Study Group Details
499: Golden Age of Medicine
Thursday1:45 - 3:15
Starting September 26
Online
RNA-based medicines have been leading the way in what has been called a "golden age of medicine." The covid-19 mRNA vaccines, developed in 2020, represented one of the first of these RNA-based medicines. Kariko and Weissman won a Nobel Prize (2023) for this work that served as the foundation for these vaccines. The many years of advances in RNA science and the success of the covid-19 vaccines have stimulated research and development of additional RNA-based therapies which could open the doors for next generation RNA therapeutics across diverse disease indications. This course will describe the essential background and science of RNA biology. We will provide an overview of research and development of novel RNA nanoconstructs and RNA-based therapeutics for a variety of diseases. We will discuss the effectiveness of these therapies, including immune cell responses. Finally, we will look to the future, describing next generation RNA-based therapies. This study group has a high class size capacity.
This study group is new
Class Type: Lecture and Discussion
Class Format: Online
Hours of Reading: No required reading
Study Group Leader(s):
Bruce Shapiro
Bruce Shapiro is currently an NCI Emeritus Scientist in the RNA Biology Laboratory, NCI. He earned his PhD in computer science at the University of Maryland and was a Senior Investigator and head of the RNA Structure and Design Section, RNA Biology Laboratory. He pioneered research in the emerging field of RNA nanobiology and fostered a synergy between computational and experimental techniques related to RNA biology and RNA nanobiology. He has over 200 publications and patents and has taught courses in computer science at the University of Maryland and RNA biology at the OLLI at Johns Hopkins.
Marna WilliamsMarna Williams has worked in the biopharmaceutical industry for 20 years as a scientist in translational medicine developing novel therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases. Her educational background is in immunology and cellular biology (PhD Yale University and post-doctoral studies at Stanford University). She has taught courses and given seminars at conferences, colleges, and community centers across the United States, including courses at the OLLI at Johns Hopkins.