ASOBIOTICS 2024: an interdisciplinary symposium on antisense-based programmable RNA antibiotics
- Jörg Vogel1,2,
- Franziska Faber1,3,
- Lars Barquist1,4,
- Anke Sparmann1,
- Linda Popella2 and
- Chandradhish Ghosh1
- 1Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), D-97080 Würzburg, Germany
- 2University of Würzburg, Medical Faculty, Institute of Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB), D-97080 Würzburg, Germany
- 3University of Würzburg, Medical Faculty, Institute for Hygiene and Microbiology, D-97080 Würzburg, Germany
- 4Department of Biology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6
- Corresponding author: joerg.vogel{at}uni-wuerzburg.de
Abstract
The international symposium ASOBIOTICS 2024 brought together scientists across disciplines to discuss the challenges of advancing antibacterial antisense oligomers (ASOs) from basic research to clinical application. Hosted by the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg, Germany, on September 12–13, 2024, the event featured presentations covering major milestones and current challenges of this antimicrobial technology and its applications against pathogens, commensals, and bacterial viruses. General design principles and modification of ASOs based on peptide nucleic acid (PNA) or phosphorodiamidate-morpholino-oligomer (PMO) chemistry, promising cellular RNA targets, new delivery technologies, as well as putative resistance mechanisms, were discussed. A panel discussion noted the challenge of nomenclature: antibacterial ASOs lack a single, universally used name. To address this, the term “asobiotics” was proposed to unite a community of like-minded scientists that are committed to advancing ASOs as antimicrobials. A consistent name will simplify literature searches and help scientists and funders appreciate the potential of programmable RNA antibiotics to combat antimicrobial resistance and enable precise microbiome editing.
Keywords
This article, published in RNA, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
