Provisional Agenda

(Subject to change)

All talks will be held in the Edward Boyle Auditorium, JdP, St Hilda’s College.

DAY 1 – 11th April

0745 – 0830: Registration and welcome coffee (JdP foyer)

0830: Housekeeping

0835: Aptamers updates by Dr Muhammad Sohail

0840: INSOAP updates by Dr Sarah Shigdar

0850: Welcome by Dr Julian Tanner

Session 1: Aptamer Therapeutics

Chair Dr Julian Tanner

0900: Professor Yoshikazu Nakamura, Ribomic Inc and the University of Tokyo, Japan

Anti-chymase RNA aptamer improved cardiac function in experimental heart failure 

0930: Professor Adrian C Williams, University of Reading, UK

Passive diffusion of an RNA-based aptamer though intact human skin

1000: Miss Ke Zhang, University of Manchester, UK

Development of therapeutic aptamers as kinase inhibitors by Closed-loop Array Based Directed Evolution (CLADE)

1020: Refreshments, networking, exhibition and posters (JdP foyer)

Session 2: Aptamers With Modified Chemistries

Chair Dr Maureen McKeague

1100: Dr Nebojsa Janjic, SomaLogic, Inc, USA

Base modifications profoundly influence the pharmacology of DNA aptamers

1130: Dr Marcel Hollenstein, Institut Pasteur, France

Selection of base-modified aptamers

1200: Miss Dehui Kong, University of Georgia, USA

Expanding aptamer chemical diversity by LOOPER

1220: Lifetime Achievement Award: 2018 Awardee – Emeritus Professor Uli Hahn 

1230: Professor Uli Hahn, University of Hamburg, Germany

A life without nucleic acids – unimaginable

1250: Group photo (JdP Lawns)

1300: Lunch, networking, exhibition and posters (JdP foyer)

Session 3: Aptamers as Targeting Agents

Chair Professor Saïd Ismail

1350: Mrs Helen Lavender, Centauri Therapeutics, UK

The Development of Aptamers as Targeting Agents for Immunotherapeutics

1420: Professor Maria DeRosa, Carleton University, Canada

Aptamers in the central nervous system: Dopamine and Alpha-Synuclein

1450: Dr Sarah Shigdar, Deakin University, Australia

Aptamers for targeted therapeutic delivery

1520: Refreshments, networking, exhibition and posters (JdP foyer)

Session 4: Flash talks by poster presenters

Chair Dr Sarah Shigdar

1600 – 1700: Presenters include: Atheer Alotaibi, Adrien  Boussebayle, Stella Givanoudi, Muslum  Ilgu, Jeannine Jäger, Przemyslaw  Jurek, Peter (Shiwei) Li, Amir Nasiri, Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, Ayesha Siddiqua, Zoltán Tolnai

1700: Poster viewing and evaluation (JdP foyer)

1745: INSOAP AGM (open to all attendees)

1815: Aptamers Editorial Board meeting (Aptamers editorial board members only)

1915: Networking dinner (by prior booking or invitation only)

DAY 2 – 12th April

Session 5: Aptamers for Diagnostics, Sensing and Imaging-I

Chair Professor Maria de Rosa

0900: Professor Darryl Bornhop, Vanderbilt University, USA

Compensated Interferometry Enables Nanovolume, Label-free OPNA and Opiate Screening in Urine and Serum at the Picomolar Level

0930: Dr Marcus Menger, Fraunhofer Inst for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Germany

Binding affinity analysis of DNA aptamers for therapeutic anthracyclines

0950: Dr Laura Cerchia, Istituto per l’Endocrinologia e l’Oncologia Sperimentale “G. Salvatore”, Italy

Theranostic anti-PDGFRβ aptamer for imaging and suppression of triple-negative breast cancer metastases

1010: Dr Guozhen Liu, The University of New South Wales, Australia

Graphene Quantum Dots based aptamer nanosensors for monitoring intracellular interferon-gamma (IFN-γ)

1030: Refreshments, networking, exhibition and posters (JdP foyer)

Session 6: Aptamers for Diagnostics, Sensing and Imaging-II

Chair Professor Uli Hahn

1100: Dr Julian Tanner, University of Hong Kong, PR China

Are aptamers better? Learning from malaria diagnosis

1130: Dr Marimuthu Citartan, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

Stabilized RNA aptamers against Dengue virus 2 NS1 glycoprotein towards RNAaptanostics

Session 7: Aptamer Applications Innovations-I

Chair Professor Philip Johnson

1150: Professor Dr Beatrix Suess, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany

A TetR-binding aptamer as versatile regulatory element

1220: Dr Anna Maria Weber, Life & Medical Science Institute Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Development of a light dependent aptamer-photoreceptor system

1240: Dr Shalen Kumar, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

Selection, characterization and application of DNA aptamers capable of binding a plethora of small organic molecules

1300: Lunch, networking, exhibition and posters (JdP foyer)

Session 8: Aptamer Applications Innovations-II and Patents

Chair Professor Beatrix Suess

1350: Professor Philip Johnson, York University, Canada

Aptawire: Ligand-induced self-assembly of an aptamer-based DNA suprastructure

1420: Mr Beñat Olave, POLYMAT, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain

Function of aptamers in non-conventional ionic solvents

1440: Dr Philip Webber, UK and European Patent Attorney, Dehn Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, Oxford, UK

Patenting of aptamers

1500: Poster prize (sponsored by MDPI Pharmaceuticals)

1520: Discussion and close