Monday, 26th October Australasian RNA Biology and Biotechnology Association 2026 Conference

Prof Piero Carninci

Human Technopole, Italy

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•  Genome regulation by non-coding transcription - Piero PC Carninci

Prof Juliet French
QIMR Berghofer, Queensland

Prof Simon Conn
Flinders University, South Australia

Dr Rippei Hayashi
ANU, ACT

• From genetics to potential therapeutics:  Exploiting lncRNAs for breast cancer treatment - Juliet D French
• Circular RNAs in Glioblastoma and Stem Cell Differentiation: Spatial Mapping and Functions - Simon Conn
• Non-gonadal PIWIL1/Aubergine drives regenerative and tumourigenic stem cell proliferation in the intestine - Rippei Hayashi
• An RNA-targeted strategy to enhance PARP inhibitor sensitivity in triple-negative breast cancer - Xue Lu
• Small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) responses to mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) damage  - Rachel Shin Yie Lee
• Engineering the initiator tRNA: understanding and manipulating the anticodon identity set - Paul R Jaschke

Felicia Pradera
Moderna, Victoria

Phoebe Dunn
mRNA Victoria

Dr Lorena Preciado-Llanes
Sanofi Vaccines, Queensland

Dr John Schiel
ARPA-H

• From Pandemic Response to Sovereign Capability: Why mRNA Matters for Australia’s Future - Phoebe Dunn
• Talk title to be confirmed - Felicia Pradera
• Talk title to be confirmed - Lorena Preciado Llanes
• Genetic Medicines and Individualized Manufacturing for Everyone - John Schiel

This informal 45-minute networking session will bring together EMCRs and industry professionals across roundtables. Participants will rotate between tables to explore career paths beyond academia, hear about professional experiences and challenges, ask questions, and gain practical career advice.

Participating Industry Experts:

• RNA Facilities: Rebecca McKenzie and Natasha Chaudhary
• Noxopharm: Michael Gantier and Olivier Laczka
• Twist Biosciences: Natalie Habel and Tzeh Long
• BASE Facility: Natasha Chaudhary
• New Zealand RNA Platform: Rebecca McKenzie

• Dr Sarah Herridge – Director, Research & Scientific Affairs, BioNTech Australia
• Dr John Power – Senior Director, Ecosystem Development & R&D Production, BioNTech Australia
• Dr Benjamin Ward Muir – Associate Director, Ecosystem Development, BioNTech Australia

A/Prof Tamas Fischer
ANU, ACT

Dr Evan Healy - A-RNA Mid-Career Researcher Award Winner
Monash University, Victoria

• When splicing stalls: mechanisms of spliceosome quality control - Tamas Fischer
• Intronless mobile elements exploit splice donor sites to subvert the mRNA surveillance machinery - Charles C Bell
• Determination of the structure and binding substrates of ESRP1 reveals multiple modes of target regulation - Dawei Liu
• m⁶A positions polyadenylation in Plasmodium falciparum - Joshua M Levendis
• RNA mediated regulation of facultative chromatin   - Evan Healy
• Splice and Tell: Dissecting QKI-Regulated Alternative Splicing Networks in Prostate Cancer - Zoe K Price

Marc Fini
RNA Australia, NSW

Natasha Chaudhary
The University of Queensland, Queensland

Deborah Pascoe
Vaxxas, Queensland

Dr Olga Shimoni
The University of Western Australia (UWA), Western Australia

• Advancing Australia’s RNA Ecosystem - Marc Fini
• Translating mRNA into Medicines: Design, Manufacture, and Development of New mRNA-LNP Medicines - Natasha Chaudhary
• Improved Thermostability and Accessibility of mRNA Vaccines with High-Density Microarray Platform Delivery - Deborah E Pascoe
• RNA Innovation Foundry: Western Australia’s Node for End-to-End Translational RNA Development   - Olga Shimoni

