IMPORTANT NOTICE: Effective 25 September 2025, all participants must make full payment at the time of registration. The deposit option is no longer available. Once full payment has been received, please allow up to 3 working days for Rosie, the Conference Manager, to confirm your registration and hotel room. As places are subject to availability, we cannot guarantee your registration immediately upon payment.

Transposable elements (TEs), which constitute nearly half of the human genome, were once deemed ‘junk DNA’. However, recent technological advancements have led to a resurgence of research interest into their functional impact and molecular mechanism, particularly focusing on the major Type I TEs (also known as Endogenous Retrotransposable Elements or EREs). These elements, integrated into the human genome over millions of years, have undergone evolutionary changes that now make them influential factors in human biology. EREs represent a rich yet understudied source of regulatory sequences that drive the evolution of human genomes and epigenomic landscape. ERE dysregulation has been widely reported in human diseases including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and aging. 

The primary goal of this meeting will be to facilitate the exchange of ideas among academic scientists and clinical researchers from diverse backgrounds. This Fusion meeting will boost unconventional interactions and foster innovative, cross-disciplinary ideas and collaborations that could transform existing paradigms.

To accelerate progress in both basic and translational research in this cutting-edge field, this meeting will not only review previous discoveries but also communicate ongoing and unpublished work, and hopefully inspire new modes to translate basic discoveries from bench to the bedside.

Confirmed Plenary Speaker

Daniel de Carvalho (University of Toronto)
DEREGULATION OF RETROELEMENTS AS A TUMOR SUPPRESSOR MECHANISM AND AN EMERGING THERAPEUTIC OPPORTUNITY

Confirmed Invited Speakers

Laura Banaszynski (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center)
ENDOGENOUS RETROVIRUSES AS GLOBAL MODULATORS OF TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR STOICHIOMETRY
Matthew Bendall (George Washington University)
EXPLORING SINGLE CELL ERE EXPRESSION IN HUMAN IMMUNITY USING STELLARSCOPE
Jun Ding (McGill University)
BEYOND THE GENE - LEVERAGING UNDEREXPLORED SCRNA-SEQ READS TO MODEL CELLULAR DYNAMICS AND DISEASE MECHANISMS
Yejing Ge (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
DISSECT ERV FUNCTION IN ADULT STEM CELLS AND TISSUE REGENERATION
Nancy Huang (Texas A&M University)
AGING-ASSOCIATED HETEROCHROMATIN DYSREGULATION AND ERV UPREGULATION IN HEMATOPOIETIC STEM AND PROGENITOR CELLS.
Josh Jang (Van Andel Institute)
LEVERAGING EPIGENETIC THERAPIES TO CREATE ABERRANTLY SPLICED PEPTIDES FOR IMMUNOTHERAPY
Alice Lee (Harvard Medical School, Boston Childrens Hospital)
TRANSPOSON-ASSOCIATED ALTERNATIVE SPLICING: MECHANISMS AND THERAPEUTIC OPPORTUNITIES
Jing Li (Shanghai Changhai Hospital)
NEOATLAS-TUMOR AND NEOBERT: A DATABASE AND A PREDICTIVE MODEL FOR CANONICAL AND NONCANONICAL TUMOR NEOANTIGENS
Wanlu Liu (Zhejiang University)
THE ENHANCER FUNCTION OF HOMINIDAE SPECIFIC TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS IN EARLY EMBRYOGENESIS
Mathieu Lupien (University of Toronto)
THE CONVERGENCE OF GENETIC AND EPIGENETIC VARIANTS ON TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS IN CANCER
Ivan Marazzi (University of California, Irvine)
Parinaz Mehdipour (University of Oxford)
UNCOVERING EPITRANSCRIPTOMIC MECHANISMS UNDERLYING TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENT ACTIVITY
Andrew Modzelewski (University of Pennsylvania)
RETROTRANSPOSONS REWIRE REGULATORY PATHWAYS TO SECURE TRANSLATIONAL HOMEOSTASIS IN DEVELOPMENT AND DISEASE
Zuzana Tothova (Harvard Medical School / Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
Alexandra Whiteley (University of Colorado Boulder)
THE DOMESTICATED GENE PEG10 ALTERS GENE EXPRESSION IN NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE THROUGH RNA BINDING AND PROTEASE ACTIVITIES
Andrew Xiao (Yale University)
ENDOGENOUS TRANSPOSON ACTIVATION UNDERLIES TARGETED THERAPY RESISTANCE IN HUMAN CANCER
Yang Yu (Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center)
EUKARYOTIC CRISPR: A piRNA-GUIDED “INNATE IMMUNE" SYSTEM IN TRANSPOSON DEFENSE
Bo Zhang (Washington University in St. Louis)
EXPRESSION SPECTRUM OF TE-DERIVED TRANSCRIPTS IN HUMAN ADULT TISSUES
Zhao Zhang (Duke University)
CHASING THE JUMPING GENES

Key Sessions

The session themes will cover ERE in various contexts:

• Evolution
• Development
• Pathology
• Epigenetic Regulation
• Immunology
• Gene Regulatory Network
• New Therapeutic Strategies

We will also organize discussion panels for novel technologies of ERE research and targeting EREs for therapy, such as AI-based approaches and RNA therapy.

Target Audience

This conference is targeted to basic research scientists and translational researchers who is active in ERE related field and who wants to find collaborative opportunities. We hope to welcome scientists from all stages including early-career trainees.

Educational Need

This conference will open the new horizon of ERE research and spark novel ideas for how to translate basic discoveries from bench to the bedside. The audience will learn the forefront of ERE’s latest discoveries and new technological progress.