OPT Congress Participant Testimonials
2025 Testimonials
"Truly inspiring space to immerse oneself in novel and emerging technologies with collegial, supportive, approachable leaders in our community!"
-Nigel Danielson-Ewin, Pharma Innovation Researcher, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments
"The quality of the presentations was outstanding! Can't wait to come back next year!!!"
-Olga Villamizar, Principal Scientist, Pfizer
"The conference was very valuable. The presentation and information were immensely useful. The networking opportunities were endless"
-Mariana Bravo Hernandez, Senior Scientist, IONIS
"Great to hear the latest and greatest science. Sometimes, progress is not having all of the answers but gaining clarity in understanding the key questions. The OPT Congress was great in this respect"
-Steven K Wolk, Founder/Chief Consultant, Sinawali Biotechnology Solutions
"Amazing opportunity to attend informative sessions and engage with leaders in the field of Oligonucleotide Therapeutics."
-Jim Weterings, VP Oligonucleotide Therapeutics, Bonito BioSciences
"I particularly enjoyed the energy around the emerging RNA therapies panel and seeing an engaged audience."
-Paloma Giangrande, SVP, Discovery & Translational Biology, Orbital Therapeutics
"I have to say this is one of the best meetings in the whole year. You're here for the latest advances in molecular therapy, in gene therapy, in tRNA and mRNA. This is the place to be."
-Nagy Habib, ChM, FRCS, Professor of Surgery, Imperial College of London
"This OPT Congress is very special because you can interact with almost everybody. It is very focused, they identify good speakers, and they bring a good program to a good place."
-Mano Manoharan, PhD, Distinguished Scientist & Senior Vice President, Innovation Chemistry, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
"The most important thing for me is to connect with people, get to hear about the advances in the field, and see what the needs within the space are. We can learn and refine our technology towards that."
-Silvia Adriana Navarro, Research Associate, Newcastle University
"I attended last year in 2024, and I thought it was one of my favorite conferences because people from all over academia and industry got together and we had a shared passion for the types of questions we were working on. It was really nice interfacing with people on both sides of the spectrum and working together."
-Vikram Agarwal, PhD, Head of mRNA Platform Design Data Science, mRNA Center of Excellence, Sanofi
"I came here to network and meet new people. There were interesting talks about drug development, siRNA, and oligonucleotides. I really enjoyed all the talks."
-Megha Khandelwal, University of Nevada, Reno
"What I love about it is the top-notch speakers and the camaraderie and having this close knit community come together and speak about science. Participating in the OPT congress was a great experience. The sessions were enriching, providing valuable insights, and I forged impactful connections. Thanks for a great event!"
-Edo Kon, PhD, Director of Business Development, RiboX Therapeutics
"The after-topic discussion with the speakers are very enlightening to me. I'm learning a lot from them."
-Hong Liu, Associate Director, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR)
"This is a perfect conference for us to be at and see the latest and the greatest in mRNA therapies and oligonucleotide chemistry."
-Steven Wolk, PhD, President, Sinawali Biotechnology Solutions
"It’s an amazing opportunity to talk with people from industry and academia."
-Dunhui Li, Associate Research Scientist, Yale University
"It’s a chance to interact with many people. It’s a small conference so we are able to ask a lot of questions and interact with many people. I really enjoyed this meeting."
-Shanthi Ganesh, PhD, Senior Scientific Director, Global Nucleic Acid Therapies, Novo Nordisk
2024 Testimonials
"The meeting was an excellent opportunity to learn the latest, dabble in new territory and connect with vendors and colleagues. Very rewarding overall!"
-Barbara Gould, Senior Manager, Qiagen
"My first OPT conference showed me that it is critical for the industry to meet with this type of focus. Happy to have been a part of it and looking forward to next year!"
-Randon Davis, Global Product Manager, WuXi TIDES
"Coming from a supplier/corporate sponsor, the online platform/app was EXTREMELY helpful to easily connect with attendees, plan who to speak to etc. I have not seen this from other events, and this was an excellent tool."
-Isabelle Todd, MarathonLS
"Excellent scientific updates from leaders in the Oligonucleotide space!"
-Jim Weterings, PhD, VP Research RNA Therapeutics & Delivery, Siranomics
"I come to this conference to meet potential customers to network with people.
In the industry."
-May Guo, Chief Commercial Officer, Areterna
"This is my fourth trip to OPT Congress. This is right sized to be able to get to find people, to network, to have the discussions, and also have private face-to-face sessions where we can really get into some of the details that we've discussed in earlier in the day."
-Mike Webb, PhD, Founder and CEO, Mike Webb Pharma; Former Vice President, API Chemistry & Analysis, GSK
"It's a great opportunity for networking as well as understanding what our competitors are up to."
-Shanhu Hu, PhD, Director, Platform Biology, Korro Bio Inc.
"Great talks, great people, great platforms and ideas are coming from industry and academia."
-Ajit Magadum, PhD, Associate Scientist, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University
"What I experienced today showed me that when you bring people together, a lot of the problems that are evident come out in the open and someone else may have a possible solution. So it's a great collaborative space."
-Sushma Gurumurthy, PhD, Director, Oncology Research, Moderna, Inc.
"It's been a pleasure listening to all the interesting talks as a breadth of different topics covered and they go into depth as well. It’s a great opportunity for both scientific content and for the networking aspect as well."