A/Prof Danny Incarnato (online)
University of Groningen, Netherlands

A/Prof Gavin Knott
Monash University, Victoria

Prof Charlie Bond
University of Western Australia, Western Australia

• Mapping, functional characterization and therapeutic targeting of RNA structural ensembles in living cells - Danny Incarnato
• The molecular basis for CRISPR-Cas13 HEPN RNase activity - Gavin J. Knott
• RNA DCC: Harnessing an RNase for the Modular Assembly of Functional RNAs - Jonas Kaltbeitzel
• Peanut Clump Virus tRNA-like Structure Hijacks Host Ribosomes for poly(A)-independent Translation - Ye (Bruce) Li
• Drugging the undruggable: how thiol reactive compounds trap mRNA in complex with NONO - Charles S Bond

Panel Discussion

The Australian and Global mRNA Landscape

Panel Chair
Trent Munro - Brandon Capital

Panelists
Phoebe Dunn - mRNA Victoria 
Dr John Schiel - The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (USA)
Dr Andrew Geall - Replicate Bioscience (USA)
Paul McDonald - RNA Australia 

• Establishing RNA Technologies in New Zealand   - Rebecca McKenzie
• Cold-adapted Njord RNA polymerase enables in vitro transcription at reduced temperatures - Dillon B Nye
• Beyond the Template: Removing DNA Constraints from the Future of RNA - Michael Hutchins

Clay Alspach
Alliance for mRNA Medicines (AMM)

