The 2nd Southern Genome Maintenance Conference will be held on June 26-27, 2021, in Miami, Florida. The conference will be the continuation of the biennial Southern Genome Maintenance Conference, which is expected to be held at different cities around the Gulf Coast and Southern US regions every other year. The second conference will be held at the Modesto Maidique Campus of Florida International University/The State University System of Florida on Saturday, June 26, 2021, starting at 11 AM and ending on Sunday, June 27, 2021, at 2:30 PM. The conference sessions will start with a keynote lecture followed by short talks selected from submitted abstracts. The first two sessions will be on Saturday with a poster session to follow. The third session will be on Sunday. The conference is intended to focus on the topics, which are closely relevant to the major public health issues in the regions of the Gulf Coast and the Southern States due to the unique environmental exposures, diversified population, and health disparities in diseases such as cancer, age-related neurological disorders, and metabolic diseases. 1) DNA Repair, Genome Integrity and Diseases 2) Environmental Influences of Genome Integrity 3) Epitranscriptomic Responses to Environmental Exposures and Environmental Diseases. There are several national conferences that focus on DNA repair and genome stability/integrity. However, there is a significant gap in the opportunities for discussions on the environmental impact on genome integrity, epitranscriptomes, and diseases through DNA repair that are the focus of this conference. This conference, along with the future series of the conference, aims at providing excellent opportunities for discussions on issues relevant to environmental exposure and diseases in the regions. The conference will also provide a unique venue for presentations of innovative discoveries and science, and more importantly, for students, postdoctoral fellows, and new investigators to (i) interact with keynote speakers in person and (ii) to present their innovative research. Furthermore, since the conference will be held at Florida International University, which is one of the largest minority institutions in the US, we expect that the conference will inspire and promote under-represented minority students to participate in basic and translational research by providing them with the opportunities of discussing their creative scientific ideas with senior scientists and colleagues. Thus, the major goal of the conference is to create a unique opportunity that bridges DNA repair that underlies genome and epitranscriptome integrity with environmental diseases. The conference will also foster interdisciplinary collaboration on the stability of the genome and epitranscriptome and environmental diseases. Furthermore, the conference will provide an excellent environment for students, especially minority students, early career and senior investigators to discuss their new findings and enhance the next generation of scientists.

Project Narrative The 2nd Southern Genome Maintenance Conference is intended to focus on the topics that are closely relevant to the major public health issues in the regions of the Gulf Coast and the Southern States due to the unique environmental exposures, diversified population, and health disparities in diseases such as cancer, age-related neurological disorders, and metabolic diseases. Thus, it is relevant to public health and the NIH mission that reduces illness and disability.