Workshop on Splicing Factor Mutations and RNA Biology in Cancer at the Edward P. Evans Hall at Yale May 22-23, 2019

Yale Cancer Center and the Yale RNA Center co-hosted the “Third Workshop on Splicing Factor Mutations and RNA Biology in Cancer” at the Yale School of Management on May 22 and 23. The event was organized by Drs. Stephanie Halene, Karla Neugebauer, and Manoj Pillai with assistance from Richard Carr. Sponsors included the Edward P. Evans Foundation, Yale Cancer Center, Yale Center for RNA Science and Medicine, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Basic and physician scientists from Australia, Europe, and the U.S. presented their cutting-edge research and exchanged ideas on this emerging field that interfaces basic biochemistry and cancer biology.

The first evening started with an exciting poster session by trainees and was followed by an opening keynote address by Dr. Joan Steitz, who captured the audience with her group’s work on viral non-coding RNAs. The following day, presentations by senior scientists and selected trainees covered the latest in RNA splicing factor mutations, development of drugs targeting mutant proteins, RNA regulators in stem cells, novel RNA sequencing methods, advanced mouse models, and novel tools to study the non-coding transcriptome.  Dr. Samie Jaffrey, Professor of Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College, presented the closing keynote lecture highlighting the advances in regulation of RNA function by nucleotide methylation. The workshop served as a venue for forging new collaborations and deepened existing ones to advance our understanding of RNA biology in cancer, with the ultimate goal to translate these advances to better treatments for patients.

The agenda is here.

Some images from the meeting: