reactions of nucleic acids and their components, synthesis of oligonucleotides, common modifications and oligonucleotide conjugates), oligonucleotide (ON) therapy overview, and basic structures of nucleic acids. It also covered some specific topics in ON therapy: splice-switching therapy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Triple repeat diseases, siRNA therapy, mRNA therapy, exosomes, antisense ON therapy, delivery, tissue targeting and industrial aspects.
The lecturers were mostly members of the DARTER action: Prof. Roger Strömberg, Dr Malgorzata Honcharenko, Dr Taavi Lehto (all of them are also Karolinska Institutet Members), Prof. Annemieke Aartsma-Rus, and Dr Virginia Arechavala-Gomeza. The others were scientists from Karolinska Institutet: Assistant Prof. Dmytro Honcharenko, Prof. Edvard C. I. Smith, Dr Alessandra Villa, Dr Rula Zain-Luqman, Dr Samir El-Andaloussi, and from AstraZeneca – Dr Shalini Andersson.
PROGRAMME:
Venue: Neo Gene (room 5108), Floor 5, Blickagången 16
Day One (Sunday 13 January)
13.00 – Winter school welcome and introduction to the COST action (V. Arechavala-Gomeza )
13.30 – Nucleic Acid Chemistry (R. Strömberg)
15.30 – Coffee & Tea
16.00 – Nucleic Acid Chemistry (R. Strömberg)
18.00 – End
Programme for Day Two (Monday 14 January)
9.00 – Nucleic acid structure (A. Villa)
10.30 – Coffee & Tea
11.00 – Nucleic Acid Chemistry and synthesis of oligonucleotides (R. Strömberg)
12.30 – Lunch
13.30 – Synthesis of Oligonucleotides and common modifications (R. Strömberg)
15.30 – Coffee & Tea
16.00 – Ribose modifications in oligonucleotides (D. Honcharenko)
17.30 – End
Programme for Day Three (Tuesday 15 January)
9.00 – Nucleic acids as therapeutic and diagnostic agents – Present status, future prospects and challenges I (E. Smith)
10.30 – Coffee & Tea
11.00 – Nucleic acids as therapeutic and diagnostic agents – Present status, future prospects and challenges II (E. Smith)
12.30 – Lunch
13.30 – Oligonucleotide conjugates (M. Honcharenko)
15.30 – Coffee & Tea
16.00 – Triple repeat diseases – Targets for ON therapy (R. Zain)
18.00 – End
Programme for Day Four (Wednesday 16 January)
9.00 – Interactive working group on antisense-mediated exon skipping therapies (A. Aartsma-Rus)
10.30 – Coffee & Tea
11.00 – Developing antisense oligonucleotide-mediated exon skipping for Duchenne – it takes more than an oligo to make a therapy (A. Aartsma-Rus/V. Arechavala-Gomeza
12.30 – Lunch
13.30 – Model systems, in particular for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (V. Arechavala Gomeza)
15.00 – Coffee & Tea
15.30 – siRNA and mRNA therapy – Present status and challenges (S. El-Andaloussi/Taavi Lehto)
18.30 – End of session
19.00 – COST action dinner
Programme for Day Five (Thursday 17 January)
9:00 – Ligand-mediated targeted delivery of ASOs, Industrial perspectives and drug development in ON therapeutics I (S. Andersson)
10.30 – Coffee & Tea
11.00 – Ligand-mediated targeted delivery of ASOs, Industrial perspectives and drug development in ON therapeutics II (S. Andersson)
12.30 – End of training school
