Arechavala-Gomeza Lab

Dr Arechavala-Gomeza joined other COST members in Munich for the latest combined management committee meeting and workshop of our COST Action on exon skipping. As usual, a lot was learned during a couple of very interesting days. Thank you to the organisers for the seamless run of the meeting and great venue.

COST exon skipping workshop in Leiden, the Netherlands.
Dr García-Jímenez and Dr Arechavala-Gomeza joined colleagues from several research institutions in Leiden to participate in a COST-funded workshop to discuss methods used to evaluate exon skipping and RNA stability in DMD samples. We thank our colleagues from UCL, University of Ferrara, Royal Holloway and BioMarin for the fruitful discussion and our hosts at the DMD Genetic Therapy Group at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) for their hospitality.

Anniversary of the Association of neuromuscular patients of Biscay (BENE). May 2015
We thank BENE (the local association of neuromuscular patients), for their invitation to attend the seminars organized for their 18th anniversary. It was a pleasure to participate in these celebrations.

Seminar at Galdakao Hospital. 11th May 2015

Recently, Dr Arechavala-Gomeza was invited to give a seminar at Galdakao Hospital titled: “Terapias avanzadas: más cerca de la clínica de lo que parece. (Lecciones aprendidas de la distrofia muscular de Duchenne.)” (Advanced therapies: closer to the bedside tan you may think, lessons from Duchenne muscular dystrophy experience).
Members of Osakidetza (Basque Health Service) have access to a recording of this presentation here.

A few days ago we joined our friends at the Spanish Scientist associations in Germany (CERFA) and the UK (SRUK) and the University of the Basque Country in a meeting that presented, in a very welcoming setting, the different professional options in research careers: from academia to industry, science communication and science journalism, journal editing, as well as funding opportunities in different countries, and science policy. All seminars were delivered by very experienced professionals and policy makers. The general consensus amongst those of us that had the privilege to attend was: “I wish this had been organised while I was starting my PhD”.
We are looking forward to Science Plus 2016.

Dance your PhD
In 2011 Dwi Kemaladewi, a PhD student at the DMD Genetic Therapy Department of Human Genetics of the Leiden University Medical Center participated in the “Dance your PhD” contest. The dance was titled “Antisense oligonucleotide mediated exon skipping for Duchenne muscular dystrophy” and you may see it here. From time to time, we like to see again this video and we think you may also enjoy it.

The SCOPE-DMD & COST Action meeting hosted by European Medicines Agency , “Antisense oligonucleotide – mediated exon skipping therapy development for Duchenne muscular dystrophy   took place in April 2015. A meeting report is being prepared and will be available soon, but the briefing report is now available in COST’s Media webpage.

Dr Arechavala-Gomeza will be attending a meeting intended to be a forum discussion between stakeholders on current challenges that face antisense oligonucleotide therapy development for DMD: ‘Antisense oligonucleotide-mediated exon skipping therapy development for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD)’.

This workshop is hosted by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) and organized by COST Action BM1207 and SCOPE-DMD and will be streamed live online via Ustream on Wednesday 29 April from 10 am (Central European Time): www.ustream.tv/channel/european-medicines-agency ; (password EMA2015).

Dr García-Jiménez recently spent a week in Leiden by means of a COST-funded “Short Term Scientific mission” to learn current methods used to evaluate exon skipping after treatment of cultures with antisense oligonucleotides. He was kindly hosted by members of the DMD Genetic Therapy Group at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the biotech company Prosensa.

We took part in Rare Disease day by posing with a bit of green paint on our faces, to make rare disorders “visible”. Many researchers at BioCruces joined us. Thank you!