Jacek Jemielity, Ph.D.

Head of Laboratory, University of Warsaw and CEO at Explorna Therapeutics

Speaker

Prof. Jacek Jemielity is the head of the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry at the Center for New Technologies, University of Warsaw. He received his PhD from the Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw in 2002, and in the same year he started working as an assistant professor in the Division of Biophysics, IFD, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw. In 2020 he became a full professor of chemistry. He is engaged in research on the synthesis, properties and applications of chemically modified nucleotides. He develops methods to synthesize biologically important nucleotides, creates tools to modify nucleic acids useful in studies of genetic information expression and medical applications. He developed a method to obtain mRNA with properties necessary for therapeutic applications. He is the author of over 150 scientific publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals (including the most prestigious journals in the field such as Nucleic Acids Reserach, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed, RNA, Nature Chemistry, Organic Lett., Chemical Science, Molecular Cell, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Nature Communications and others). He has co-authored 8 patents protecting his inventions almost worldwide and several patent applications. His inventions are used in dozen clinical trials on cancer immunotherapy. He received the 2021 FNP Prize, the most prestigious scientific award in Poland, in chemistry and materials sciences for developing chemical modifications of mRNA as tools for therapeutic applications and studies on cellular processes. He is a winner of the President of Poland's Economic Award in the "research + development" category (2017), he was nominated in the competition organized by the European Patent Office "European Inventor Award" 2018 in the category "Research". He is the co-founder and president of ExploRNA Therapeutics, a company focused on developing mRNA modification technologies and developing innovative mRNA-based therapies.