The Epitranscriptome Heads Toward Clinical Necessity

A deep understanding of epitranscriptomics—RNA modifications—is the missing layer in the quest for more broadly effective precision medicines. That’s the view of Gudrun Stengel, PhD, CEO of Alida Biosciences, and the foundational belief that drives her company to build sequencing tools and scientifically relevant models linking RNA modifications to phenotype.

Today, despite the astounding breakthroughs of the past quarter-century, positive responses to advanced therapies such as checkpoint inhibitors and cell and gene therapies are still limited to a relatively small subset of patients. To improve efficacy and understand patient response, Stengel says, “We need to consider all layers of epigenetic regulation to better understand gene regulation and build better models of biology, especially right now, with AI enabling the integration of huge amounts of data.”