7th DNA Repair/Replication Structures & Cancer Conference

This is a transformative time in cancer research and its impacts on advanced therapies. Basic knowledge of DNA Damage Reponses (DDR) and their functional integration with the therapeutically relevant immune responses are fundamentally advancing cancer biology and medicine. Besides being classified by tissue origins, cancers are increasingly being understood at the cellular and molecular level, allowing effective targeting with synthetic lethality for precision oncology. Precision therapies offer the potential for enhanced efficacy with reduced toxicities but come with the major challenge of preexisting or developed resistance. Clinically, most of the resistance to DDR inhibitors arises from the restoration of DNA repair pathways through reversion mutants or rewiring the DDR network. It is increasingly clear that DDR regulation and repair pathway choices drive therapeutic sensitivity and resistance responses. These findings underscore the critical need to develop actionable structural and mechanistic knowledge, spanning from nanoscale of individual enzymes to the mesoscale of regulated protein-complexes and their network responses.