mRNA – an unexpected breakthrough in biomedical R&D

The pandemic has accelerated  the breakthrough of mRNA technology and allowed to develop in record time, allowed the development of  a completely new class of vaccines, which are currently rolled out every day in the thousands to protect the global population from the dangerous new virus.

Our panelist discuss:

• How three decades of tireless basic research laid the foundation for a completely new class of vaccines ready in time to address the pandemic urgency.
• Which key scientific questions concerning mRNA drive basic research today?
• How the mRNA vaccination works to activate the immune system effectively and selectively.
• What we can learn from the rapid development and regulatory process to get a new product on the market within 1 year from design to approval
• How the agility of the technology could be used to quickly address further pandemic needs (e.g. SARS CoV2 mutants) and other infectious diseases (e.g. influenza)
• What is the potential of mRNA technology byond the treatment of viral diseases (e.g., cancer, autoimmune diseases and even allergies.
• What impact this technology could have on the life-sciences start-up scene.

Panelists

Anne Spang is Professor at the Biozentrum in Basel since 2005 and heads a Research Group on principles of intracellular organization, in particular how RNA localization, translation and metabolism contribute to cellular asymmetry and defense against stress. From 1999 – 2006 she was a group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen and before that researcher at HHMI, University of Califor-nia at Berkeley. She was graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemis-try in Martinsried and studied Biochemistry at the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and Chemical Engineering at the University of Applied Science Darmstadt.

Friedrich Metzger Prof. Dr. Friedrich Metzger, a scientist and co-founder of Versameb, a Basel based privately held company focusing on discovering and developing innovative mRNA-based drugs for modulation of protein expression and cellular targeting. He has an over 18 years’ experience in R&D both in pharma and biotech. Previously, Friedrich was Head of Discovery, Rare Diseases at Roche, Basel, where he was responsible for a portfolio of highly innovative development programs. He led preclinical activities for Evrysdi™ (risdiplam), a groundbreaking oral therapy for spinal muscular atrophy which was very recently approved. Friedrich is also Professor in Neurobiology at the University of Freiburg i.B.and holds a PhD degree in pharmacology from the University of Tübingen.

Andreas Wallnoefer is General Partner at BioMedPartners, Basel, Switzerland and board member of several European biotech companies. He is a senior executive leader with more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including 12 years as a member of the F. Hoffmann-La Roche Pharma R&D Leadership and Portfolio Committee. He was Head of Roche Clinical Research & Exploratory Development and later of the Pharma Cardiovascular & Metabolism Disease Area. He  left Roche in 2015 after the company strategically decided to exit these research areas. He subsequently has been involved in the foundation and development of several successful start-ups. He holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Basel and was trained as a fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Leiden, Netherlands. He also holds an Executive MBA from IMD Lausanne.

Chair:
Trudi Haemmerli, Board BioValley Basel & Matthias Staehelin, President BioValley Basel

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This webinar will be held in English.

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