Synopsis
Important fundamental breakthroughs in cancer biology have come from the basic research discovery that defects in the tumor suppressor and DNA repair genes BRCA1/2 genes predispose to breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. Furthermore, the game-changing synthetic lethality concept for defects with inhibitors to Poly-ADP-Ribose Polymerase 1 (PARP1) is transforming clinical cancer therapy and prompting many new clinical trials. Yet, key gaps in our molecular and mechanistic understanding of therapy efficacy limit our ability to fully harness the insights from DNA damage responses gained so far. In this context, striking ongoing advances in methods and results spanning from molecules to cells and organisms are implicating functionally-important molecular communications coupling the DNA damage response, responses to DNA replication fork instability and DNA-based immune response. Future master keys to cancer biology and advanced therapies will benefit from better defining these distinct cellular stress responses, their mechanistic interconnectivity, and their implications for cancer biology and therapeutic outcomes.
The 6th DNA Repair/Replication Structures & Cancer conference on 14-18 February 2024 will focus on molecular structural and mechanistic insights into dynamic complexes acting in DNA repair, replication, and inflammation and their intersections relevant to advanced cancer therapies. This fundamental information will be pivotal for pioneering research on DNA damage responses as well as for the accurate interpretation of cancer clinical data, design of clinical trials, prognosis, etiology and improving the currently low success rate for oncology drug clinical trials. Informative talks and poster sessions along with vibrant discussions will foster productive interactions, collaborations, and insights. In this conference and this area of science basic research is empowering medical advances and clinical data are unveiling basic relationships in ways that are completely changing how research and translation is being done.
To advance understanding, all presenters are asked to focus on unpublished work, cutting-edge approaches and mechanistic insights. The talks and discussions will seek to aid prediction of biological outcomes and plans to best apply basic research advances for cancer research and treatment. To include late-breakthrough advances and innovative new ideas and methodologies, many talks will be selected from submitted abstracts. Poster sessions are vital part of the conference and contribute greatly to the success of the conference with stimulating and in-depth discussions between junior researchers and well-established international leaders in their field. Meeting attendance is limited, and delegates are encouraged to submit applications and abstracts early to avoid disappointment.
What makes this meeting unique? Professor Ben Van Houten from the University of Pittsburgh says: "This conference stands out as the very best due to the amazing science, great speakers, wonderful venue, and Laura and her teams’ attention to every detail." Professor John Tainer from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre says: “This conference makes me want to stand up and cheer because most participants contribute unpublished data and useful discussions that together can identify and fill knowledge gaps with potentially game-changing insights.”
Key Sessions
Sessions will include emerging results and breakthrough methodologies on core topics including:
- Double-Strand Break Repair by homologous recombination, non-homologous end joining, and alternative end joining.
- Base and Nucleotide Excision Repair and Mismatch Repair
- Replication stress and replication-associated repair
- Repair in Mitosis and Meiosis
- DNA and protein-DNA crosslinking repairs
- DDR and inflammation in disease and therapeutics
- DNA damage response at telomeres
- Molecular machines in DNA repair regulation
- DDR signalling and pathway choices
- Repair in the chromosome context
- New repair mechanisms and methodologies
- Transcription-repair interfaces
We are excited to continue the tradition from the last conference of including a session dedicated to DDR-based cancer therapeutics. This session will highlight new agents and new combined therapies that have recently entered the clinic and the translational potential of emerging mechanistic knowledge at the repair-replication-inflammation axis.
