Victor Ambros has won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine!

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Developing Breakthrough RNA Therapeutics

By interweaving nucleic acid scientists with clinicians dedicated to finding new cures, our goal is to create a new paradigm for organizing molecular research that enables the rapid application of new biological discoveries to solutions for unmet challenges in human health.

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RTI Spotlight

BRIDGE Innovation and Business Development at UMass Chan Medical School has committed nearly $2 million in funding this year for six UMass Chan Medical School investigator-led research projects that hold promise for translation to clinical application and commercialization. Dr. Li Li, assistant professor of RNA Therapeutics, was selected as a recipient for his project, Developing nucleoside-modified circular mRNAs as a durable and non-immunogenic platform for mRNA therapeutics.  Read more»

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2025 RNA Therapeutics: From Concept to Clinic


Save the dates
for our 7th annual RNA Therapeutics Symposium, June 25-27, 2025!


Abstract submission
and Registration to open in December 2024.

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ScienceLIVE Educational Outreach Program

ScienceLIVE is an educational science outreach program for Worcester area middle schools. We provide opportunities for students to engage with our diverse postdoctoral and graduate student trainees through interactive, exciting virtual and hands-on STEM activities.

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Support Our Next Breakthrough

For decades, scientists at UMass Chan have been pioneers in RNA biology and leading innovators in the development of information-based therapeutics: cutting-edge therapeutic tools that leverage our understanding of the human genome in ways that are revolutionizing how we treat disease. With your support, we are poised to unleash their power, and change the world for the better.
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Research Spotlight

A biochemical breakthrough using simple carbon atoms by Ken Yamada, PhD, and Anastasia Khvorova, PhD, has dramatically improved the stability and efficacy of a potential oligonucleotide therapeutic platform in mice. This discovery, published in Nature Biotechnology, has the potential to improve the durability of oligonucleotide drugs, including small interfering RNAs, and to bring these therapies to cell types outside of the liver for the first time.

“The innovation of our study is a modification to the chemical composition behind the oligonucleotide platform’s architecture,” said Dr. Khvorova, the Remondi Family Chair in Biomedical Research and professor of RNA therapeutics. “Using a relatively simple change—extending the RNA backbone with single carbon atoms—we’ve been able to significantly improve the duration that oligonucleotides persist in cells by effectively hiding them from the nucleases that normally break them up. This type of modification is critical to the success of oligonucleotide drugs as a class.”


Read Enhancing siRNA efficacy in vivo with extended nucleic acid backbones in Nature Biotech.


Article Link      More RTI Publications

 

 

Journey of a Nobel Discovery

Presented by ICBA, BBC StoryWorks

Meet Craig Mello, part of the RTI at UMass Chan, who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with Andrew Z. Fire, for the discovery of RNA interference. The discovery of RNAi has given scientists unprecedented opportunities to develop new life-saving therapies and advance our basic understanding of biology. 

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