Viruses 2024 - A World of Viruses
Viruses 2024 - A World of Viruses
Part of the Viruses series
1st November 2023
29th November 2023
4th December 2023
1st February 2024
20th December 2023
11th February 2024
Viral Pathogenesis, Virology, Antiviral Therapeutics, Vaccines, Antiviral Innate Immunity, Viral Structure, Viral Replication, Virus-host Interactions, Viral Evolution
Submissions closed. Register for the conference now!
Calls for abstracts are now closed, but you can still register for this exciting conference. Don't miss out! Register today to stay on top of the latest developments.
Welcome from the Chairs
Dear Colleagues,
We are delighted to announce the upcoming Virology event "Viruses 2024 – A World of Viruses", to be held in Barcelona, Spain, from February 14–16, 2024.
Viruses are a constant threat to global health, and their study remains a critical area of research. This conference aims to bring together top scientists, researchers, and industry experts from around the world to share their findings on the latest developments in viral pathogenesis and immune responses. From molecular and cellular biology to immunology, epidemiology, and public health, the conference will provide a platform for attendees to engage in lively discussions on the most significant issues in virology.
The event is sponsored by MDPI and the open-access journal Viruses and follows the successful meetings held in 2016 in Basel, Switzerland, in 2018 and 2020 in Barcelona, Spain, and in 2022 online. We anticipate that this conference will provide attendees with a unique opportunity to learn about the latest research and to network with colleagues from around the world.
We welcome abstracts for posters or short talks related to the conference theme, which will be considered for presentation at the conference. Meeting participants will have the opportunity to present their work and discuss their research in a stimulating and collegial environment.
We look forward to welcoming you again in Barcelona.
Sincerely,
Dr. Eric Freed and Dr. Albert Bosch
Viruses 2024 Chairs
Conference Secretariat
Mr. Cédric Spinnler
Ms. Mina Marjanović
Dr. Elena González
Email: viruses2024@mdpi.com
Join us on LinkedIn Events!
If you want to stay updated with the latest information, or if you want to connect with your fellow researchers before, during, and after the event, then be sure to join the Viruses 2024 – A World of Viruses LinkedIn Event.
See you over there!
Follow the conversation on Twitter / X with #Viruses2024
Event Chairs
Dr. Freed is recognized as a leader in the field of virus assembly who has made important strides in understanding the mechanisms of retroviral replication at the molecular level, with an emphasis on late stages of the HIV-1 replication cycle. As Director of the HIV DRP, he oversees a program of basic, translational, and clinical research aimed at developing a better understanding of HIV that can be used to generate more-effective treatment strategies. His research focuses on HIV-1 Gag trafficking, Env incorporation, virus assembly, budding, release, maturation, and drug resistance. Dr. Freed has a special interest in the complex relationship between viral proteins and cellular factors and pathways, believing that characterizing fundamental aspects of the retrovirus replication cycle will suggest novel targets for the development of antiretroviral therapies. Recent work in the Freed lab has also focused on the ability of Env mutations to broadly rescue defects in virus replication, including those conferred by antiretrovirals.
Dr. Albert Bosch received his PhD in Biology from the University of Barcelona in 1979. He is Full Professor of Microbiology and Head of the Enteric Virus laboratory of the University of Barcelona, with over 40 years of experience in Virology, with over two hundred peer-reviewed articles on enteric viruses in scientific journals, as well as complete books. His research has been focused on basic and applied aspects of enteric viruses, covering molecular biology, diagnostics, food safety and environmental occurence of hepatitis A virus, astrovirus, norovirus, sapovirus and rotavirus. He has two international PCT patents on exploitation. The Enteric Virus laboratory was the first university lab in Spain to receive the certification of compliance of Good Laboratory Practices. He is the President of the Assembly of the International Society for Food and Environmental Virology and the President of the Spanish Society for Virology; he is the former President of the Water Microbiology section of the Spanish Society for Microbiology. He is the President of the Experimental Sciences section of the Royal European Academy of Doctors. He is Editor of “Food and Environmental Virology”, “Journal of Applied Microbiology” and “Letters in Applied Microbiology”. He is a member of numerous scientific committees, notably the scientific committee of the Spanish Food Safety Authority, the European Standardization Committee (CEN) of the EU on standardization of molecular methods for virus detection in foods; he also belongs to the scientific panel Food and waterborne diseases of the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC). He acted as Chairman of the Astrovirus Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).
Event Committee
Department of Plant Pathology, Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Dr. Svetlana Y. Folimonova received her PhD in Virology from Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. She held a postdoctoral position at the S. R. Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma and a postdoctoral position at the University of Florida, Citrus Research and Education Center, Lake Alfred, Florida. Dr. Folimonova was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Plant Virology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, in 2012. In 2016, she was promoted to Associate Professor, and, in 2022, to Professor. Dr. Folimonova’s research program focuses on viral pathogens of plants, with the main emphasis on citrus tristeza virus (CTV). Her primary research effort is concentrated on understanding the mechanisms of the infection process, host responses to the pathogens, and developing management strategies for these diseases. In 2020, Dr. Folimonova received a prestigious Syngenta Crop Protection Award from the American Phytopathological Society for her contributions to research on CTV and, specifically, for the elucidation of the mechanism of the CTV superinfection exclusion and for the development of the CTV-based vector for expression of the genes of interest in citrus trees. Dr. Folimonova has also served as Councilor for Plant Virology at the American Society for Virology.
