4^th International Conference on Molecular Biology & Nucleic Acids October 07-08, 2019 Chicago, Illinois, USA

Oleg N Tikhodeyev is the author of the original approach for resolving multiple ambiguities and contradictions in current genetic concepts. He has shown that the key source of such ambiguities and contradictions is the erroneous belief that the same genetic term (for example, mutation) is able to comprise both specific phenomenology and the underlying mechanisms (Tikhodeyev, 2015). This belief became widely accepted after 1952, when the hereditary role of DNA had been demonstrated. In modern genetic concepts, the terms describing molecular mechanisms should be clearly distinguished from those describing phenomenology because there is no strict correlation between phenomenology and molecular mechanisms (Tikhodeyev, 2016).

Molecular Biology, Genetics, DNA Molecule

Oleg N Tikhodeyev is the author of the original approach for resolving multiple ambiguities and contradictions in current genetic concepts. He has shown that the key source of such ambiguities and contradictions is the erroneous belief that the same genetic term (for example, mutation) is able to comprise both specific phenomenology and the underlying mechanisms (Tikhodeyev, 2015). This belief became widely accepted after 1952, when the hereditary role of DNA had been demonstrated. In modern genetic concepts, the terms describing molecular mechanisms should be clearly distinguished from those describing phenomenology because there is no strict correlation between phenomenology and molecular mechanisms (Tikhodeyev, 2016).

Genetics, Molecular Biology

Lata Balakrishnan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology in the School of Science at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. The current research in the Balakrishnan laboratory is focused on understanding the mechanistic reactions of eukaryotic lagging strand DNA synthesis, and the accompanying DNA repair processes. She trained with Dr. Robert Bambara, at the University of Rochester for her post-doctoral fellowship and received her Ph.D. under the mentorship of Dr. Barry Milavetz at the University of North Dakota, wherein her dissertation work defined the epigenetic code during viral transcription.

Mechanistic reactions of eukaryotic lagging strand DNA synthesis, and the accompanying DNA repair processes.DNA Replication and Recombination

Jean-Yves Masson is an internationally recognized expert in DNA repair mechanisms. Throughout his career, Dr. Masson focused on radiation and chemicals that impede DNA replication to induce DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Failure to remove these breaks leads to cell death, genetic mutations, gross chromosome rearrangements, and to cell transformation and cancer. He is one of the few world experts on PALB2, a protein which is getting scientific and public attention as PALB2 mutations increase breast cancer by 6-8 folds. He established that PALB2 deficient cells are very sensitive to PARP inhibitors, a very promising therapeutic avenue for breast/ovarian cancer. Dr. Masson was recently inducted as a Canadian Academy of Health Sciences fellow.

DNA double-strand break repair and human diseases. DNA repair and studies aimed at manipulating DNA repair pathways for therapeutic benefit. Basic science studies in the laboratory focus mainly on the characterization of the MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 complex, breast/ovarian PALB2 and BRCA2 proteins and Fanconi anemia enzymes in DNA double-strand break repair by homologous recombination.