2021 Physical Science of Cancer Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar

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Project Summary/Abstract Despite the wide variety of genetic and molecular information available to characterize a patient's tumor, a precise individual prediction of cancer progression is only possible to a limited extend. This suggests that vital data about tumor progression are missing such as the physical and mechanical properties of cells and surrounding tissue. Considering the complexity of cancer as a systemic disease recently high expectations have been raised that an interdisciplinary approach by combining biology, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, big data, and physics with biomedicine will lead to convergent oncology. Emergent phenomena which are not directly triggered by a specific molecule can be only understood by a convergent approach. Partial support is requested for the 3rd Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on "Physical Science of Cancer" to be held from Feb.7-12, 2021, and the 2nd Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) to be held from Feb.6-7, 2021 at the GRC-selected conference hotel (The Hotel Galvez) in Galveston, Texas. The conference is promised to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of recent advances and new ideas on multidisciplinary approaches and their success in understanding fundamental cancer progression as well as in developing potential translational perspectives. The long-term goal of this GRC is to facilitate the development and use of approaches to extend the range of cancer targets that can be tackled successfully. These will be achieved with the following aims: (1) Review advances and identify challenges in quantitative approaches in cancer. (2) Train the next generation of scientists to quantitatively investigate the underlying physical mechanisms that drive cancer (GRS) and facilitate diversity participation. (3) Foster new collaborations with emphasis on using quantitative approached to address challenges in cancer. Session topics have been selected on the basis of their potential impact on key scientific challenges of the field. Both conferences will catalyze researchers across diverse fields and stages in their academic career, encouraging new ideas and collaborations, and fostering mentorship of the next generation of crossdisciplinarity researchers. Poster sessions will provide ample opportunities for engagement between investigators at all levels. We anticipate that scientific interactions during this conference will impact cancer research in significant ways and result in establishing productive multi-disciplinary research collaborations. Collectively this conference will highlight the significant progress in the last two years, and catalyze the development of new concepts and synergies that will aim to shape the future of Physical Sciences in Cancer and the study of emergent phenomena which are not directly triggered by a specific molecule and can be only understood by a convergent approach. This effort will dissect and refine the way we ask and answer questions in the physics of cancer community, as well as educate on the thought process that drives translatable discoveries.