I teach Chemistry at McGill University, and I work with undergraduate, MSc, PhD and postdoctoral students pursuing studies in Nucleic Acid Chemistry & Biology. With them, I have been developing chemically modified oligonucleotides and methods for their synthesis. Through our work, we have discovered many of them have properties that render them adaptable for numerous biological applications. In some cases, these studies have been essential in deciphering structure-function relationships between our oligomers and enzymatic machinery associated with the antisense, CRISPR-Cas9, RNAi, and RNA splicing pathways. We start with chemistry to design and construct molecules, test them biochemically/biophysically in vitro and then, through collaborative work, we apply them in live-cells and animal disease models (Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, ALS, etc.). For more information about our work, students, and scientific publications, please visit our website: damha-group.mcgill.ca
Takeshi Wada is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at Tokyo University of Science in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is also a founder and scientific adviser of Wave Life Sciences. In 1991, he received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he worked as an Assistant Professor from 1991 to 1999. Following this, he moved to the University of Tokyo as an Associate Professor and worked in this role from 1999 to 2013. In 2013, he was promoted to a full Professor at Tokyo University of Science. His research interests have focused on the design and synthesis of artificial biomolecules, including nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and peptides. His outstanding contribution to the field of nucleic acid chemistry has been the invention of a practical method for synthesizing stereopure P-modified oligonucleotide analogs, which are useful as nucleic acid drugs. Based on this platform technology, he founded Chiralgen Ltd. in 2008. The company was integrated with Ontorii Inc. to establish Wave Life Sciences in 2012. In 2018, he received the Society Award of the Nucleic Acids Therapeutics Society of Japan (NatsJ). He served as the President of the Japan Society of Nucleic Acids Chemistry (JSNAC) from 2020 to 2024. In 2023, he co-founded ANRis Inc., a new venture developing RNAi therapeutics, and has served as a scientific advisor to the company. Since 2024, he has also been a Specially Appointed Professor at the Institute of Science Tokyo.
Laura Sepp-Lorenzino, Ph.D. is a biotech executive with expertise in drug development, particularly in nucleic acid therapies. Laura is Principal of GNMmeds LLC, consulting on genomic medicine research and development. She currently serves on the board of directors of Taysha Gene Therapies, AskBio Biopharmaceutical, URSA Medicines, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, and the American Association of Cell and Gene Therapy. Additionally, she chairs the scientific advisory board of Travin Bio and is an SAB member for Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inverna Therapeutics, MRC’s U.K. Nucleic Acid Therapy Accelerator, and Arsenal Capital Partners.
Previously, Laura was Chief Scientific Officer at Intellia Therapeutics (2019–2025), where she played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s strategic direction, fostering a robust and diversified CRISPR platform, and driving groundbreaking advances in in vivo genome editing. Under her leadership, Intellia demonstrated the first successful in vivo genome editing in humans and advanced two candidates into pivotal trials. Before Intellia, she served as VP, Head of Nucleic Acid Therapies at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, as well as VP and entrepreneur-in-residence at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and Executive Director of RNA Therapeutics at Merck & Co.
Laura’s expertise extends beyond nucleic acid therapies, encompassing oncology drug discovery and development, honed through leadership roles at Merck West Point and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She holds a professional degree in Biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from New York University. She also contributes to the scientific community as an editorial board member of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics and Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids.
Dr. Llamusí co-founded Arthex in December 2019 and was CEO of the company until May 2023 when the company raised its Series B. Since then Dr. Llamusi is CSO of Arthex Biotech. During the initial steps of the project that led to Arthex foundation, she was granted different competitive acceleration programs (FIPS and Caixaimpulse) to assess the feasibility of the entrepreneurial project, including training in business management and development, IPP, financial and regulatory issues. She holds an MSc and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University Miguel Hernández. During her Ph.D. program, she focused on the molecular bases of neuronal regeneration, and subsequently worked in the Department of Genetics as a postdoctoral researcher. She has dedicated more than 13 years investigating the pathogenic mechanisms of rare neuromuscular diseases and approaches to treatment. During this period, she produced more than 30 scientific articles and ten patents.
