September 30 (Mon) - October 2 (Wed), 2019

Genome integrity is achieved by the action of multiple DNA damage sensors and effectors which are responsible for recognizing and correcting unintended insults in DNA. Mis-regulation of these pathways leads to deleterious mutations, which eventually result in diseases such as cancer and premature aging. Proper regulation of the cell cycle and cell's ability to execute proper checkpoint in response to DNA damage are crucial for preventing occurrence of DNA damage and development of diseases associated with genomic instability. Thus, understanding molecular mechanisms underlying precise cell cycle regulation and preservation of genome integrity could unveil mechanisms of aforementioned diseases, furthermore novel insights into better therapies. In this symposium, speakers will cover nobel findings on key players in DNA damage response and cell cycle regulation. And cutting edge technologies to investigate DNA damage response will be introduced and discussed as well.

Coordinator & Chair: Hongtae Kim (Ulsan National Institute for Science Technology(UNIST), Korea)

Cilia are organelles that extend from the surface of most mammalian cells. Cilia are of profound medical importance. When ciliary functions are disturbed, various human diseases such as kidney cysts, cancer, retinal degeneration, and obesity are induced. The understanding of cilia has increased in depth and breadth as we learn more about these remarkable organelles. This session will cover basic topics in ciliary structure/transport, ciliary dynamics and signaling, cilia in the nervous system, and human ciliopathies. This session is organized by the Cilia and flagella section of The Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology and will bring together basic scientists and clinicians, resulting in crosstalk, collaborations, and innovative new directions.

Coordinator & Chair: Ji Eun Lee (Sungkyunkwan University, Korea)

Metabolism and proteostasis play central roles in aging and age-associated pathology. In this symposium, excellent scientists will present their research on mechanisms by which metabolic and proteostatic aspects contribute to aging processes and age-related diseases at the cellular and organismal levels. Three leading scientists in Korea will then present their recent work on metabolism and Alzheimer's disease (Inhee Mook-Jung), autophagy and cellular senescence (Chanhee Kang), and longevity and organelle communication (Seung-Jae V. Lee), followed by a young investigator's talk. Overall this symposium will cover exciting progresses in the regulation of aging by metabolism and protein homeostasis, which is crucial for human health in this aged society.

Coordinator & Chair: Seung-Jae V. Lee (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea)

This session compose: (I) immunoediting in cancer cells & tumor microenvironment(TME), (ii) exosomes secreted by cancer cells, (III) response from neighbor stromal cells (fibroblasts), (IV) understanding of the NK cell therapy and (V) Jens project. The tumor microenvironment is a heterogeneous tissue that in addition to tumor cells, contain tumor-associated cell types such as immune cells, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells. Tumor growth creates hypoxia, oxidative stress and acidosis within the TME triggering an adjustment of the extracellular matrix (ECM), a response from neighbor stromal cells (e.g., fibroblasts) and immune cells (lymphocytes and macrophages), inducing angiogenesis and, ultimately, resulting in metastasis. Exosomes secreted by tumor or TME cells are central players in all these events. Some new therapeutic options that include drugs targeting microenvironment components are achieving encouraging results in reducing the number of tumors and/or overcoming their resistance in preclinical studies. And also, increased understanding of the NK cell response to TME has provided a better understanding of their impaired function in tumors which may aid in the development of novel immunotherapeutic strategies to enhance NK cell responses in cancer patients.

The knowledge gained from structural studies of biomolecules including protein, DNA/RNA and their complex, have significantly advanced our understanding on biological phenomena at the molecular level and contributed to the development of therapeutics. Recently, cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) highlighted as the powerful technique to investigate stuctural information of macromolecular complexes as well as membrane proteins. Particularly, resolution revolution in single particle Cryo-EM have been led by technical breakthroughs such as direct electron detector (DED) with unprecedented speed and sensitivity, a state of the art electron microscope, efficient image processing software with better algorithms and GPG-based parallel computation, resulting in a burst of high-resolution structures of large macromolecular assemblies and membrane protein. Another technique for structural biology, high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM), is also evolving rapidly, which allow us to monitor the sturctural changes of protein with a high spatial and temporal resolution (< 1 nm, 50ms) in a liquid phase. These achievements herald the beginning of a new era in the field of structural biology. In this session, we are going to discuss about current progress in frontier techniques for structural biology.

