Matt D. Disney Australasian RNA Biology and Biotechnology Association 2025 Conference

Matt D. Disney

Matthew D. Disney, Ph.D., a native of Baltimore and graduate of Catholic schools, is Institute Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation and Technology (formerly Scripps Florida). Dr. Disney’s laboratory is internationally recognized for pioneering small-molecule therapeutics that target RNA, advancing the frontiers of precision medicine. His group has developed innovative chemical probes and platforms to tackle critical biomedical challenges, including: designing small molecules directly from genome sequences; enabling cells to produce therapeutics internally; elucidating the biology of coding and non-coding RNAs; and exploiting cellular quality-control mechanisms to edit or eliminate disease-causing RNAs. He has founded multiple biotechnology companies, and his lab’s technologies have been adopted across both large pharmaceutical organizations and emerging biotech enterprises. Dr. Disney’s contributions have been recognized with numerous prestigious honors, including the ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry (with Alicia Angelbello), the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, the Barry Cohen Award in Medicinal Chemistry, and the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award. He has also been named Scripps Florida Mentor of the Year.