EVOLNA is an ambitious but coherent research program with the
objective of transforming the field of aptamer technology. The vision is to
enable evolution of aptamers that per se possess most of the desired
properties, thereby alleviating the need for extensive post-SELEX procedures.
This will be realized by combining the unique properties of LNA with innovative
methods for LNA aptamer evolution. LNA aptamer technology is envisioned to
enable evolution of aptamers displaying maximum chemical diversity, minimum
size and high biostability. The developed strategies will be applicable not
only towards evolution of therapeutic aptamers, which will be the main subject
of this program, but also towards evolution of aptamers for biosensing,
diagnostic and imaging applications. The program is at the very frontier of
biotechnology research and spans the areas of chemistry, molecular biology and
drug research.