-Zoltán Kis, PhD, Associate Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield
"There are a lot of interesting talks. I also like the fact that there are multiple tracks that you can just join from one talk to the other. So that's really inspiring."
-Lorenzo Franceschini, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel; Visiting Scholar, Miller School of Medicine Microbiology & Immunology, Miami University
"This conference brings together experts discussing challenges, proposing solutions, interesting presentations about novel innovative approaches development in academia, biotechnology and pharma."
-Ekkehard Leberer, PhD, Senior Life Sciences Consultant, ELBIOCON; Advisor, Neuway Pharma
"Excellent content at OPT Congress"
-Dan Klis, Thermo Fisher Scientific
2023
“Well structured, fantastic speakers, constructive discussions, and great interactions. The exhibitions from the CROs have been excellent and well received. I observed a lot of discussion groups indicating that the conference was very lively and productive. I also found the panel discussion very interactive with helpful contributions and opinions not only from the panelists but also from the audience. Job well done.”
- Ekkehard Leberer, PhD, Senior Lice Sciences Consultant, ELBIOCON
Being in academia, when I had the opportunity to come to this Congress, it was the exposure to industry and to the forward thinking that really occurs in industry because I think industry is really already a step ahead. And so networking and meeting more people, a Congress of this size are really facilitated that.
- Paloma H. Giangrande, PhD, VP, Platform and Discovery Sciences Biology, Wave Life Sciences
“I very much enjoyed hearing top scientists present their latest work, and I think now Boston is getting a huge reputation for excellency in the field of RNA therapy.”
- Nagy Habib, ChM, FRCS, Head of R&D and CMO, Mina Terapeutics Ltd.
“I find it really interesting that there's a really nice mix of scientific discovery and discussion, commercial application and translational, and even clinical information being discussed.”
- Mark Kay, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics, Stanford University
I’m really excited about being here because this is a great opportunity to get face time with our customers. It's great to see people together and really learn about what their applications are.
- Fiona Fitzgerald, President, Cytiva
“It's a very good networking venue and opportunity to learn the latest greatest from different companies and different developers.”
- Dmitry Samarsky, PhD, CTO, Sirnaomics
“What is interesting to me about this conference is meeting all the experts in the field. This conference brings all of us together, gives us the opportunity to present our great work, socialize with people, and have very good conversations and open conversations to build new medicines.”
- Chandra Vargeese, PhD, CTO & Head, Platform Discovery, Wave Life Sciences
“I came to OPT Congress to learn about the new science, and see what's going on with the CMC sections.
It's been going great. I really enjoyed the science, really enjoyed the networking, and meeting new people.“
- Chad Ratterman, Process Development, Nitto Avecia
2022
“I thought the conference was very well organised and presentations topics reflected issues that oligonucleotide community is facing currently. I found the digital platform very user friendly and didn’t encounter any issues during presentation and Q&A session. ”
- Nadim Akhtar, PhD, Senior Principal Scientist, New Modalities, AstraZeneca R&D
“I am so glad that I attended in-person. The breakfast discussion, where we discussed the challenges that we face in this field, was excellent. The speaker portal and website, which contained the agenda and other meeting logistics, including discussions with attendees, was easy to navigate.”
- CSO, Mitotherapeutix LLC
“I enjoyed OPT 2022 a lot. Great speakers and very nice interactions with great specialists in the field. I like the reasonable size of this meeting and the great choice of speakers.”
- Oligonucleotide Therapeutics CMC/Strategy Consultant, ML_Consult LLC
2021
“OPT Congress continues to be the premier conference for professionals involved in discovering & developing oligonucleotide therapeutics. OPT is a great way to onboard newcomers to an exciting, high-growth therapeutic market.”
- Lael, Bachem Americas Inc
This conference was both educational and inspirational. My group will pursue at least one new research collaboration based on novel information presented.”
- Eric Moher, Eli Lilly
This conference had some of the best speakers who were the most accomplished people in the field.”
- Tod Woold, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Ctr
2020
"OPT Congress was a great conference. I can tell a lot of hard work was involved. The on-demand presentations are great!"
-Bob Wu, Gilead Sciences
"The virtual nature actually helped Q&A sessions to be more inclusive with varied content."
- Paul Manley, Orvieto Consulting
"For anyone who is responsible for discovering and developing oligonucleotide therapeutics, OPT Congress provides unmatched content related to R&D, CMC, Regulatory Affairs, & Business Strategy. Despite the virtual format, the technical sessions were of
top-notch quality & facilitated a lively exchange of ideas. I look forward to attending OPT in person, which I expect to be as enlightening as the virtual event, if not more so."
- Lael Cheung, Bachem Americas Inc
"This virtual event makes me feel connected to the community. It was good to catch up with previous colleagues. People's resilience in difficult times inspired me. Thank you!"
-Xiao Hu, Wave Life Sciences
"It was a very well-managed virtual conference"
-Tara Scherder, SynoloStats
“Well balanced content, perfectly executed logistics.”
-Dmitry Samarsky, PhD, CTO, Sirnaomics
“The scientific quality and value of the presentations was very high. The opportunities for networking were excellent. I very much enjoyed attending the conference.”
-Ekkehard Leberer, PhD, Senior Director, R&D Alliance Management, Sanofi