Manghrani Wins Poster Award at the Annual Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society Meeting

Akanksha Manghrani, a NIST–IBBR postdoctoral research associate in the Biomolecular Measurement Division of the Materials and Measurements Laboratory, received a poster award at the Annual Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (OTS) Meeting held in Budapest, Hungary this October. The OTS annual meeting is the premier global conference for researchers and industry leaders advancing oligonucleotide therapeutics - an emerging class of medicines with transformative potential. Akanksha’s work was recognized among the top 10% of presenters worldwide for research excellence. She has also been invited to share her research in greater depth in the OTS webinar series in spring 2026. In addition to the poster award, she received a competitive travel award from OTS.

Her poster, titled “A Molecular Dynamics–Based Approach for Predicting Impact of Phosphorothioate Chirality on the Structure and Function of Oligonucleotide Therapeutics,” demonstrated the power of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in accelerating rational design of oligonucleotide drugs. Because oligonucleotides often incorporate extensive chemical modifications, the lack of available simulation parameters has historically limited the use of MD in this field. Akanksha’s work built upon Dr. Christina Bergonzo’s recently developed program, modXNA, which enables fast and scalable workflows for MD simulations of highly modified nucleic acids. Her study provided a proof of concept for how modXNA can overcome this long-standing bottleneck.

The enthusiastic feedback she received at OTS emphasized the growing need for computational tools in oligonucleotide research. Akanksha plans to publish her manuscript in the coming months to offer the community a clear roadmap for integrating molecular dynamics into the oligonucleotide drug development pipeline. She is grateful to OTS for the recognition and support, and to her mentors Dr. Christina Bergonzo and Dr. Robert Brinson for their guidance.