This application requests funds to help defray the travel and lodging expenses of speakers and chairpersons who will participate in the Fortieth Annual Symposium on Fundamental Cancer Research, sponsored by the University of Texas System Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute. The meeting will be held from November 8, 1987 through November 11, 1987, in Houston Texas. The purposes of this Symposium are a) to stimulate discussion of recent advances in a particular area of basic research and their application to cancer prevention and treatment; b) to provide a forum for scientific exchange among basic researchers and clinical practitioners; and c) to provide an overview of recent advances in a particular area of cancer research. The program will cover the latest thoughts and discoveries related to the impact of genetic mechanisms on the etiology, development and management of cancer. We will begin with a consideration of the evolution and organization of the human genome with special emphasis on new techniques in such analyses (F. Collins, F. Ruddle, R. White, A. Jeffreys). We will examine various events which modulate somatic cell variation--DNA repair (L. Thompson, F. Hanawalt, T. Friedman), gene amplification (G. Wahl, A. Varshovsky, S. Latt, M. Gottesman), chromosomal translocations (J. Rowley, C. Croce), somatic recombination (M. Cappechi, O. Smithies, R. Kucherlapati), and regulatory genes (K. Fournier, C. Woo, R. Roeder). Human and animal model systems of inherited cancer are to be discussed (A. Knudson, W. Cavenee, G. Saunders) and the role of genes involved in the cancer phenotype will be evaluated in transgenic systems (P. Leder, B. de Crombrugghe, G. Scangos). The leading figures in these fields (indicated in parentheses) are being invited and their advice will be sought on filling out each program area with the latest work in the field.
