Workshops on Viral Pathogenesis and Oncogenesis

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Funds are requested to continue an annual series of meetings on interdisciplinary aspects of cancer virology. Cancer viruses have been important subjects for scientific study, since 1) they have provided numerous insights into basic cancer processes, and 2) ca. 20-25% of cancer worldwide has a viral etiology. While there are several specialty meetings that deal with the biochemistry and molecular biology of particular oncogenic viruses, there are no meetings that deal with all of these viruses in an interdisciplinary fashion. The meetings supported by this grant fill that need. For the first meeting in the competing renewal, we propose the topic of "Viral Oncogenes". This meeting will bring together researchers on oncogenic retroviruses, herpesviruses (EBV, KSHV, HVS), papillomaviruses (HPV), papovaviruses (SV40, polyoma), and hepadnaviruses. Over the past years, a great deal has been learned about how viral oncogenes work, including activation of signal transduction pathways and inactivation of tumor suppressor proteins. An interdisciplinary meeting will be valuable since different oncogenic viruses actually may utilize the same pathways in transformation. Also, it has become clear that most viral oncogenes affect multiple cellular pathways, and the multifactorial nature of viral transformation will be explored as well. Meetings in subsequent years will address topics such as Novel Viral Infections in Cancer, Viral Assembly, Immune Responses to Viral Infections, and Viral Latency and Persistence.