FASEB SRC: The Consequences of Aneuploidy: Honoring the Contributions of Angelika Amon

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Abstract We are requesting grant support for a new FASEB conference entitled “The Consequences of Aneuploidy: Honoring the Contributions of Angelika Amon.” This conference will be held from September 11th to 16th, 2022, in Southbridge, Massachusetts. The broad goals for this conference are two-fold: first, to bring together the world’s leading experts in studying the consequences of aneuploidy, and second, to honor the contributions of Angelika Amon, a pioneer of aneuploidy research who passed away from ovarian cancer in 2020. Aneuploidy, or a chromosome copy number state that is not a whole-number multiple of an organism’s normal haploid complement, is a hallmark of malignant growth and is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability. Current sequencing-based estimates suggest that up to 90% of human tumors exhibit aneuploidy, and high levels of aneuploidy are associated with metastatic disease, drug resistance, and dismal patient outcomes. Despite the ubiquity of aneuploidy in cancer and its significance to human health, there are no regular conferences in the United States dedicated to sharing the latest advances on this class of genomic alterations. We aim to establish a new conference on this topic that will serve as a forum to bring together scientists to share the latest advances in this exciting and fast-moving field. The organizing team for this conference consists of leading aneuploidy researchers who were Angelika’s colleagues and trainees and are convening this inaugural conference in her memory. This team has already secured the support of FASEB for this conference, which will provide significant organizational, logistic, and technical support for the event. R13 grant funding is being requested to subsidize the costs for early-career researchers and researchers from under-represented backgrounds to attend this event. We currently have 41 confirmed speakers across 10 topic areas related to aneuploidy and chromosome segregation, with a particular focus on the impact of aneuploidy on tumor development and human health. Additional programming is planned for early-career scientists, including a series of short talks, two poster sessions, and several career-development events.