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

• 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