About RNOVA Tx
RNOVA Tx is a Québec-based biotechnology company translating research on RNA regulation and innate immunity into targeted therapeutics for CNS disease.
Our story
Long-standing research at Université Laval and the CERVO Brain Research Centre on how microglia respond to brain injury and neurodegeneration.
Parallel profiling of microglial mRNAs and proteins revealed that key immune transcripts are held back from translation — and implicated SRSF3.
If SRSF3 restrains immune protein synthesis in diseased microglia, reducing it could restore a more functional immune response.
SRSF3-directed antisense tools were developed and studied in experimental systems, supported by foundational intellectual property.
RNOVA Tx was created to advance this approach toward the clinic, beginning with ALS.
Mission
To translate discoveries in RNA regulation and innate immunity into targeted therapeutics for devastating CNS diseases.
Vision
A future in which dysfunctional CNS immunity can be therapeutically reprogrammed at the level of RNA regulation.
Team
Co-founder & Interim Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Jasna Kriz is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Université Laval’s Faculty of Medicine and a researcher at the CERVO Brain Research Centre. Her work focuses on microglia and innate immunity in the healthy brain, brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS. She is the lead inventor of the foundational SRSF3 patent.
Co-founder · MBA Candidate
Dr. Hejer Boutej is a co-founder of RNOVA Tx and co-inventor of the foundational SRSF3 patent. As first author of the 2017 Cell Reports study, she led the ribosome-profiling work showing that SRSF3 suppresses translation of highly upregulated innate immune transcripts in microglia. Her expertise spans transcriptomics, proteomics and models of neuroinflammation. She is currently an MBA candidate.
Research Assistant
Sonia Djebbar is a research assistant supporting RNOVA Tx’s laboratory program. She contributes hands-on molecular and cellular biology work to the development and characterization of SRSF3-directed antisense tools.
Research Assistant
Yuan Cheng Weng brings long-standing in vivo neuroscience research experience from the CERVO Brain Research Centre. A co-author on multiple peer-reviewed studies of microglia and innate immunity after brain injury, including the 2024 Molecular Therapy study on SRSF3 targeting, Yuan Cheng Weng contributes surgical and in vivo expertise to RNOVA Tx.
PhD Student
Victor Coelho is a PhD student in the Neuroscience graduate program at Université Laval. His doctoral research investigates how SRSF3 contributes to microglial dysfunction in neurodegeneration, extending the RNOVA Tx scientific program beyond its lead ALS focus.
PhD Student
Sima Al Atout is a PhD student in Neuroscience at Université Laval, with training spanning genetics, cell and molecular biology, and biotechnology. She holds an MSc in Biotechnology from Northeastern University and an HBSc from the University of Toronto. Her interests centre on translational approaches to neurodegenerative disease and emerging RNA-based therapeutics.
Scientific roots
Rooted in research from Université Laval and the CERVO Brain Research Centre, within Québec’s growing RNA life-science ecosystem.
RNOVA Tx welcomes conversations with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, scientific and development partners interested in RNA therapeutics and neurodegenerative disease.