Dr. Ajaya Shrestha, PhD

Chemistry Group Lead at Luxna Biotech

Speaker

Ajaya R. Shrestha is a chemistry group lead of Luxna Biotech Co., Ltd, leading the design and development of therapeutically potent and well-tolerated oligonucleotides using Luxna’s proprietary XNA monomers, emphasizing neurological applications and other therapeutic areas. He possessed over a decade of extensive expertise in nucleic acid chemistry research, encompassing both academic and industrial settings. He completed his postdoc research in Prof. Satoshi Obika’s lab at Osaka University, where he played a pivotal role in the discovery of various locked nucleic acid analogs, including two of the Luxna’s line-ups, amido-bridged nucleic acid (AmNA) and guanidine-bridged nucleic acid (GuNA). He served as an assistant professor in Prof. Akira Matsuda’s lab at Hokkaido University, where he focused on advancing research of antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates using siRNAs and ASOs as payloads. Before joining Luxna, he was a senior researcher at Rena therapeutics Inc. where he contributed the development of heteroduplex oligonucleotide (HDO) technology, prioritizing extra-hepatic delivery of the ASO payload. He received his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from Okayama University, Japan in 2009.