Anastasia Khvorova

Anastasia Khvorova, PhD, has more than 20 years of experience developing oligonucleotide technology and therapeutics. She is a professor in the RNA Therapeutics Institute and Program in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Chan Medical School, where her lab brings together hardcore organic and oligonucleotide chemists with RNA biologists and pharmacologists to develop novel approaches and solutions to understanding natural and therapeutic RNA trafficking and delivery. Dr Khvorova founded the UMass Nucleic Acid Chemistry Center, the only nonprofit facility in North America capable of gram-scale synthesis of modified oligonucleotides.

Prior to UMass Chan Medical School, Dr Khvorova spent 12 years in industry in different executive positions. She has co-founded several biotechnology companies.

Dr Khvorova is named as inventor on more than 150 patents and 300 patent applications and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including seminal articles in Cell, Nature, and Nature Biotechnology, defining the field of RNAi drug design and development. Dr Khvorova is principal investigator on three major National Institutes of Health grants. She has served as a director of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society and currently is Director-at-Large and Scientific & Research Council Chair of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.