RNAi Asia Agenda

Profiling Translational Regulation in Embryonic Stem Cells
Leah Vardy, Project Manager, Institute of Medical Biology, Singapore

Amd1, a key regulator of the polyamine pathway, is essential for ES cell self renewal and is translationally down regulated by a miR-762 on differentiation of ES cells to neural precursor cells.

Coffee Break and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Enhancing RNAi and RNAa via Chemically Modified siRNAs
Xianbin Yang, Director, AM Biotechnologies LLC, United States of America

This presentation, will describe novel modification chemistry for synthesizing modified siRNAs; the biophysical properties of modified siRNA, and the high potency modified-siRNA gene silencing and gene activation observed in vitro and in vivo.

Lunch Break and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Poster Viewing Session

Mass Production of siRNA by Liquid Phase Synthesis to Enable Therapeutic Development at Economical Scale
Zicai Liang, Professor, Peking University, China

Great efforts have been made to enable and facilitate siRNA drug development by technological exploration and capacity built-up. siRNAs targeting HBV and breast cancer have shown promising efficacy in animal models. Kunshan, a small town near Shanghai and Suzhou, is emerging as the RNAi valley in China.

Coffee Break and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Using Helper-Dependent Adenovirus Vectors to Deliver Expressed Anti Hepatitis B Virus RNAi Activators
Patrick Arbuthnot, Director, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Helper-dependent Adenoviral vectors act efficiently to deliver anti hepatitis B virus RNAi actorators to the liver.

Plasmid-Based shRNA – An Effective Antiviral Strategy Against Chikungunya Virus Infection
Justin Chu, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore, United Kingdom

The mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is known to cause Chikungunya fever in humans. Our study has demonstrated the high anti-CHIKV efficacy of shRNA (small-hairpin RNA) that were designed against three CHIKV genes against Chikungunya virus infection in human cells. Hence, shRNA technology is proposed as a novel antiviral strategy for this re-emerging viral disease.

Analysis of the Emerging Biomarker Spaces: Epigenetic Signatures & MicroRNA Signatures
Enal Razvi, Managing Director, Select Biosciences Inc, United States of America

This talk presents a snapshot of our recent analysis of the technology and market trends in the microRNA and epigenetic spaces, areas undergoing rapid translation from basic research towards clinical utilization especially as biomarkers for cancer personalized medicine, and in other disease areas.

Drinks Reception

Computational Analysis of Off-Target Effects in RNAi Screens
Karol Kozak, Head, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

We present a bioinformatics tool for RNAi library analysis and the prediction of potential off-target effects that can be applied to high content screening data.

RNAi Screening Data Analysis by Web Based Plotting and Visualization
Pankaj Kumar, Research Fellow and RNAi Screening Facility Manager, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A-STAR, Singapore

ScreenSifter is an easy to use web application tool which provides combined solution for RNAi screen data management, quality control, analysis and visualization of biological data associated with the screen.

Coffee Break and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Genome-Wide RNAi Screen in Drosophila Cells to Identify Regulators of JAK/STAT Signaling
Henna Myllymäki, Research Scientist, University of Tampere , United Kingdom

JAK/STAT signaling is evolutionarily conserved and tightly regulated. Using a genome-wide RNAi screen, we identified CG14225 as a novel negative regulator of the Drosophila JAK/STAT pathway both in vitro and in vivo, and it functions in regulating Stat92E phosphorylation.

Genome-Wide RNAi Screens Identify Genes Required for Ricin and PE Intoxications
Frederic Bard, Assistant Professor, Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore

Ricin and Pseudomonas Exotoxin (PE) depend on host genes for retrograde trafficking from endosomes to ER and translocation to cytosol. Here, two genome-wide RNAi screens and their comparison reveal system-level properties of the intracellular trafficking of these toxins.

Lunch Break and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Poster Viewing Session 2

LNA: Enabling Antisense
Troels Koch, Vice President/Chief Technical Officer, Santaris Pharma AS, Denmark

The presentation will focus on state of the art of single stranded RNA inhibition, and illustrate LNAs enabling nature by showing the latest pre-clinical data.

Pre-microRNA and Mature microRNA in Human Mitochondria
Xavier Gidrol, Laboratory Director, CEA Grenoble, France

Because of the central functions of mitochondria, we hypothesized that some miRNA could be present in these organelles. Using in situ hybridization with labelled LNA and confocal microscopy, we demonstrated the presence of pre-miRNA and miRNA in human mitochondria from human primary skeletal muscular cells.

Close of Conference