# Serendipity and siRNA: Julia Alterman on Expanding RNA Therapeutics

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/dose-of-discovery-7804790/serendipity-and-sirna-julia-alterman-on-expanding-rna-therapeutics
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/dose-of-discovery-7804790/serendipity-and-sirna-julia-alterman-on-expanding-rna-therapeutics.md
Podcast: [Dose of Discovery](https://stenobird.com/podcast/dose-of-discovery-7804790)
Published: 2026-04-22T03:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/dose-of-discovery/episodes/serendipity-and-sirna-dr-julia-alterman-on-expanding-rna-the
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/69c6aa4bc2759aa9b124f8f4/e/69e757fd738b0d0aa5a094cb/media.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/dose-of-discovery-7804790/episodes/serendipity-and-sirna-julia-alterman-on-expanding-rna-therapeutics
Duration seconds: 3700

## Resource

Welcome to Dose of Discovery : a dose of breakthrough medical discoveries, delivered with your morning coffee. (Coffee not included.) In this first episode, hosts AJ and Søren speak to Julia Alterman, assistant professor at the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Chan Medical School, about how siRNA technology has evolved from a useful laboratory research tool into a promising therapeutic modality. Their conversation explores innovations in siRNA chemistry and how these changes have enabled researchers to craft potent siRNA drugs. Julia talks about her unlikely beginnings as a theater major before finding her way into biology – eventually leading her into the biotech industry and academia. Along the way, she discusses the challenges of delivering siRNAs beyond the liver into harder-to-reach tissues such as the brain and muscle, and the serendipitous discovery that helped launch Atalanta Therapeutics. In this episode: 04:23 – Explainer: What are siRNAs? 08:42 – Meet Julia Alterman 12:39 – Julia’s history in industry 16:33 – UMass and a PhD pivot 18:28 – siRNAs versus ASOs 21:39 – siRNAs versus CRISPR 28:33 – A serendipitous breakthrough 38:02 – Baby steps and big leaps 42:10 – Stability and the therapeutic window 46:27 – The importance of strong science communication 50:55 – Scientists and VC funding 54:28 – Wrap up and reflections About the guest Julia Alterman is an assistant professor at the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Chan Medical School, where she develops new siRNA therapies for genetically defined diseases. Her work spans RNA chemistry, delivery, and pharmacology. Her earlier research into siRNA scaffold was licensed to Atalanta Therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease. https://www.umassmed.edu/khvorovalab/People/faculty/Julia-Alterman/…

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