The Role of Telomeres and Telomerase in Cancer

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aim of this proposal is to organize a scientific conference entitled "The Role of Telomeres and Telomerase in Cancer" at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco, California from November 3-7, 2004. This is the second AACR Special Conference on this topic, following the initial meeting two years ago that registered ~260 participants. Based on the success of the first conference and the rapid pace of advances including anti-telomerase phase I clinical trials, this conference will provide a timely opportunity to bring together basic and clinical scientists interested in the field of telomere and telomerase cancer biology and its relationship to aging. The major objective of this meeting is to provide a venue for a group of leading scientists to get together to discuss the field of telomere biology and the ribonucleoprotein enzyme, telomerase, as these topics relate to cancer and aging. What is needed is a focused cancer meeting on this topic to determine the current state of the field, where the deficiencies are, and how to advance the most promising areas into translational research. This proposed conference is designed to bring together cell and molecular biologists, including clinicians interested in fundamental cancer mechanisms as they relate to telomeres and telomerase, to present new discoveries, and to discuss the most late-breaking findings. There will be ample free time to encourage informal discussions to promote future collaborative interactions between scientists of different disciplines. This conference is intended to cover some of the following topics: telomerase structure, enzymology and recruitment; role of telomeres in genomic stability and cancer; telomerase cancer diagnostics and therapeutics; telomere length regulation, end protection and genomic stability; consequences of telomere dysfunction and repair; senescence and cancer; and the effects and regulation of telomerase in normal cells.