Ono Pharmaceuticals is a leading global healthcare company, which through their independent foundation has recently awarded five Breakthrough Science Initiative prizes to scientists working in the United States and Canada.The foundation targets researchers working on high-risk and high-reward projects that have the potential to revolutionize medical treatments for patients.

Professor Edinger’s proposed research project seeks to tackle a critical roadblock in the promising field of antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutics. ASOs have tremendous potential to treat diseases ranging from chronic autoimmune disorders to cancer, and while a few ASOs have been FDA approved, many more have been discontinued due to insufficient efficacy in human trials. Professor Edinger is working on addressing one of the larger hurdles to ASO clinical efficacy by identifying supporting small molecules that increase the exposure of target tissues to ASO.