Event Details

Guest Seminar

25^th September at 09:00-10:30
Onsite event
in Den2, Dentalia 2^nd floor

Assoc. Prof. Frank J. Hernandez, Linköping University, Sweden
Programming biology with nucleic acids: From molecular diagnostics to targeted therapeutics

Prof. Vicente Pelechano Garcia, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Genomic dissection of mRNA decay: from mechanism to clinical applications

Dr. Frank J. Hernandez is a Senior Associate Professor at Linköping University and at the University of Navarra. His research focuses on the development of nucleic-acid-based technologies at the interface of molecular diagnostics, precision therapeutics, and drug delivery. His group has developed programmable oligonucleotide systems for sensing disease-associated enzymatic activity and for the targeted activation and delivery of therapeutics. His current research explores how engineered nucleic-acid substrates can be combined to create programmable therapeutic systems for infectious diseases and cancer.

Selected publications

• Hernandez FJ, Huang L, Olson ME, et al. Noninvasive imaging of Staphylococcus aureusinfections with a nuclease-activated probe.  Med. 2014;20:301–306. DOI:10.1038/nm.3460.
• Borsa BA, Hernandez LI, Jiménez T, et al. Therapeutic-oligonucleotides activated by nucleases (TOUCAN): A nanocarrier system for the specific delivery of clinical nucleoside analogues.  Control. Release. 2023;361:260–269. DOI:10.1016/j.jconrel.2023.07.057.
• Hernandez FJ. Nucleases: From Primitive Immune Defenders to Modern Biotechnology Tools. Immunology. 2025;174:279–286. DOI:10.1111/imm.13884.

Dr. Vicent Pelechano is a Professor of RNA Biology at Karolinska Institutet. His is an expert in the field of genome-wide approaches, particularly in eukaryotic transcription and transcriptome complexity. From the beginning of his scientific career, he has successfully combined experimental and computational work aiming to develop and apply novel genome-wide techniques to address fundamental biological questions with medical implications. His group is currently concentration on understanding molecular bases of non-genetic cellular heterogeneity, crosstalk between ribosome dynamics and mRNA degradation, and development of novel tools for molecular diagnosis.

Selected publications

• Zhang Y, Nersisyan L, Fürst E, et al. Ribosomes modulate transcriptome abundance via generalized frameshift and out-of-frame mRNA decay. Mol Cell. 2025;85:2017–2031.e7. DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2025.04.022.
• Tayyab M, Barrett D, van Riel G, et al. Digital assay for rapid electronic quantification of clinical pathogens using DNA nanoballs. Adv. 2023;9:eadi4997. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi4997.
• Huch S, Nersisyan L, Ropat M, et al. Atlas of mRNA translation and decay for bacteria. Microbiol. 2023;8:1123–1136. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-023-01393-z.