Communication among cells is an essential part of life in multicellular organisms; plants are no exception. However, the encapsulation of plant cells by cell walls and the lack of an active circulatory system poses a question on how signaling molecules are transmitted between cells in plants. Nevertheless, ample examples indicate that many molecules including proteins and RNAs move a long distance to regulate various aspects of plant development. This session will highlight the recent progress made on the movement of plant molecules, including small molecules, RNAs and proteins through specific transporters and plasmodesmata.

This symposium, titled "Forces in Cell Biology," deals with new engineering approaches to understand cells. Cellular physiology is regulated by complex physicochemical cues from tissue microenvironments. Despite the importance of physical factors in cellular physiology and pathology, the current focus of medicine largely ignores the physical basis of the diseases. Mechanobiology is an interdisciplinary field that combines classical mechanics with molecular and cellular biology as well as genetics to address the importance of mechanical stresses in the disease development through accessing biophysical properties of the cells and cellular components. Re-evaluation of human pathophysiology in the context of mechanobiology may provide researchers with a unique opportunity to identify biophysical markers or targets for disease detection, diagnosis, and therapeutics. The speakers of this symposium will introduce the latest research trends in the field of cell mechanics and mechanobiology.

Even though we know that male and female are not the same, experimental results obtained from research using only one sex are sometimes extrapolated to both sexes without through justification. These kinds of inadvertent extrapolation might cause harmful results and economic loss. Recently, renowned funding organizations such as the European Commission, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the US National Institutes of Health try to influence researchers to integrate sex/gender not only in clinical research but also in basic and preclinical research. Editorial policies of major scientific journals have been changed and ask authors to consider integrating sex as a biological variable. We invited four distinguished scholars who will share their findings/efforts to integrated sex/gender in biomedical research. We expect this symposium will heighten interests and broaden understanding regarding sex as an important biological variable from basic and preclinical research.

Optogenetic techniques, broadly defined as methods that combine the usage of light and light-sensitive actuators and reporters, have revolutionized the investigation of neural circuits. New optical tools are continuously being developed to accelerate experiments with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution, while rapidly developing genetic strategies and single-cell sequencing techniques facilitate precision targeting of specific cell types. These tools are unveiling previously unforeseen structure and function of the neural circuits in both peripheral and central nervous system. With the aim of introducing the latest optogenetic tools and their applications in dissecting the functional anatomy of the neural circuitry, we will bring together a number of experts in the field, who are actively applying these tools to deepen our understanding of a wide range of neural circuits-from simple sensory modalities to complex behavioural states.

Increasing incidences of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in pathogenic bacteria are a global health concern. Thus, more and more attention will be paid to the adoption and improvement of rapid diagnostic and alternative therapeutic strategies to address the concerns regarding AMR. Application of state-of-the-art omics technologies combined with bioinformatics tools will facilitate the development of new technological platforms to detect and mitigate AMR. The topics discussed in this session will include a new method for AMR detection and new insights into antibacterial discovery and development based on the model host screens, bacterial vulnerable targets, or bacterial predator based engineering, which can be translated to clinically achievable diagnostics and therapeutics.

Plants defend against invading pathogens by activating innate immune system. In turn, successful pathogens suppress host immunity by delivering virulence proteins into plant cell during infection. These virulence proteins, termed 'effectors', biochemically modify host cell target proteins and affect various aspects of plant immunity, physiology and development hence promoting infection. In disease resistant plants, NLR (nucleotide-binding and leucine rich repeat) immune receptors confer recognition of one or more of pathogen effectors and activate effector-triggered immunity (ETI).
At the plant immunity session of KSMCB 2019, the most recent progress on our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of plant immune system will be introduced by internationally recognized scientists. Presentations at the plant immunity session will include molecular genetics, cell biology and structural studies of different model systems of the plant-pathogen interactions.

