This proposal requests support for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled Changing Landscape of the Cancer Genome, organized by Lynda Chin, Christoph Lengauer and Michael Stratton, which will be held in Boston, Massachusetts from June 20 - 25, 2011. Large scale cancer genomics projects across the globe are capturing increasingly detailed views of the cancer genomes. These data have the potential to transform every aspect of cancer research. The challenges now are to decipher what the genomic landscape is teaching us about the initiation, progression and clinical behavior of a tumor. This meeting will be the first with a singular focus on large scale cancer genomics projects. In addition to a focus on cancer, there is a strong emphasis on genomic and computational technologies. The goals of this meeting are as follows: 1) to bring together the data producers and analysts to share their latest findings, both technical and biological, from large-scale cancer genomic projects and address the challenges of analyzing these complex cancer genomic data;2) to highlight how these genomic data are enabling a systems or network-view of the genome and how patterns of mutations, considered in the context of these complex networks, are revealing new insight into underlying etiologies;and 3) to explore how cancer genomics can impact on drug discovery and development.
International large-scale genome centers are identifying an ever-growing number of markers and regulators that can potentially transform normal cells into tumor cells. The sheer volume of these data presents technical challenges which require the rapid evolution of novel data-handling techniques. In addition, a wide gap exists between the identification of genomic cancer markers and the ultimate translational endpoint of efficacious drug development. The Keystone Symposia meeting on Changing Landscape of the Cancer Genome fills a need in the scientific community by providing a forum for those researchers who are taking an ambitious approach towards cancer research by conducting large-scale cancer genomics projects and those interested in using the data.
