The inaugural edition of Nucleic Acid Insights features a wide variety of stakeholders from across the nucleic acids space sharing their perspectives on recent progress, current challenges, and future directions in the field.

Confirmed contributors to this special edition include: 

• Floris Engelhardt, CEO, Kano Therapeutics
• Jane A. Healy, VP, Head of Oncology Early Clinical Development, Merck & Co, Inc.
• Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor, MIT
• John Lewis, CEO, Entos Pharmaceuticals
• Paolo Martini, CSO, International Therapeutics Research Centers, Founder of Moderna Rare Diseases, Moderna
• Chris Mason, Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy, Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, University College London
• Myriam Mendila, Chief Development Officer, Curevac
• Nizar Saad, Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University Medical School; Department of Pediatrics, Nationwide Children’s Research Institute
• Matthew Scholz, CEO, Oisin Biotechnologies
• Hartaj Singh, Managing Director, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

• Tissue-specific targeting – which approaches are proving to be optimal?
  • How and where can we move beyond the liver ?
• Nanoparticles (lipid and polymer)
  • Overcoming freedom to operate barriers
• Extracellular vesicles
• Chemical conjugates
• Exploring novel techniques for oligonucleotide formulation / encapsulation
• Optimizing RNA stability
• Addressing toxicity issues in DNA delivery
• Advancing non-temperature-dependent formulation

• How to reduce CoGs?
• Process optimization
  • How to drive improvements in scalability and consistency?
  • What are advances in mRNA manufacturing automation and the application of single-use technologies delivering in practice?
  • How best to address potential downstream purification issues in upstream processing?
  • Needs and opportunities in downstream processing

• How to address the growing shortfall in supply of GMP-grade synthesized oligos?
• What progress in enhancing capabilities while controlling costs in oligo synthesis?
• How to improve the sustainability of oligo manufacturing?

• How to address the ongoing supply bottleneck?
  • Improving and accelerating plasmid manufacturing processes
• How great a threat do synthetic approaches really present to pDNA?
• Improving pDNA processing productivity, quality, consistency, and cost effectiveness
  • Single-use systems
  • What are the ‘must-do’s’ to ensure pDNA quality (both for use as a starting material and as a drug product)?