ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Cancer Epigenetics: New Mechanisms and
Therapeutic Opportunities, organized by Drs. Cigall Kadoch and Christopher Vakoc. The conference will be
held in Keystone, Colorado from January 26-30, 2020.
The 2020 Keystone Symposia Cancer Epigenetics: New Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities in
conjunction with the joint conference, Gene Regulation: From Mechanisms to Disease, co-organized by Karen
Adelman and Patrick Cramer, will highlight state-of-the art advances in methods, mechanistic insights, and
drug discovery efforts across these interrelated fields. Furthermore, results from exome- and genome-wide
sequencing efforts point toward major roles for chromatin regulatory machinery in cancer. These data
emphasize the immediate need for mechanistic understanding and, in parallel, the identification of novel
strategies toward therapeutic targeting for this class of cancer drivers. This conference will help to foster
interactions and new connections between basic biologists focused on chromatin architecture, structure, and
function with translational biologists focused on model systems for mechanistic interrogation. Participants will
attend sessions that will feature the presentation of new methods and techniques in systems biology, imaging,
genomics, and drug discovery approaches. Other topics will explore the roles for enhancer structure, genome
organization and topology on DNA accessibility and gene expression. Finally, this conference will expose
trainees across a wide range of international, interdisciplinary laboratories to cutting edge science in cancer
epigenetics and related fields, hoping to further their interests and commitment to this area of biologic research
The concurrent joint conference on "Gene Regulation: From Mechanisms to Disease" is another unique, one-
of-a-kind aspect of this conference, allowing participants to attend talks in their interest areas across two
closely-related disciplines. Our cancer-centered audience will have an opportunity to attend select talks as well
as two joint sessions, which all the organizers have carefully considered and designed together.