Overview

Genetic toxicology represents a study of the genetic damage that a cell can incur, the agents that induce such damage, the damage response mechanisms available to cells and organisms, and the potential consequences of such damage. Genotoxic agents are abundant in the environment and are also induced endogenously. The consequences of such damage can include carcinogenesis and teratogenesis. An understanding of genetic toxicology is essential to carry out risk evaluations of the impact of genotoxic agents and to assess how individual genetic differences influence the response to genotoxic damage. In recent years, the importance of maintaining genomic stability has become increasingly recognised, in part by the realisation that failure of the damage response mechanisms underlies many, if not all, cancer incidence. The importance of these mechanisms is also underscored by their remarkable conservation between species, allowing the study of simple organisms to provide significant input into our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. It has also become clear that the damage response mechanisms interface closely with other aspects of cellular metabolism including replication, transcription and cell cycle regulation. Moreover, defects in many of these mechanisms, as observed for example in ataxia telangiectasia patients, confer disorders with associated developmental abnormalities demonstrating their essential roles during growth and development. In short, whilst a decade ago, a study of the impact of DNA damage was seen as a compartmentalised area of cellular research, it is now appreciated to lie at the centre of an array of cellular responses of crucial importance to human health. Consequently, this has become a dynamic and rapidly advancing area of research.

The Genetic Toxicology Gordon Research Conference is biannual with an evolving change in the emphasis of the meetings. From evaluating the nature of genotoxic chemicals, which lay at the centre of the early conferences, the emphasis has moved to understanding how cells and organisms respond to the different forms of genotoxic damage incurred. By understanding these mechanisms, the risk to humans can be more rationally assessed and evaluated. More recently, the format of the meetings have aimed to facilitate input from the range of disciplines that can now provide insight into the field. This evolution in emphasis has been continued in the format of the proposed 2003 meeting. In the last Genetic Toxicology Gordon Conference (2001), the aim was to integrate studies on genetic toxicology at the structural, molecular and cellular level with those involving mice and humans (2 micron to Man). In the 2003 conference, we aim to integrate the approaches from 2 micron to man together with approaches where our basic knowledge has been exploited in an applied context (2 micron to Man to manipulation).

Another aim of this conference is to bring together scientists from the broad disciplines that impact upon field as well as those scientists working in applied and basic research contexts to focus on the current issues relevant to Genetic Toxicology. Advancing technologies lie at the cutting edge of research and providing a forum for exposing the potential applications of new technology to genetic toxicology is an important aspect of this conference.

Meeting Format

The conference will run from Sunday evening to Friday morning, and will include five evening sessions and four morning sessions. The four afternoons will be completely free for informal discussions. Poster viewing sessions will be held late each afternoon prior to dinner. Each session will have a Session chair who will provide an overview of the subject, and present highlights from his own research. This will be followed by 3-4 speakers. Following the format of the last Genetic Toxicology meeting, which was received enthusiastically, there will be allocated time after each talk for ample discussion followed by a general discussion at the end of each session. Time will also be allocated for a selected set of poster presenters to highlight their findings in the relevant session.

We wish to thank the following supporters for their much appreciated contributions: