Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the 1st International Electronic Conference on Cancers: Exploiting Cancer Vulnerability by Targeting the DNA Damage Response: 1–14 February 2021

Defects in the DNA damage response (DDR), comprising DNA repair and cell cycle checkpoint signalling, can promote tumorigenesis by creating increased genomic instability. These defects create tumour vulnerabilities that can be exploited for therapeutic gain. This conference aims to promote and advance the exciting and rapidly changing field of exploiting DDR dysregulation for cancer therapy. It will bring together experts in basic, translational and clinical research to discuss the current research and the opportunities and obstacles that lie ahead of the field, as we seek to translate the concepts of synthetic lethality, gene addiction and checkpoint inhibition into cancer therapies together.

The focus of this conference is the translation of basic science understanding of the DNA damage response (DDR), and its dysregulation in cancer to its therapeutic exploitation. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• DNA function and its dysregulation in cancer, including epigenetic and post-translational mechanisms
• Role of the DDR in immune signalling
• Targeted therapies exploiting DDR dysregulation and translation of determinants of sensitivity to predictive biomarkers
• Clinical studies with DDR-targeted therapies

There will be seven specific sessions:

• Session 1: Overview of targeting DDR dysfunction in cancer
• session 2: DNA damage cell cycle checkpoints
• Session 3: DNA repair, defects in cancer and their exploitation
• Session 4: MMR defects, mutator phenotype
• Session 5: SUMO and ubiquitination and other epigenetic and post-translational mechanisms
• Session 6: Targeting with immune checkpoint inhibitors
• Session 7: Overview and use of biomarkers in clinical trials

and a poster session. Posters can be presented without an accompanying proceedings paper, and will be available online on this website, during and after the e-conference. However, they will not be added to the proceedings of the conference.

Participants will have the opportunity to examine, explore and critically engage with issues and advances in these areas. We hope to facilitate discussions and exchange within the community.

This event will solely be an online proceeding which allows participation from all over the world, with no concerns for travel and related expenditures. This type of conference is particularly appropriate and useful because research concerned with cancers is progressing rapidly. An electronic conference provides a platform for rapid and direct exchanges about the latest research findings and novel ideas. Participation, as well as the “attendance” of this online conference, is free of charge.

The 1st International Electronic Conference on Cancers: Exploiting Cancer Vulnerability by Targeting the DNA Damage Response will be held at IECC2021.sciforum.net, on a platform developed by MDPI to organize electronic conferences.

The 1st International Electronic Conference on Cancers: Exploiting Cancer Vulnerability by Targeting the DNA Damage Response is sponsored by MDPI and the scientific journal Cancers. Accepted conference papers will be published in the proceedings of this e-conference. All participants are cordially invited to contribute with a extended full manuscript to Cancers Special Issue IECC2021: Exploiting Cancer Vulnerability by Targeting the DNA Damage Response with a 20% discount off the APC. Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694; IF 6.126) is a peer-review Open Access journal of oncology published semimonthly online by MDPI.

The best conference paper and presentation will receive an award of 500 CHF, as well as an offer to publish an extended paper, free of charge, in the Special Issue of the journal Cancers.

We hope the community will share this enthusiasm and help making this conference a success.

Kind regards,
Prof. Dr. Nicola Curtin
Dr. Helen E. Bryant

Conference Secretariat

Ms. Dimity Wang
Ms. Donna Xue
iecc2021@mdpi.com

Time Schedule

Abstract Deadline: 6 December 2020
Abstract Acceptance Notification Deadline: 20 December 2020
Full Paper Submission Deadline: 20 January 2021
Conference Date: 1–14 February 2021
Live Sessions: 1–3 February 2021
Awards Announcement: 30 April 2021

Submissions should be made by authors online by registering with www.sciforum.net and using the "New Submission" function once logged into the system.

1. Scholars interested in participating in the conference can submit their abstract (about 200–300 words) online on this website until 6 December 2020.
2. The Conference Committee will notify the acceptance of the abstract by 20 December 2020.
3. In case of acceptance, authors will be asked to submit their manuscript (short proceedings paper, 3-6 pages), along with a presentation, and optionally a video presentation of his/her paper (only PDF), until the submission deadline of 20 January 2021.
4. The manuscripts and presentations will be available on IECC2021.sciforum.net for discussion and rating during the time of the conference, from 1–14 February 2021.
5. All accepted proceedings papers will be published as one dedicated volume in MDPI Proceedings series journals (ISSN: 2504-3900). Publication of proceedings paper is free of charge.
6. The open access journal Cancers (IF 6.126) will publish a conference Special Issue “IECC2021: Exploiting Cancer Vulnerability by Targeting the DNA Damage Response”. All participants are cordially invited to contribute with a full manuscript to this Special Issue.

