RNA Symposium Attracts Thought Leaders in Basic and Translational Research to Jupiter, FL (UF Health)

RNA Symposium Attracts Thought Leaders in Basic and Translational Research to Jupiter, FL

Dr. Herbert Wertheim presents poster awards to Jessica Bush, Ryan Hildebrandt, Ph.D. and Ebba Blomqvist. (Photo by Stacey S. DeLoye and Joseph Nicholson.)

More than 175 people attended “RNA: From Biology to Drug Discovery” at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology on January 17 and 18, 2023. It was the first major scientific conference at the institute since the pandemic began, and so researchers relished the opportunity to share recent work and reconnect.

The conference attracted 18 impressive outside speakers, including multiple Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators, members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. Incoming Max Planck President-Elect Patrick Cramer, Ph.D., shared his structural studies of the machinery underlying DNA transcription, featuring riveting imaging of transcription complexes in motion.

Faculty who conduct both basic and clinical studies involving RNA shared their discoveries in many areas. Until recently, RNA was deemed an unsuitable drug target by many in the scientific community. The speakers at the symposium showed how much the ground has shifted, as they described diverse projects aimed at fungal, viral, cancer and neurological disease targets, including epilepsy, Parkinson’s and ALS.

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