The 8th International Symposium on DNA Damage Response & Human Disease (isDDRHD-2017)) has been held successfully from October 27 to October 29, 2017 at No.2 hall, Science and Technology Building, Shenzhen University.

The Symposium  is organized by Shenzhen University Health Science Center (SZUHSC), the Guangdong Key Laboratory for Genome Stability & Disease Prevention, Zhejiang University, Chinese Society for Cell Signaling (CSCB), The Shenzhen “ Sanming ”  Project of Medicine in Geriatrics, the SZU 1 ^st  Affiliated Hospital and Leibniz Institute on Aging-Fritz Lipman Institute (FLI), Jena, Germany. The president of SZU Dr. Qingquan Li and the Director of SZUHSC Dr. Wei-Guo Zhu serve as the meeting president. The co-organizers are Drs. Xingzhi Xu, (SZU), Zhao-Qi Wang ( FLI), Zhen Liang (the SZU 1 ^st  Affiliated Hospital) and Yuejin Hua (Zhejiang University).  The theme of this symposium in 2017 is DNA Damage Response & Genome Instability. The topics will include, but not limited to, DNA damage signaling and DNA repair, replication stress, post-translational modification in DNA damage response, chromatin dynamics in DNA damage response, DNA damage-included genome instability, and DNA damage response pathways as therapeutic targets.

The opening ceremony of isDDRHD-2017 were chaired by Profs. Xingzhi Xu, Zhao-Qi Wang, Yuejin Hua and Zhen Liang. The keynote speech was reported by Prof. Marco Foiani , the Director of IFOM/Academician of the European Academy of Sciences and Prof. Stephen Kowalczykowski , Academician of the American Academy of Sciences. Additionally, more than 40 well-known experts and scholars at domestic  and abroad made wonderful speech, including Prof. Xu Guoliang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Stephen West, Academician of the British Academy of Sciences / Foreign Academy of the American Academy of Sciences; Professor Jan Hoeijmarkers, Academician of Holland Academy of Sciences; Professor Lu Xin, Academician of the British Academy of Medical Sciences., Professor Dana Branzei from EMBO; Professor Gerd Pfeifer from AAAS; Professor Junjie Chen from MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas; Professor Lee Zou from Harvard University; Professor Xiao Zhixiong from Sichuan University; Professor Kong Daochun from Peking University and Hartmut Vodermaier, Senior editor of EMBO journal. They conducted heated discussions and exchanges with over 140 young scholars from universities and research institutes both at domestic  and abroad. The conference also received 16 posters.  1 EMBO J Poster Award (200 USD) and 4 isDDRHD-2017 Poster Awards (200 USD / person) was selected for the quality of the poster's research and exhibition contents.

The quality of the symposium was highly praised by the participants, and the international counterparts praised China's pooling of qualified personnel in the area of DNA damage response and the year-on-year improvement of the quality of its research. The convening of this meeting effectively promoted the development of research in the field of DNA damage repair in our university and our country.

The isDDRHD series was initiated by Drs. Xingzhi Xu and Zhao-Qi Wang as the Sino-German DNA Repair meeting in 2010 and evolved into an annual international symposium since 2012. isDDRHD-2017 is an academic feast for international exchange. It provides a first-rate academic exchange platform for researchers and young scholars at home and abroad, builds a bridge of communication with top foreign experts and scholars, helps to enhance basic scientific research in China in bio-medicine  and precision medicine and also enhances our country's international influence in the field of DNA damage repair and cancer research. It is an international academic conference with great influence in the field of bio-medicine .

isDDRHD-2018 will be held in Shenzhen University from November 1-4, 2018, in conjunction with the 7th international conference on Frontiers in