Incorporated in 2004 as a 501(c)6 nonprofit and registered with the U.S. government, the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society is an open, nonprofit forum to foster academia and industry-based research and development of oligonucleotide therapeutics The OTS was conceived in 2001 in a small secluded castle in Tuscany, Italy, by an international group of renowned oligonucleotide scientists. The idea of the founders was to bring together the expertise from different angles of oligonucleotide research to create synergies and to bring the field of oligonucleotides to its full therapeutic potential. A new era of oligonucleotide drugs was envisioned that would change the landscape of therapeutic modalities,very much like the impact that antibodies had on human therapeutics over the last decade. The highly regarded annual OTS meeting draws experts from all over the world for cross-disciplinary exchange spanning expertise in chemistry and delivery, to biology, immunology and clinical medicine. It is the intense scientific exchange between attendees during our annual meetings that sets the stage for groundbreaking new ideas.