Stefan Schiesser
Seminars
Wednesday 11th November 2026
Lessons Learned from AstraZeneca’s Drug Discovery Projects: Workflow, Pitfalls, & Screening Technologies to Prioritize Functional RNA-Targeted Hits
8:00 am
- Assessing RNA targets systematically by defining practical workflows that evaluate functional regions, tractability, binding potential, and risks before screening
- Learning from affinity-based screening pitfalls where compounds bind RNA in biochemical assays but fail to produce meaningful functional activity
- Shifting toward cell-based screens for functional output in RNA-targeted drug discovery
Tuesday 10th November 2026
Identifying Functional RNA Targets at Scale to Prioritize Therapeutically Relevant Discovery Hypothesis
8:00 am
Identifying RNA targets that are both biologically meaningful and chemically tractable
remains one of the biggest bottlenecks in RNA-targeted drug discovery. Many RNA
regions are capable of binding small molecules, but only a subset controls diseaserelevant
biology in a way that can support a therapeutic hypothesis.
Join RNA biologists, screening scientists, translational researchers, and discovery
teams to explore practical strategies for:
- Identifying which RNA transcripts, structures and regulatory elements are suitable for small-molecule intervention
- Moving beyond one-at-a-time target discovery with scalable screening and functional assay approaches
- Using chemical probing to distinguish dynamic RNA structures from functionally important conformational switches
- Matching each RNA target to the most appropriate therapeutic hypothesis, from splice modulation to direct binding, degradation or translational inhibition
- Learning from screening approaches that failed to generate actionable targets, functional hits or reliable discovery decisions
