This meeting will bring together research that encompasses basic and translational virology. We envision this meeting showcasing the ubiquity of viruses while highlighting commonalities among researchers, from technology through a standard goal of understanding how viruses behave and adapt and how this may be exploited for prediction of the next outbreak or leveraged for therapeutic development.

The scientific response to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 continues to showcase how science has progressed, as the rapidity of basic and translational research has been second to none, while also revealing our weaknesses as a population. This meeting is both a celebration of how far virology has come and a forecast of what is next and the inroads to get us there.

Our topics will include:
1) Viruses within: defining the virome; interaction with the microbiome; endogenous retroviruses in health and disease; tools and technologies
2) Viral pathogens: evolution, genomics, spread, prediction, and pandemic preparedness of emerging and re-emerging viruses
3) Virus-host interaction: immunology, genetics, and host factors
4) Viruses as therapeutics: diagnostics, phage therapy, viral vectors, and disease therapy
5) Targeting viruses: antivirals, vaccines, antibodies: lessons from the past; successes versus failures