Morpholino oligos were devised by James Summerton in 1985 and were developed at ANTIVIRALS Inc., the pioneer antisense company founded by Summerton in 1980.
Morpholino oligos are so named because they are assembled from four different subunits, each of which contains one of the four genetic bases linked to a 6-membered morpholine ring. Eighteen to 25 subunits of these four subunit types are joined in a specific order by non-ionic phosphorodiamidate intersubunit linkages to give a Morpholino oligo.
Morpholinos are used for gene silencing.