RNA Medicine
Ribonucleic acids, RNAs, are familiar to us as the linking element between genes, DNA, and their products, proteins. The so-called messenger RNA, mRNA, is a labile, rapidly degraded copy of DNA, and it serves as a template for the synthesis of proteins by ribosomes. Two other types of RNA also play a role in protein synthesis: the small tRNAs, transfer RNAs, bring amino acids to the ribosome, and rRNAs, ribosomal RNAs, are structural components of ribosomes. So much for the classic function and picture of RNAs. RNAs have captured the imagination of researchers primarily because there may have been an RNA world before the biological world as we know it today, which started life on Earth.
In the laboratory, we know RNAs primarily as very delicate molecules that you should not get too close to, especially with your hands, because they degrade very quickly and then are no longer analyzable or otherwise useful.
In recent years, it has been discovered that there are many more types of RNAs: small and large, circular and linear. They appear to have diverse functions that extend far beyond protein synthesis. That RNAs also have an importance for medicine has been widely known since the introduction of mRNA corona vaccines in late 2020. Today, it is clear that RNA can be used to vaccinate very well. In addition, RNAs are candidates for many other vaccines and also as therapeutics. The first therapeutics directed against RNA already exist.
ISAR Bioscience is exploring the potential of RNAs for therapy in several projects, together with various partners at universities, hospitals and research institutes:
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- With Professor Stefan Engelhardt’s research group at the Technical University of Munich and the joint spin-off company rnatics GmbH, we are investigating novel drugs against micro-RNAs that could be effective in covid-19 and other inflammatory lung diseases.
→ Millions in funding for new therapy against Covid-19
→ Treatment of breathing difficulties with Covid-19
→ rnatics - In the RNAmed PhD program of the Elite Network Bavaria, we are exploring the biology and therapeutic potential of RNAs with partners at universities and university hospitals in Würzburg, Regensburg and Munich. The program is led by Professor Jörg Vogel from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research at the University of Würzburg. The program is scheduled to start in December 2022.
→ RNAmed – a new graduate program of the Elitenetzwerk Bayern - The Munich-based cluster for the development of new nucleic acid-based therapies, C-NATM, is one of the winners of the second round of the Clusters4Future competition of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). In this cluster, ISAR Bioscience conducts research together with teams from the two Munich universities, the Helmholtz Center Munich for Environmental Health and several Munich biotech companies.
→ BMBF approves cluster for nucleic acid based therapeutics in Munich
- With Professor Stefan Engelhardt’s research group at the Technical University of Munich and the joint spin-off company rnatics GmbH, we are investigating novel drugs against micro-RNAs that could be effective in covid-19 and other inflammatory lung diseases.
GDNÄ President Martin Lohse discussed the potential of this new research direction with leading RNA researchers at the 200th anniversary meeting of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians, GDNÄ, on September 11, 2022. What is already feasible today? And what is on the horizon for the future? The experts from basic research and clinical medicine also explored these questions in an exchange with conference participants.
→ Presentation by Jörg Vogel at the 200th anniversary meeting of the GDNÄ: „Eine kurze Einführung in die Welt der RNA-basierte Medizin” (in German)
→ Subsequent panel discussion at the 200th anniversary meeting of the GDNÄ (in German)