The secretion of exosomes known as extracellular vesicles is an evolutionarily conserved cellular process occurring from simple organisms to complex multicellular organisms. Recent progress in this area has revealed that exosomes play multiple roles in intercellular and interkingdom communication, suggesting that exosomes are NanoCosmos, i.e., extracellular organelles that play diverse roles in intercellular communication. This session will highlight emerging exosome biology covering from concept of exosome-mediated intercellular communication, comprehensive aspects of exosomes including components, biogenesis, and diverse functions that should facilitate further applications, especially to develop diagnostic tools and therapeutics.

Humoral responses are key in vaccine development but also act as pathogenic mechanism in autoimmune diseases and allergy. B cell-T cell interactions bring about the maturation and production of high affinity antibodies and are key to the establishment of effective humoral immunity. There is a significant advance in our understanding of how B cell-T cell interactions drive antibody affinity maturation in last two decades with the discovery of Tfh cells and Tfr cells as key regulators of germinal center reactions. Nevertheless, a number of scientific questions are yet unclear, including how these interactions influence the differentiation of B cells into effector fates and how they limit the emergence of autoreactive B cell clones. In this symposium, we aim to present the most recent advances in the basic biology of the T cell-dependent B cell responses, and to discuss how furthering our understanding of B cell-T cell interactions can inform vaccine development as well as allergy and autoimmunity.

Chromatin structure and its epigenetic regulation control transcriptional outcome. Therefore, temporal and spatial regulation of chromatin structure and transcription is a key to the normal development and physiology. Accordingly, deregulated chromatin modifications and transcription are associated with developmental defects as well as other disease states. In this session, five excellent scientists will discuss current understanding of chromatin and transcription in development and diseases. The topics include the function of chromatin architecture and chromatin-associated proteins in developmental process, cancer and neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson's disease.

RNA biology research has become a rapidly expanding field to explore regulatory RNAs, RNA metabolisms, and the roles of non-coding RNAs in diverse cellular progresses such as cellular senecence, tumorigenesis, differentiation, and development. Recent advances in high-throughput RNA sequencing have facilitated the discovery of new principles and mechanisms of RNA-mediated gene regulation. This symposium highlights not only the regulatory mechanisms orchestrated by diverse types of RNA but also their potential applications, and speakers will present their fascinating achievements to uncover new mechanisms of gene expression at RNA levels.

Application of "Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI)" to innovative drug discovery has inspired both academia and phamaceutical industry over the last years. Since the success of AlphaGO, these initial expectations are getting realistic as demonstrated by AlphaFold (Science 2018) in protein folding prediction - one of the most challenging problems for decades. Drug discovery & development is getting more of an information science than the past, where computational analyses often play a critical role such as cheminfomatics, bioinformatics, data mining or machine learning including recently highlighted deep neural network (DNN). In this symposium, five speakers are invited to present their on-going studites in the emerging field of AI of Data-Driven Drug Discovery (D4).

Vesicular transport shuttles membrane-bound carriers among the different intracellular organelles. It is fundamental cellular process, as properly localized cargoes (proteins and lipids) are essential to perform their function. In addition to classical vesicular transport, recent studies have also proposed non-vesicular transport, mediated by physical membrane contact between intracellular organelles. Indeed, there is now a growing list of diseases and pathologic conditions that are caused or exacerbated by alterations in mechanisms of membrane trafficking. This session will introduce the latest research and cutting-edge approaches to membrane dynamics, intracellular trafficking, and organelle communication.

The nervous sysyem displays an enormous diversity of cell types, which are assembled into neural circuits to serve for complex functions such as sensory perception and higher cognition. To build the highly ordered cytoarchitecture of the nervous system, neurons and glial cells are generated through coordinated production and placement of distinct cellular subtypes. One of the key questions in developmental biology is how the same genome in each cell can produce vastly different cell types. The identity of each cell type is associated with its unique transcriptional profiles, which are shaped by highly ordered gene expression programs. During development, genetic information is dynamically interpreted in response in intrinsic and extrinsic factors, stochastically but highly coordinately. In this session, the speakers will talk about mechanisms of gene expression regulation that generate cellular diversity in various model organisms, including Drosophila, mice, and human stem cells.

