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| Ian R Graham |
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Professional background
I studied for my PhD at Leicester University, which was awarded in 1992. My current position is Senior Research Fellow within the Gene Therapy lab at Royal Holloway – University of London, working closely with Professor George Dickson. The group as a whole is focussed on the development of new gene therapy strategies to combat neuromuscular disease, and my main interest for the past ten years has been in the use of antisense oligonucleotides (AO) as novel genetic medicines. My work is supported by grants from the Department of Health, The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, and Muscular Dystrophy Ireland.
Work related to the exon skipping project
The work related to exon skipping for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is carried out by myself and two post-doctoral research assistants, Dr Linda Popplewell and Dr Alberto Malerba, who is supported by a joint grant awarded by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign to me and Matthew Wood at Oxford University. The focus of this work is to examine the optimal dosing regime and route of administration of antisense oligonucleotides (AO), the identification of novel peptides and the development of methods to enhance the systemic delivery of AOs. An earlier grant from the MDC funded the work of Dr Francesca Thorogood, also on exon skipping.
Relevant references
1. Graham IR, Hill VJ, Manoharan M, Inamati GB, Dickson G. Towards a therapeutic inhibition of dystrophin exon 23 splicing in mdx mouse muscle induced by antisense oligoribonucleotides (splicomers): target sequence optimisation using oligonucleotide arrays. J Gene Med. 2004; 6: 1149-58
2. Arechavala-Gomeza V, Graham IR, Popplewell LJ, Adams AM, Aartsma-Rus A, Kinali M, Morgan JE, van Deutekom JC, Wilton SD, Dickson G, Muntoni F. Comparative analysis of antisense oligonucleotide sequences for targeted skipping of exon 51 during dystrophin pre-mRNA splicing in human muscle. Hum Gene Ther. 2007; 18: 798-810.
3. Dickson G, Hill V, Graham IR. Screening for antisense modulation of dystrophin pre-mRNA splicing. Neuromuscul Disord. 2002; 12: S67-70.
Contact details
Dr Ian R GRAHAM
School of Biological Sciences
Royal Holloway – University of London
Egham
Surrey
TW20 0EX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1784 443870
Fax: +44 (0) 1784 414224
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