Philip Santangelo - RNA-based Drugs for Treating Influenza and SARS-CoV-2

RNA-based drugs for treating influenza and SARS-CoV-2 will be discussed. In particular, I’ll talk about why we make drugs based on synthetic mRNA and why RNA based drugs make sense for treating infections. In addition, I’ll discuss how my lab has been using mRNA-based Cas13 to target and mitigate influenza virus A (IAV) and SARS-CoV-2. I’ll discuss how we have made strides towards a pan-influenza treatment and show significant mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Last, I’ll talk about how we administer these drugs in vivo and preliminary data demonstrating function.