Individuals are continually exposed to a plethora of DNA damaging agents formed cells or within present in the environment. To combat the harmful effects, cells possess an assortment of DNA repair pathways that recognize and remove damaged DNA. These include nucleotide excision repair, transcription-coupled repair, mismatch repair and recombinational repair mechanisms. In addition, there are DNA polymerase lesion bypass mechanisms and signal transduction pathways that help cells tolerate DNA damage. It is clear that disruptions in DNA repair pathways can impact human disease states and multiple repair pathways help protect cells and Individuals from environmental insult. The overall goal of the 6th Annual Midwest DNA Repair Symposium is to disseminate and stimulate current through on basic and applied mechanisms of DNA repair and their impact on human disease states. It has three specific goals. One goal is to gather scientists in the field of DNA repair for presentations and discussions of current research in the field. The second goal is to expose any students and postdoctoral fellows in the field to current work. The third is to foster scientific interactions and stimulate new and ongoing collaborations. This has been a successful Symposium in the past five years. The impetus has been that while there are other small conferences such as Gordon conferences that are generally held on either the east or west coasts or in Europe, this Symposium provides a forum to gather independent investigators and their students and postdoctoral fellows that are located in the midwest. The 6th Annual DNA Repair Symposium will largely follow formats that have been successfully used in the past. There will be two keynote speakers, three platform sessions and on poster session. The speakers in the platform sessions will be largely chosen from the submitted abstracts. The University of Kentucky is well suited to be the host of this symposium. It has assembled a core of individuals (faculty) that are focused on the investigation of mechanisms of DNA repair.