The innumerable causes of cancer, with the only outcome being that of unlimited growth of cells with migration to other tissues, have resulted in vastareas of cancer research, which would call for a conference bigger than the KSBMB presently being held. Because this session could cover only an extremely small aspect of tumor studies, a practical approach was adopted, and researchers focused on developing therapeutics including chemical as well as biological measures were invited. We have a very enthusiastic re (rksearcher from Shanghai developing antibodies that target cancer-related proteins. Moreover, development of drugs for targeting cancer metabolism and cell growth, and possibly undergoing clinical trials will be presented, anticipating an exciting and promising outcome in the near future. Last but not the least, the emerging field of oncoimmunology will be further discussed by a clinician. Here, researchers working on seemingly diverse topics will be expected to develop cancer therapeutics for clinical trials, to enable the treatment of malignant diseases, the incidence of which is increasing in an aging society.

By means of circadian clock system, all the living organisms on Earth can manifest molecular processes, physiology and behavior at the advantageous times of the day and year. In moderan society, disruption of circadian clock is increasingly prevalent and has been linked as a risk for diseases such as cancer, sleep disorders, mental disorders, and metabolic disorders etc. Detailed mechanistic understanding of how circadian clock system controls and cross-talks with physicology and behaviour would provide insights into a health and disease. In this symposium, four distinguished speakers will present their recent studies about how circadian clock system works in the brain and the role of circadian clock system in decision making, sleep/wake cycle, and aging.

Lipids are a diverse group of biological molecules with roles in membrane diversity, energy storage and signaling pathway. Recently, lipids are emerging as key molecules that regulate many physiological and pathological processes. In this symposium, leading researchers will present roles of bioactive lipids related with signaling pathways, disease pathophysiology, regulation of adipose maturation, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia and membrane fusion.

The new techno-wave in CRISPR-based genome editing not only open a new era in plant precision breeding, but also has amajor impact on the development of basic plant science. CRISPR-based genome editing tools are becoming increasingly diversified and sophisticated, including discovery of various Cas systems and enzymes, development of more precise Cas enzymes, increase of genome accessibility by recognizing simpler protospacer adjacent motif (PAM), invention of cytidine or adenine base editors, development of new base mutators and improvement of homology-directed repair(HDR)-mediated genome editing technique. The evolution of genome editing technology is being immediately adapted to plant biotechnology. Earlier this year, we witnessed the commercialization of the first genome editing-based products, high oleic soybean oil (CalynoTM), based TALEN technology, the 2nd generation genome editing tool and will see much more from now on. The plant genome editing session will explore how CRISPR technology is being developed and applied in the field of plant research and crop breeding.

In this session, we will discuss on recent advances in metabolism research field; particularly immunometabolism. First speaker will present that osteoarthritis is a disease associated with metabolic disorders. Also, targeting the cholesterol metabolism may provide a therapeutic avenue for treating osteoarthritis. Second speaker will talk on TonEBP which is a central component of the inflammatory enhanceosome and it is an attractive target for therapeutic agents to prevent metabolic diseases. In their talk, we will discuss on defininf the key molecular pathways underlying the pathogenesis of NAFLD (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease). Particularly, gut-derived serotonin ameliorates hepatic steatosis through a reduction in liver serotonin receptor A2 (HTR2A) signaling.

In addition to signal transduction mediated by diverse membrane proteins and receptors avidity and dynamic aspects including interactions and translocalizations of membrane proteins and receptors can be importantly involved in impaired regulations of cellular behaviors, leading to abnormal cellular signaling activity and functions. Thus, exploration of the dynamic aspects of membrane proteins and receptors would be critical for our efforts to identify mechanistic details for human diseases and thereby strategies to deal with the abnormal cellular behaviors due to the dysfunctional membrane proteins. In this session, we would like to cover certain examples of membrane proteins, receptors, or targets at molecular levels that are related to development of fibrosis or cancer drug resistance or to immune synapse formation, and further to cancer-therapeutic purposes using targets on cancers.

Brain infections are relatively rare, but they are potentially serious and have a poor prognosis although they contribute significantly to human suffering. Infections can cause inflammation of the brain and neurological or cognitive dysfunction which may have a strong negative impact on socioeconomic development. During this symposium, we will describe a few examples of such infections causing severe diseases associated with increased morbidity and mortality that result in the loss of motor or sensory functions (sepsis, CMV), and alterations of cognition/behavior (Rabies).