Manuscripts for the proceedings issue must have the following organization:

First page:

• Title
• Full author names
• Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusions
• (Acknowledgements)
• References

Manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word or any other word processor and should be converted to PDF format before submission. The publication format will be PDF. The manuscript should count at least 3 pages (incl. figures, tables and references) and should not exceed 6 pages.

Authors are encouraged to prepare a presentation in PowerPoint or similar software, to be displayed online along with the manuscript. Slides, if available, will be displayed directly on the website using the IECC2021.sciforum.net proprietary slide viewer. Slides can be prepared in exactly the same way as for any traditional conference where research results are presented. Slides should be converted to PDF format before submission so that our process can easily and automatically convert them for online display.

Authors are also encouraged to submit video presentations. If you are interested in submitting a video presentation, please contact the conference organizer at iecc2021@mdpi.com to find out more about the procedure. The video should be no longer than 10 minutes and be prepared as any of the following formats: .MOV; .MPEG4; .MP4; .AVI; .WMV; .MPEGPS; .FLV.

Authors that wish to present a poster only, i.e., without proceedings paper, can do so in the poster session (session 8). Posters will be available on this conference website during and after the event. Like papers presented on the conference, participants will be able to ask questions and make comments about the posters. Posters can be presented without an accompanying proceedings paper and will be available online on this website during and after the e-conference. However, they will not be added to the proceedings of the conference.

Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.sciforum.net/login by registering and logging in.

Accepted File Formats

• MS Word: Manuscripts prepared in MS Word must be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing manuscripts in MS Word, the 1st International Electronic Conference on Cancers: Exploiting Cancer Vulnerability by Targeting the DNA Damage Response Microsoft Word template file (see download below) must be used. Please do not insert any graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) into a movable frame, as they can superimpose the text and make the layout very difficult to work with.
• LaTeX: Manuscripts prepared in LaTeX must be collated into one ZIP folder (including all source files and images, so that the Conference Secretariat can recompile the submitted PDF). When preparing manuscripts in LaTeX, please use the 1st International Electronic Conference on Cancers: Exploiting Cancer Vulnerability by Targeting the DNA Damage Response LaTeX template files.

The 1st International Electronic Conference on Cancers: Exploiting Cancer Vulnerability by Targeting the DNA Damage Response

LaTeX template

Paper Format: A4 paper format; the printing area is 17.5 cm × 26.2 cm. The margins should be 1.75 cm on each side of the paper (top, bottom, left, and right sides).

• Formatting/Style: Papers should be prepared following the style of Proceedings. The full titles and the cited papers must be given. Reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example, [1,2], [3] or [1–3], and all the references should be listed separately, and as the last section at the end of the manuscript.

• Author List and Affiliation Format: Authors' full first and last names must be given. Abbreviated middle names can be added. For papers written by various contributors, a corresponding author must be designated. The PubMed/MEDLINE format is used for affiliations: complete street address information including city, zip code, state/province, country, and email address should be added. All authors who contributed significantly to the manuscript (including writing a section) should be listed on the first page of the manuscript, below the title of the article. Other parties, who provided only minor contributions, should be listed under Acknowledgments only. A minor contribution might be a discussion with the author, reading through the draft of the manuscript, or performing English corrections.

• Figures, Schemes and Tables: Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color. Full color graphics will be published free of charge. Figures and schemes must be numbered (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, etc.) and an explanatory title must be added. Tables should be inserted into the main text, and numbers and titles for all tables supplied. All table columns should have an explanatory heading. Please supply legends for all figures, schemes and tables. The legends should be prepared as a separate paragraph of the main text and placed in the main text before a table, a figure or a scheme.

For further enquiries, please contact us at iecc2021@sciforum.net.

Potential Conflicts of Interest

It is the authors' responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state here "The authors declare no conflict of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Financial support for the study must be fully disclosed under the "Acknowledgments" section.

Copyright

MDPI, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe that authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting a communication paper to this conference, you retain the copyright of your paper, but you grant MDPI the non-exclusive right to publish this paper online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means that you can easily submit your paper to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher (if required by that publisher).

Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694; CODEN: CANCCT) is a peer-reviewed Open Access journal of oncology published monthly online by MDPI.