Dr Matthew Willmott obtained his Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield in 2019. Following this, he received his PhD from the University of Manchester in 2024, working under the supervision of Professor Nicholas Turner and in collaboration with AstraZeneca. His research focused on the biocatalytic synthesis of 2′-functionalised nucleoside analogues. He is continuing this work as a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Dr Sarah Lovelock.
Dr. Morales is Senior Staff Researcher at IPBLN-CSIC and Founder and Scientific Advisor of Limnopharma, a start-up focused in the development of new therapeutics for ophthalmic diseases.
His research focuses in the areas of biological and medicinal chemistry. His laboratory works on: a) the design and synthesis of modified nucleobases and oligonucleotides to study molecular interactions and to explore the limits of DNA, and b) the development of DNA G-quadruplex ligands as anticancer and anti-infectious agents. He is author of more than 120 papers and inventor of 14 patents.
Ronald Micura studied Chemistry at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. He received his PhD working in the field of phycobilin pigments under the supervision of Karl Grubmayr in 1995. Thereafter he joined the laboratory of Albert Eschenmoser at ETH Zurich (1996-1997), and later, at The Scripps Research Institute (1998), to perform postdoctoral research on alternative nucleic acids. Following his time in California, he started independent research funded by an APART-fellowship from the Austrian Academy of Science at the University of Linz. In 2004, he became Professor for Organic Chemistry at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. His research focuses on the chemistry, chemical biology, and biophysics of RNA.
Prof. Zoё Waller CChem FRSC graduated with an MChem in Chemistry with Pharmaceutical and Forensic Science from the University of Bradford in 2005, and then completed a PhD in Chemical Biology from the University of Cambridge, UK, under the supervision of Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian. After completing her PhD, she taught in the secondary and higher education sectors and also worked in industry. Zoё started her first academic position in late 2010 as a Junior Lecturer in Chemical Biology at the UEA School of Pharmacy. She was promoted to Lecturer in 2014 and Senior Lecturer in 2017. Zoё moved to UCL School of Pharmacy in July 2020 as an Associate Professor in drug discovery. She was promoted to Professor in 2024 and is currently Head of the Research Department of Pharmaceutical and Biological Chemistry.
Zoё’s individual and team work has been recognised throughout her career, including a Royal Society of Chemistry Horizon Education Prize (2024), the Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Group Lectureship (2024) and the Jeremy Knowles Award (2025). Zoё is a Fellow of the RSC, the chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry Degree Accreditation Committee and a STEM ambassador.
Zoё’s research interests are centred around the structure and function of i-motif nucleic acids, and their research is currently supported by the BBSRC and the Leverhulme Trust. Outside of work, Zoё enjoys baking, crochet and running around after her three children.
Hanadi Sleiman is a Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in DNA Nanoscience at McGill University. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, and was a CNRS postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn’s laboratory at the Université Louis Pasteur. She joined the faculty at McGill University in 1999, where her research group focuses on using the molecule DNA as a template to assemble nanostructured materials. Sleiman is Fellow of the Royal Society (London) and of the Royal Society of Canada, and was Associate Editor of J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2018-25) Among her research recognitions are the NSERC Polanyi Award (2021), Izatt-Christensen Award in Supramolecular Chemistry (2016), Killam Research Fellowship (2018), and E. W. R. Steacie Award ( 2024). Sleiman is Editorial Advisory Board member of Chem, J. Org. Chem., ChemBioChem, and Trends in Chem. She received the McGill Principal’s Prize (2002) and the Leo Yaffe Award (2005) for Excellence in Teaching.
Andrea Rentmeister studied Chemistry at the Technical University of Graz and the University of Bonn, where she earned her PhD in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. Michael Famulok. After a postdoctoral stay at the California Institute of Technology with Prof. Frances H. Arnold, she started her independent career as a Junior Professor at the University of Hamburg in 2010. In 2013, Andrea was appointed as Associate Professor at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, and in 2020 promoted to Full Professor. Since 2024, she is Chair of Organic and Biological Chemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. She was awarded an Emmy Noether Fellowship (2012), the Hoechst-Award of the Aventis Foundation (2015), an ERC Consolidator Grant (2018) and an ERC Proof-of-Concept Grant (2022), and the Wittig-Grignard Award (2024). She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a corresponding member abroad of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Research in her lab focuses on RNA at the interface of chemistry and biochemistry and aims to understand and ultimately control the processes affecting mRNA expression and turnover.
Hana Cahova received her PhD at IOCB Prague and UCT Prague under supervision of Prof. Michal Hocek in 2010. Afterwards, she conducted her postdoctoral stay with Prof. Andres Jäschke at Heidelberg University. As a Humboldt fellow, she studied NAD-RNA and DNA photoswitches. In 2016, she established her independent junior research group at IOCB Prague. With her team, she focuses on RNA modifications in model systems such as viruses or bacteria. In 2022, she received ERC Starting grant to study dinucleoside polyphosphate RNA capping and its role.
Michael Smietana is full Professor at the University of Montpellier since 2012. Educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, he received his PhD in 2001 from the University of Strasbourg. He then joined Stanford University as a Postdoctoral Fellow for two years. In 2004, he moved to the University of Montpellier as an Assistant Professor, working in the Nucleic Acids Department of the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (IBMM). Since 2020 he leads the ChemBioNAC team IBMM. His current research focuses on modified oligonucleotides and biohybrid catalysis.
Prof. Kathie Seley-Radtke is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her medicinal chemistry research focuses on targeting coronaviruses, filoviruses, flaviviruses among other infectious diseases, using her novel “fleximer” and expanded purine tricyclic nucleoside/tide scaffolds.
Prof. Seley-Radtke is currently the Immediate Past President of the International Society for Antiviral Research (ISAR), as well as a past President and current Secretary for the International Society for Nucleosides, Nucleotides & Nucleic Acids (IS3NA). She also chaired the 2023 Gordon Research Conference on Nucleosides, Nucleotides & Oligonucleotides. Prof. Seley-Radtke currently serves as Editor in Chief of Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry, and as Associate Editor of Science Advances/AAAS.
She has published over 120 papers and book chapters, has 27 patents, given over 170 invited, plenary, and keynote lectures world-wide, and has received many honors including the American Chemical Society’s Chemist of the Year in 2016, the University of Maryland System’s Regents’ Faculty Award for Excellence in Research in 2017, the 2015-2018 UMBC Presidential Research Professor, as well as one of the Baltimore Sun’s 25 Women to Watch.
More recently Kathie was awarded the 2020 ISAR Antonín Holy Memorial Award for her outstanding accomplishments and demonstrated service to the antiviral and medicinal chemistry field. The Holy award is the Society’s top honor for chemists.
Hiroshi Abe is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Japan. He is a leading researcher in the field of chemical biology of nucleic acids and RNA therapeutics. Professor Abe received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Hokkaido University under the supervision of Professor Akira Matsuda. He also holds an M.S. and B.S. from Hokkaido University's School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Before joining Nagoya University in 2015, he served as an Associate Professor at Hokkaido University (2013-2015) and as a Researcher at RIKEN (2005-2013). His postdoctoral research was conducted under the guidance of Professor Eric Kool at Stanford University (2002-2005) and Professor Joanne Stubbe at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2001-2002).
Professor Abe's work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Incentive Award of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (2010), the Japanese Society of Nucleic Acid Medicine Award for Chemistry-Based Nucleic Acid Drug Research (2020), and the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry Corporate Endowed Award, Kaneka Life Science Award (2024).
His research has led to significant advancements in RNA therapeutics and chemical biology. Some of his notable works include studies on cap analogs with hydrophobic photocleavable tags, complete chemical synthesis of minimal messenger RNA, and chemical modification of mRNA for more efficient protein synthesis. He has founded Crafton biotechnology.
Professor Abe can be contacted at abe.hiroshi.p4@f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp, and his office is located at the Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan.
