The 4th Genome Dynamics in Neuroscience Meeting

This year's Genome Dynamics in Neuroscience conference lasts from September 19 until September 22. 42 internationally recognized scientists from all over the world have confirmed their attendance as speakers, and there will be room for over 100 additiona l participants. This is the fourth in line of a series of international meetings circulating globally, addressing genome instability and DNA repair in the context of neuroscience and aging in a multidisciplinary setting. The previous meetings were arrange d in Oslo, Norway (2006) Asilomar, California (2008) and Brighton, UK (2010). The next meeting after GDN4 is planned in Hyderabad, India in 2014. The overall theme of this meeting is the etiology of DNA damage and repair deficiency as it impacts the dev eloping and mature nervous system. Emerging data implicate both direct DNA strand damage and age-dependent alterations in DNA repair capacity as key factors relevant to neural homeostasis. However, it has become clear that accumulating lesions in DNA an d their consequences is different between cycling immature cells and terminally differentiated cells such as neurons, and changes with age. Relatively little is known about the mechanisms involved. This meeting will bring together leading experts to dis cuss how lesion repair occurs during neural development and how it changes in aging neurons, and how these alterations contribute to the onset of neurodegenerative disease. The conference program includes oral presentation sessions from graduate student s and postdoctoral fellows selected from submitted abstracts. The highly collegial atmosphere of this conference provides a unique opportunity for new investigators, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students to present and discuss their work with an aud ience that includes internationally recognized leaders in the field. Please see the attached project description and program for further details.