RNA Nanotechnology and Therapeutics

Peixuan Guo is the Director of the NIH Nanomedicine Development Center at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio and the Director of the NIH/NCI Cancer Nanotechnology Platform Partnership Program: RNA Nanotechnology for Cancer Therapy at Purdue University, Indiana. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Kirill Afonin is the Professor of Chemistry at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He currently serves as the Founding Council Member and Vice President of International Society of RNA Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine (isrnn.org) and is recipient of several prestigious awards among which is Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA R35) from NIH.

Part I: Concepts and Definitions in RNA Nanotechnology. 1. RNA Structure and Folding. 2. RNA Regulation and Function in Nature. 3. Principles and Fundamentals of RNA Nanotechnology. 4. Computation and Folding Predictions. 5. Enzymatic Synthesis and Modification of RNA Nanoparticles. 6. Synthetic and Enzymatic Methods for RNA Labeling and Modifications. 7. Methods and Assembly of RNA Nanotechnology. 8. Purification, Characterization, and Structure Determination of RNA Nanoparticles. 9. SELEX. 10. Uniqueness, Advantages, Challenges, Solutions, and Perspectives in Therapeutics Applying RNA Nanotechnology. Part II: Design, Synthesis, and Characterization Methods in RNA Nanotechnology. 11. The Natural Versatility of RNA. 12. Nucleic Acids as a building material in nanotechnology. 13. Multiple functionalities for RNA Nanoparticles. 14. From Computational RNA Structure Predication to the Design of Biologically Active RNA-based Nanostructures. 15. Application of RNA tertiary structure prediction tool iFoldRNA in RNA nanotechnology. 16. HyperFold: A Web Server for Predicating Nucleic Acid Complexes. 17. RNA Switches: Towards Conditional Dynamic RNA-based Constructs for Therapeutics and Bioassays. 18. RNA Multiway Junction Motifs as Lego for Construction of Multifunctional RNA Nanoparticles. 19. Fabrication Methods for RNA Nanoparticle Assembly Based on Bacteriophage Phi29 PRNA Structural Features. 20. Purification of RNA, modified oligos and RNA nanoparticles. 21. Physicochemical Characterization of Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles. 22. Light Scattering Techniques for Characterization of NANPs and Their Formulations. 23. Electron Microscopy of Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles. 24. A Single FRET Approach for Investigating the Binding Mechanism of Anti-viral Aptamers. 25. Entropy and Enthalpy in RNA Nanoparticle Assembly and Thermodynamic Stability for Medical Application Using RNA Nanotechnology. Part III: Immunorecognition of RNA Nanoparticles. 26. Immunorecognition of nucleic acid nanoparticles. 27. Viral noncoding RNAs in modulating cellular defense and their potential for RNA nanotechnology. 28. RIG-I as a therapeutic target for Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles (NANPs). 29. Driving Dynamic Functions with Programmable RNA Nanostructures. 30. Use of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells to define immunological properties of nucleic acid nanoparticles. Part IV: Delivery of Functional RNA Nanoparticles. 31. The emerging field of RNA Nanotechnology. 32. Thermodynamically stable RNA three-way junction for constructing multifunctional nanoparticles for delivery of therapeutics. 33. RNAi Nanotherapeutics for Localized Cancer Therapy. 34. Delivery of RNA nanoparticles. 35. Recommendations for Planning in vivo Studies for RNAi Therapeutics. 36. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles for efficient siRNA delivery. 37. Method of Large-scale Exosome Purification and Its Use for Pharmaceutical Applications. 38. Engineered extracellular vesicle based therapeutics for liver cancer. 39. Extracellular Vesicles: An innovative approach to engineering nucleic acid delivery. 40. Extracellular Vesicles (EVs): Naturally Occurring Vehicles for RNA Nanotherapeutics. 41. Harnessing exosomes and bioinspired exosome-like nanoparticles for siRNA delivery. Part V: Application and Exploitation in RNA Nanotechnology. 42. RNA structural modeling for therapeutic applications. 43. RNA micelles for therapeutics delivery and cancer therapy. 44. Bacteriophage RNA Leading the Way in RNA Nanotechnology for Targeted Cancer Therapy. 45. Current State in development of RNAi self-assembled nanostructures. 46. RNA-Based Devices for Diagnostic and Biosensing. 47. MicroRNAs: Biology and Role in RNA Nanotechnology. 48. Conjugation of RNA aptamer to RNA nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery. 49. MicroRNAs in human cancers and therapeutic applications. 50. Tuning the Size, Shape and Structure of RNA Nanoparticles for Favorable Cancer Targeting and Immunostimulation. 51. Application of RNA nanotechnology in Exosome for gene therapy. 52. Application of RNA Aptamers in Nanotechnology and Therapeutics.