This past May, Wright State University hosted the Annual Midwest DNA Repair Symposium for the first time. More than 90 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty scientists from more than 20 universities around the United States attended.
Speakers at the 19th symposium were internationally known professors in their fields, including Tanya Paull, professor in molecular genetics and microbiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of Texas at Austin; and Sergei Mirkin, professor and biology chair at Tufts University.
“Every cell in our body suffers more than 50,000 DNA damaging events every day,” said Michael Leffak, professor in Wright State’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and vice chair of research. “This amounts to an average of 1,000 breaks, gaps or chemical attacks on every chromosome. If not repaired correctly this damage results in mutations that can cause disease, including developmental abnormalities, metabolic disorders and cancers.”
The symposium featured oral and poster presentations about approaches to understanding DNA damage and repair, the roles of inheritance and environment in DNA damage, cellular mechanisms for the repair of DNA damage and molecular approaches to cancer chemotherapy.
The symposium received support from Margaret Dunn, dean of the Boonshoft School of Medicine; Douglas Leaman, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics; Robert Fyffe, dean of the Graduate School and vice president for research; and Madhavi Kadakia, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The event is also supported by NERx Biosciences, Thermo-Fisher Scientific and New England Biolabs.