We are joined by the following incredible speakers:
Ranjit S. Bindra (Yale School of Medicine)
Helen Robinson (Artios)
Timothy Yap (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
CLINICAL DEVELOPMENT OF AGENTS TARGETING THE DNA DAMAGE RESPONSE: CURRENT STATE OF PLAY
Michael Zinda (Repare Therapeutics)
Plenary Speakers
Maria Jasin (Memorial Sloan Kettering)
Titia de Lange (Rockefeller University)
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF CST-POLA/PRIMASE, THE SECOND TELOMERE MAINTENANCE MACHINE
Rising Star Plenary Speaker
Irene Chiolo (University of Southern California)
Confirmed Speakers
Ranjit S. Bindra (Yale School of Medicine)
Simon Boulton (Francis Crick Institute)
Cynthia Burrows (University of Utah)
G-QUADRUPLEXES CONNECT BER TO GENE INDUCTION: STRUCTURE & MECHANISM
Junjie Chen (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
REPLICATION STRESS AND CELL CYCLE CHECKPOINT CONTROL
Karlene Cimprich (Stanford University)
Francesca Cole (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
AGE-DEPENDENT ALTERATIONS IN DNA REPAIR CAUSE CHROMOSOME MIS-SEGREGATION IN MEIOSIS
Sylvie Doublié (University of Vermont)
Daniel Durocher (Mount Sinai Hospital)
THE MITOTIC DNA DAMAGE RESPONSE THROUGH THE LENS OF CIP2A
Samir Hamdan (KAUST)
Yuan He (Northwestern University)
STRUCTURAL BASIS OF DNA DOUBLE-STRAND BREAK REPAIR BY NHEJ
Karl Peter Hopfner (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Ben Van Houten (University of Pittsburgh)
Stephen Kowalczykowski (University of California, Davis)
MOLECULAR MECHANISM OF CHROMOSOME MAINTENANCE BY HOMOLOGOUS RECOMBINATION
Susan Lees-Miller (University of Calgary)
John Pascal (University of Montreal)
PARP ENZYMES IN THE DNA DAMAGE RESPONSE AND PARP INHIBITOR MECHANISMS
Lori Passmore (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology)
Tanya Paull (University of Texas at Austin)
MECHANISMS OF DNA DOUBLE-STRAND BREAK REPAIR
Helen Robinson (Artios)
Eli Rothenberg (New York University)
Katharina Schlacher (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
Jessica Tyler (Weill Cornell Medicine)
Johannes Walter (Harvard Medical School)
Dale Wigley (Imperial College London)
Scott Williams (NIH)
Timothy Yap (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
CLINICAL DEVELOPMENT OF AGENTS TARGETING THE DNA DAMAGE RESPONSE: CURRENT STATE OF PLAY
Steve West (Francis Crick Institute)
Wei Yang (NIH)
Xiaolan Zhao (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL INSIGHT INTO A VERSATILE GENOME PROTECTOR COMPLEX Smc5/6
Michael Zinda (Repare Therapeutics)
Learning Objectives
Inform basic and clinical researchers on current advances in methodologies, approaches, mechanistic and structural knowledge suitable to understand and predict damage responses and their relationship to cancer. Create optimal formal and informal opportunities to gain new knowledge and to establish fruitful collaborations among key stakeholders in damage responses and cancer research.
Educational Need
This conference will bring together basic and clinical scientists working at the forefront of DNA repair, replication, inflammation, and post-translational modification including PARylation for cancer biology and medicine. Presentations will consider diverse cutting-edge methodologies and integrated approaches to investigate the structures and mechanisms of dynamic protein, chromatin, DNA and RNA complexes. The conference will showcase breakthrough advances and new developments in these areas. It will furthermore provide opportunities for industry and academia to consider and exchange emerging results in this exciting, rapidly advancing arena. The inter-disciplinary nature of the presented work will create strong synergies among participants and outstanding opportunities for exchanging information and developing fruitful collaborations. The cross-disciplinary interactions will be invaluable training for young scientists to work in these and other emerging areas of science.
Target Audience
Academic and industrial researchers (including established and junior principal investigators, postdoctoral fellows and PhD students) interested in DNA damage responses, replication, inflammation, and their intersection with cancer biology and cancer drug discovery. The focus will be the molecular mechanisms of and interfaces controlling damage responses and cancer biology and thereby impacting therapeutic outcomes.
5th DRRSC Photos

4th DRRSC (Fusion's 75th Conference)

Supported By
Silver
If you're interested in sponsoring this conference please contact us.