Biography
Biography: Makobetsa Khati
Abstract
Synthetic oligonucleotide molecules such as aptamers can be isolated in vitro against diverse targets including toxins, bacterial and viral proteins, virus-infected cells, cancer cells and whole pathogenic microorganisms. These synthetic molecules assume defined three-dimensional structures and generally bind functional sites on their respective targets. They possess the molecular recognition properties of monoclonal antibodies in terms of their high affinity and specificity. The applications of aptamers range from diagnostics and bio-sensing, target validation, targeted drug delivery, therapeutics, templates for rational drug design to biochemical screening of small molecule leads compounds. In this presentation, I will review recent progress made in the application of bio-medically relevant aptamers and relate them to their future clinical prospects.