OligoNova was initiated by the University of Gothenburg and AstraZeneca in 2020 through support from SweLife and the Swedish government innovation agency, Vinnova.
The aim was to gather national experts within the area of therapeutic oligonucleotides representing academia, regions, institutes, industry and small and medium enterprises and create a national platform for research and development of therapeutic oligonucleotides.
OligoNova’s ambition is to create the conditions necessary to enable the translation of existing, prominent research into the development of ground breaking therapies that can be implemented in the health care system and benefit patients.
OligoNova consists of a national research Network that will address R&D challenges within the area, in national and international collaborations. The other central part of the platform is the OligoNova Hub, which is part of the SciLifeLab Drug Discovery and Development platform and will deliver resources and support to progress academic projects towards preclinical proof-of-concept. In addition, the ambition of the OligoNova centre is to also create a structure to be able to take promising projects all the way into early clinical development in the OligoNova Accelerate module.
Overall, OligoNova has the components and the potential to significantly strengthen R&D of therapeutic oligonucleotides and deliver novel therapeutic solutions and benefit to the patients.