Marco Di Antonio, PhD, Imperial College London, UK
Ilias Georgakopoulos-Soares, BSc, MEeng, PhD, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Natalia Gromak, PhD, University of Oxford, UK
Karen M Vasquez, PhD, Dell Pediatric Research Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Marco Di Antonio, PhD, Imperial College London, UK
Marco Di Antonio is a Senior Lecturer in the Chemistry Department of Imperial College. His group works at the interface between chemistry, biology, and genomics, with the aim to develop novel strategies to study cancer and aging biology from a fresh perspective. His main research focus is on the chemistry and biology of DNA, with a particular interest in non-helical DNA structures like G-quadruplexes. Recent efforts from his group have led to the discovery of the first human protein that binds selectively multimolecular G-quadruplexes, and to characterize the role of G-quadruplex RNA in the formation of pathological aggregates linked to neurodegenerative diseases.
Ilias Georgakopoulos-Soares, BSc, MEng, PhD, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Ilias Georgakopoulos-Soares is a faculty member at Penn State College of Medicine working with computational approaches to tackle biological problems. He studied Biological Sciences at Imperial College London and obtained his PhD from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge. He then went on to conduct his postdoctoral research at UCSF. Having also studied at the National Technical University of Athens, he also has a background in Mechanical Engineering. His research group focuses on understanding the contribution of non-canonical DNA structures on biological function, genomic instability, genetic variation, and evolution.
Natalia Gromak, PhD, University of Oxford, UK
Natalia Gromak is an Associate Professor and an MRC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford (UK). She obtained her PhD in RNA biology at the University of Cambridge (UK), followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford in mechanisms of co-transcriptional RNA processing. Dr Gromak leads an R-loop biology lab, investigating the molecular role of these non-canonical nucleic acid structures in health and disease. Among other discoveries, Gromak lab has demonstrated the role of R-loops in transcriptional termination, characterized multiple R-loop proteome factors, and revealed the function of R-loops in neurodegenerative diseases.
Karen M Vasquez, PhD, Dell Pediatric Research Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Karen M Vasquez is a Professor and Division Head of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin. She has been studying mechanisms of DNA structure-induced genetic instability related to genetic diseases, with a focus on cancer, for over 30 years. She obtained her PhD degree in Biochemistry from Baylor College of Medicine and received postdoctoral training in the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale University. Scientific contributions of the Vasquez laboratory include over 130 publications in the area of non-B DNA and structure and function and genomic instability in cancer.
These alternative structures can influence DNA stability, gene expression, and genomic integrity in ways that differ from the traditional B-form DNA double helix. The study of such alternative (i.e., non-B) DNA structures is crucial for understanding the complexities of genomic regulation and the mechanisms underlying various diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. As research in this field continues to evolve, it is becoming increasingly clear that these unique DNA conformations play pivotal roles in cellular function and organismal development.
Advancing our understanding of the functions of non-B DNA structures is essential; for example, it can lead to novel therapeutic strategies targeting these structures, which may provide new avenues for treating diseases associated with genomic instability. Recent advances have demonstrated the significance of DNA-binding proteins in recognizing and stabilizing non-B DNA, as well as their implications in gene regulation. Furthermore, the development of innovative techniques for studying DNA topology and conformational changes has opened new frontiers in our understanding of DNA biology.
Accepted topics include:
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