Aptamers in Bordeaux 2017: An exceptional “millésime”

About 150 participants attended the symposium organised at the Palais de la Bourse in Bordeaux, France on September 22-23, 2017. Thirty speakers from all over the world delivered lectures covering selection processes, aptamer chemistry and innovative applications of these powerful tools that display major advantages over antibodies. Beyond the remarkable science presented, lively discussion and fruitful exchange between participants made this meeting a great success. A series of lectures were focused on synthetic biology (riboswitches, new synthetic base pairs, mutated polymerases). Innovative selection procedures including functional screening of oligonucleotide pools were described. Examples of aptasensors for the detection of pathogens were reported. The potential of aptamers for the diagnostic and the treatment of diseases was also presented. Brief summaries of the lectures presented during the symposium are given in this report. The third edition of this symposium will take place in Boulder, Colorado in Summer 2018 (information available at http://www.aptamers-in-bordeaux.com/).