MONTREAL — The Montreal Clinical Research Institute will welcome Thursday and Friday several of the world’s leading experts on RNA ― this acronym that ordinary people had never heard of before the pandemic, but which ultimately allowed us to emerge from the health crisis.
The presence in Montreal of a range of such eminent researchers demonstrates that the metropolis is on the way to becoming a global RNA hub, said the president and scientific director of the IRCM, Jean-François Côté.
He cites as an example the $165 million grant that was granted to McGill University for the development of RNA genomic drugs, or the decision of the pharmaceutical multinational Moderna to come and set up in Quebec.
“And here, we have attracted a company that has the wind in its sails, RNA Technologies and Therapeutics, (which) rents premises from the IRCM and which collaborates with researchers from the IRCM,” he said. . It is a growing company interested in the delivery of small RNA therapeutics. So it’s really fun to have them in our building, in collaboration with basic research.”
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a molecule that is present in the majority of living organisms and viruses. It plays a multitude of roles within the organization.
Messenger RNA, for example, tells cells how to produce a certain protein. The vaccines that successfully controlled COVID-19 use mRNA to instruct cells to produce the spike protein found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, inducing an immune response that then protects against the disease.
The conference over the next two days “will be a nice fertile playground for discussions” which will bring together in the same place scientists who are more interested in fundamental research and those who are a little more interested in its therapeutic application , added Mr. Côté.
RNA, he recalled, is a booming field of research.
“It’s still a nice mix of hyper-fundamental research, where we still need to make big discoveries to better understand what’s happening, but at the same time, we’ve reached a point where it fits into therapeutic modalities” , indicated Mr. Côté.
“If we understand the diseases we want to work on, then we are able to correct the defect by properly programming the RNA sequences we want to use, which is why the potential is so enormous.”
The task of delivering therapeutic RNAs “to the right tissue at the right time to cure the disease” is the main challenge right now, he said; several private start-up companies are trying to tackle it, “which leaves the playing field to academicians to fully understand the diseases, to fully understand the mutated genes, the sequences, and how to attack them”.
“The possibility of collaboration between the private and academic sectors is really enormous when it comes to RNA, and that’s what excites me,” he said.
That being said, despite all the excitement currently generated by RNA research, there is no guarantee that all the possibilities we see will ultimately produce concrete results.
Current vaccines have already proven their worth, recalled Mr. Côté, and others that are coming seem very promising. And some targets, like the retina, seem more easily reachable than others.
“But yes there is a risk because it is still very early,” he stressed. This is why we must not abandon other approaches to personalized medicine. It will always take several approaches to cure a disease.