• Global mRNA Policy Landscape - Clay Alspach

• VIRMA amplification drives oncogenesis and chemoresistance in High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer - Stephanie Adler
• Barriers to Exogenous RNA-mediated Gene Silencing in Phytophthora cinnamomi - Luciasih Agustini
• Dory lncRNA modulates female-specific hippocampal spatial memory - Saba Altaf
• A histone variant establishes a novel link between chromatin and nuclear RNA decay in spermatogenesis and beyond. - Nazmul Hasan Apu
• Characterising the role of Z-DNA in the context of ADAR1 localisation and functionality in Alzheimer’s disease - Gabriel John Araneta
• Functional and Epitranscriptomic Characterisation of Phage-Encoded tRNAs   - Sanila Asad
• Targeted RNA Capture-Seq enables splicing assessment of lowly expressed Mendelian disease genes from accessible tissues - Lachlan Baer
• Lipid nanoparticles enable high-efficiency CRISPR HDR-mediated gene insertions in primary human T cells - Jagan Billakanti
• Freeze-Drying Improves the Stability of Unencapsulated mRNA - Tim Bilbrough
• Hidden Genes: New Technologies for Functional Annotation of Long Noncoding RNAs in Cancer   - Maina Bitar
• CoZyCap^TM T7 RNA Polymerase: an enzymatic solution for efficient co-transcriptional capping - Jenny Brown
• A Group I Intron Reporter Reveals a Novel RNA Quality Control Pathway in Mammalian Cells - Lachlan Bullman
• Isolation of Protein Corona on mRNA Lipid Nanoparticles for Spleen-Targeted Cancer Vaccination - Ella Burdett
• Investigating the regulatory roles of microRNA clusters in neuroblastoma development - Regina Belen P Callanta
• A pseudo-longitudinal single-cell framework uncovers ovarian lncRNAs linked to cancer emergence and chemoresistance - Larissa Cassiano
• Connecting long noncoding RNAs to drug response in high-grade serous ovarian cancer - Shenyu Chen
• Inhibition of KRAS by steric-blocking 2′-O-methyl phosphorothioate RNA antisense oligonucleotides - Suxiang Chen
• Cellulose Nanocrystals as a Biodegradable Nanoparticle Platform for siRNA Delivery and Gene Silencing in Plants   - Tal Cooper
• Development of a Patient-Specific Splice-Switching Antisense Oligonucleotide for SLC6A1 Neurodevelopmental Disorder   - Laura Croft
• Long noncoding RNAs in the etiology of brain disorders and complex traits - Mitchell Cummins
• New Zealand’s RNA Platform and the Development of Novel Ionizable Lipids - Gabriella Davey
• Beyond COVID-19: Building Scalable RNA Manufacturing for Australia's Future - Peter Davis
• Can TLR2/6 stimulation Enhance mRNA vaccine Immunogenicity? - Ellie Doubleday
• Mapping Tumor-Intrinsic 5'UTR Structural Vulnerabilities for Selective mRNA Therapeutics  - Nsisong Ekong
• PROFILING RNA STRUCTURAL HETEROGENEITY IN Arabidopsis thaliana - Putri Adiela Agson Gani
• A Framework-Based Systematic Review for Qualifying Circulating RNA Biomarker Evidence: A Case Study in Age-Related Macular Degeneration - Tadele Gashayie
• Bridging structure and function of RNA through the lens of structural modules - Rowan J Heggen
• Uncovering New Mechanisms That Restrain Innate Sensing of Self Double-Stranded RNA - Jacki E Heraud-Farlow
• A modular platform for site-specific epitranscriptomic analysis using mass spectrometry - Enzo Huang
• UPF3A and UPF3B shape the transcriptome cooperatively through nonsense mediated mRNA decay yet oppose cell function - Lachlan A Jolly
• Engineering antigenic breadth against SARS-CoV-2 by pairing divergent RBDs within a single mRNA immunogen - Joanna Kuang
• Dicodon organization links tRNA modifications to cancer cell proteome - Eric P Kusnadi
• mRNA reference standards to evaluate the design, manufacture and performance of mRNA medicines. - Salina Tondwalkar
• Using self-amplifying RNA to deliver antiviral gene silencing - Scott Ledger
• Exploiting a Conserved Ligand-Binding Mode to Overcome cfr-Mediated Ribosomal Resistance - Ye (Bruce) Li
• Multidimensional high-throughput screening and regulatory mechanism analysis of functional elements in human genome-wide mRNA 3’UTR - Yuanyuan Li
• Functional role of m6A-RNA methylation in the regulation of neural network and memory assembly - Yajing Lin
• A conserved RNA methyltransferase plays a key role in the regulation of arginine uptake by the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii. - Victor V Makota
• Adaptive Integration of Heterogeneous Foundation Models to Find Histologically Predictable Genes in Breast Cancer - Hao Nguyen
• The RNA Development Platform: Building RNA Capability in Aotearoa New Zealand - Catrin Ogilvie
• Insights into Transposable Element taming in Austropuccinia psidii  - Sebastian N Orellana-Quinteros
• Seed delivered dual-action RNAi for insect control and modified plant traits  - Soumitra Patekar
• Sustained Analgesia by Modulation of Synaptic Vesicle Endocytosis in Nociceptors Using a dCas9 Repression Strategy - Thomas J. Payne
• Harnessing a Fuligo septica catalytic RNA as the basis of a molecular switch - Angus Peady
• Development and validation of a Self-Amplifying RNA platform - Yi Peng
• Development of novel circRNA liquid biopsy biomarkers for mesothelioma diagnosis - Emma Rath
• An Integrated Design–Build–Test Workflow for Computational Engineering and Functional Validation of Synthetic mRNAs  - Agin Ravindran
• Investigating Paternal Epigenetic Inheritance via small non-coding RNA: Intergenerational effects of Paternal Immune Activation - Sonali N Reisinger
• Programmable Translation Using Engineered tRNAs - Natalie K Roberts
• T2G: A high-performance transcriptome-to-genome BAM coordinate converter supporting both short and long-read RNA sequencing. - Danielle L Rudler
• Convergent, program-specific cis-regulation shapes the multi-layer translational response of starved yeast - Nikolay Shirokikh
• Optimising mRNA Design by Rethinking UTR Structural Constraints - Tessa Swain
• The Long and Short of It: Novel Transcript Discovery in Melanoma Using Nanopore Long-read RNA Sequencing - Jun Yao Teow
• Understanding the molecular grammar of RNA interactions - Pall Thordarson
• Investigating the biodistribution of morpholino oligomers in the central nervous system of mice - Vanja Todorovski
• Behavioural Phenotyping of Adar1-Editing Deficient and Adar1/Adar2 Compound-Editing Deficient Mice. - Carl Walkley
• Reprograming Activated Fibroblasts with Fibroblast Activation Protein-Targeted mRNA-LNPs for Cardiac Tissue Regeneration and Cancer Immunotherapy - Dan Yan