Symposium Program
*Subject to Change
Monday, June 15th, 2026
Light Breakfast & Registration
8:00 – 8:50 AM | Light Breakfast & Registration
Opening Remarks
8:50 – 8:55 AM | UNC Charlotte R1 Status and Research – University Leadership
8:55 –9:00 AM | DBS and CBES – Dr. Richardson
Morning Session #1
9:00 – 9:30 AM | Keynote Address #1
Speaker: Dr. Andre Nussenzweig, Distinguished Investigator and Chief of Laboratory of Genome Integrity, NIH/NCI
Title: Genome stability in mitotic and post-mitotic cells
9:30 – 9:50 AM | Invited Lecture #1
Speaker: Dr. Anja Bielinsky, Byrd Family Endowed Professor and Chair, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Virginia School of Medicine
Title: Genome instability syndromes caused by dysfunctional DNA replication and repair
9:50 – 10:05 AM | Contributed Talk #1 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
10:05 – 10:20 AM | Contributed Talk #2 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
10:05 – 10:20 AM | Break (20 minutes)
Morning Session #2
10:40 – 11:00 AM | Invited Lecture #2
Speaker: Dr. Lee Zou, George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University School of Medicine
Title: Targeting Replication Stress in Cancer Therapy
11:00 – 11:15 AM | Contributed Talk #3 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
11:15 – 11:30 AM | Contributed Talk #4 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
11:30 – 11:45 AM | Contributed Talk #5 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
11:45 – 12:05 AM | Invited Lecture #3
Speaker: Dr. Francesca Storici, Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor, HHMI Faculty Scholar, GRA Distinguished Cancer Scientist, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology
Title: Ribonucleotides in DNA: A New Layer of Genome Regulation
Lunch & Poster Session
12:05 – 1:00 PM | Lunch
1:00 – 2:45 PM | Poster Presentations
Afternoon Session #1
2:45 – 3:15 PM | Keynote Address #2
Speaker: Dr. Taekjip Ha, Senior Investigator at Boston Children’s Hospital and Professor of Harvard Medical School, Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Title: TBA
3:15 – 3:35PM | Invited Lecture #4
Speaker: Dr. Jean Cook, Professor and Chair, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title: TBA
3:35 – 3:50 PM | Contributed Talk #6 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
3:50– 4:05 PM | Contributed Talk #7 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
4:05 – 4:25 PM | Break (20 minutes)
Afternoon Session #2
4:25 – 4:45 PM | Invited Lecture #5
Speaker: Dr. Hong Wang, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, North Carolina State University
Title: Visualization of Mph1- and Top3-Rmi-Mediated Holliday Junction Dissolution in Homologous Recombination Repair by Atomic Force Microscopy
4:45 – 5:00 PM | Contributed Talk #8 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
5:00 – 5:15 PM | Contributed Talk #9 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
5:15 – 5:30 PM | Contributed Talk #10 (Selected from Abstract Submissions)
5:30 – 5:50 AM | Invited Lecture #6
Speaker: Dr. Mauro Calabrese, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title: Mechanisms of gene silencing induced by the lncRNA Xist
Poster Award Presentation
5:50 PM | Poster Award Announcement
Awards presented by Keynote Speakers
Closing & Social Hour
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM | Light Refreshments and Networking