Abstract 1021 Decoding the DDR and Autophagy cross talk, a cellular response to genotoxic stress and its implications in cancer therapy

Cancer cells improvise and find ways to modulate cellular processes to overcome various genotoxic stresses and escape cell death. The cooperativity between autophagy and DNA damage repair (DDR) response to double stranded breaks (DSB) in cancer cells, is not well understood and could be a critical factor underlying the chemotherapeutic response in cancer patients. We have identified a key interaction between, Beclin 1 of macroautophagy and an adaptor protein of ATM kinase pathway known as mediator of DNA damage checkpoint1 (MDC1), which connects the two cellular homeostatic mechanisms together.