Talk title: A Novel RNA-Based Approach to Treat Genetic Diseases

Isabel Aznarez, Ph.D. is a co-founder and Vice President, Discovery Research at Stoke Therapeutics. Dr. Aznarez has 20+ years of experience in the fields of human genetics and RNA metabolic pathways such as pre-mRNA splicing and nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. In the last 10 years, she has applied antisense oligonucleotides to modulate RNA processes to develop therapeutic approaches for genetic diseases. Dr. Aznarez currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors at the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society. Prior to founding Stoke Therapeutics in 2014, she was a Research Investigator with Professor Adrian Krainer, whose lab she joined as a postdoctoral fellow in 2008. Previously, Dr. Aznarez was a researcher at the Hospital for Sick Children with Professor Lap-Chee Tsui, where she focused on the effect of cystic fibrosis mutations on the splicing of the CFTR gene. Isabel holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Medical genetics from the University of Toronto, Canada and a B.Sc. in Biology and Human Genetics from the University of the Republic, Uruguay.

Talk title: Multi-scale computational enzymology: a key tool in rationale drug design

James Gauld, hails from the Northern Territory of Australia, and received his PhD in theoretical/computational chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Leo Radom at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. He then took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institution of Quantum Chemistry, Uppsala University, Sweden. Subsequently, he held a Killam postdoctoral fellowship at Dalhousie University in the research group of Prof. Russ Boyd. Since 2001 he has been at the University of Windsor where he has been an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Graduate Studies and is now a Professor and Head, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In 2019, he founded, co-chaired and -organized the LGBTQ+ in STEM Conference in Canada.

Talk title: A Structure-based Approach to RNA-targeted Small Molecules

Dr. Jennifer Petter is the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Arrakis Therapeutics. Previously she was Vice President of Chemistry at Celgene, Vice President of Drug Discovery at Avila Therapeutics, Vice President of Research at Mersana Therapeutics, Director of Small Molecule Drug Discovery at Biogen, Section Head in Oncology Chemistry at Sandoz/Novartis, and Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Petter graduated from Dartmouth College with an AB in chemistry, earned her PhD in organic chemistry at Duke University with Ned Porter, and was a post-doctoral fellow in Ron Breslow’s group at Columbia University. She has ushered multiple compounds into the clinic for the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, and sepsis. In 2018 Dr. Petter transitioned from male to female.