Felicia Goodrum is the Associate Department Head and a Professor in the Department of Immunobiology at the University of Arizona. She is the Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Virology and past President of the American Society for Virology. She received her Ph.D. from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and completed her postdoctoral training at Princeton University in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Shenk before joining the faculty at the University of Arizona in 2006. Her work seeks to define the complex virus-host interactions the define the mechanisms by which the beta herpesvirus, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), enters and exists the latent infection and the host pathways important. The work of her laboratory has defined viral factors important to both latency and reactivation and defined host pathways, including growth factor signaling, innate immune responses, DNA damage responses, and sterol homeostasis that are targeted by these viral factors to control HCMV infection. Her work understanding viral latency has been recognized through the Howard Temin Award, the Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences Award, Kavli Young Investigators Award, and the Presidential Award for Early Career Scientists and Engineers. Dr. Goodrum in an active advocate for science and diversity in science.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA
Dr. Margaret Kielian is a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She received her PhD at Rockefeller University and did her postdoctoral training with Dr. Ari Helenius at Yale University. She then joined the faculty at Albert Einstein, where she is currently the Samuel H. Golding Chair in Microbiology. Her work has focused on studies of virus entry, membrane fusion, assembly and transmission using alphavirus, rubivirus, and flavivirus systems. Recent work defined the mechanism for selective packaging of alphavirus RNA, and demonstrated that virus-induced intercellular extensions mediate alphavirus cell-to-cell transmission in vitro and in vivo. Dr. Kielian has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Virology, Cell Host and Microbe, and Virology, and as Editor for Advances in Virus Research. She received the Marshall S. Horwitz Faculty Prize for Research Excellence at Einstein, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was the recipient of the Hirschl/Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award, the Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences Award, and American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Research Award. Dr. Kielian is particularly proud of her student and postdoctoral trainees, and has greatly enjoyed working with them.
Dr. Linda Saif, a Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University (OSU), holds positions in the Center for Food Animal Health and College of Veterinary Medicine, while also co-Directing the Virus and Emerging Pathogens Program at OSU's Infectious Diseases Institute. She has degrees from The College of Wooster and OSU, specializing in virology and immunology. Her research covers enteric and respiratory viral infections (coronaviruses, rotaviruses, and caliciviruses) affecting animals and humans, including pathogenesis, mucosal immunity, and vaccine development. She also investigates the impact of malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies (vitamin A), probiotics, and gut microbiota on the neonatal immune system, vaccines, and viral pathogenesis. Dr. Saif is renowned globally for her four decades of work on coronavirus infections across livestock, wildlife, and humans, advising organizations like the WHO and CDC during the 2003 SARS outbreak. Her lab serves as a WHO and FAO International Reference Lab for Animal Coronaviruses and she contributed to strategies for controlling MERS in camels in Saudi Arabia. As a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina, she studied cattle viral infections and vaccines. She's an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the Argentine Academia Nacional de Agronomía y Veterinaria. Dr. Saif is a Fellow of various organizations, received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ghent, and was the first woman to receive the Wolf Prize in Agriculture in 2015. She has authored over 450 journal publications and 80 book chapters. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she offers One Health expertise on coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2, pathogenesis, vaccines, interspecies transmission, and zoonoses.
Dr. Mikael Skurnik, Professor of Bacteriology (emeritus), Medical Faculty, University of Helsinki, Finland, obtained his PhD in biochemistry 1985 at University of Oulu, Finland. Postdoc 1985-7 with Hans Wolf-Watz at Umeå University, Sweden, then 1987-2002 different posts at University of Turku, Finland, and appointed as full Professor of Bacteriology at University of Helsinki in 2002, retired 2020. Presently employed as Research Director at University of Helsinki. Since 1980 studied molecular biology and genetics of microbial pathogenesis using Yersinia-bacteria as model organisms and molecular biology of bacteriophages. Since 2013 he has directed a project to set up phage therapy in Finland. Has supervised 21 PhD-theses. Published >285 papers, H-factor 59. Presently acts as an Associate Editor for Viruses, section Bacterial Viruses.
Keynote Speakers
Luis Enjuanes has been working in the field of virology for more than 40 years, including more than 35 years in coronavirus. His current interest is the study of the mechanisms of replication, transcription, virulence and virus-host interaction of coronaviruses. Enjuanes has published more than 240 articles in international journals and 58 book chapters. He is currently Professor of Research and Head of the Coronavirus Laboratory at the CSIC National Center for Biotechnology. Enjuanes has been a “Fogarty Visiting Fellow” at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US, and a Visiting Scientist at the Cancer Research Center (FCRC) of the US National Institutes (NIH). Enjuanes is a professor of Virology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He has been named "Distinguished Senior Virologist" by the Spanish Society of Virology, Academician of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, and Academician of the "American Academy of Microbiology" and the US National Academy of Sciences. He has received the Medal for Merit in Research and University Education awarded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Health Department Recognition, and the National Award for Biotechnology 2022. Enjuanes is an "Expert Consultant" of the NIH and the World Health Organization. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Virus Research.
The Rockefeller University, New York, USA
Dr. Rice is the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Chair in Virology and serves as Head of the Laboratory for Virology and Infectious Disease at The Rockefeller University. He is one of the world’s most accomplished virologists and a prominent figure in research on members of the Flaviviridae including hepatitis C virus (HCV). Dr. Rice received his bachelor’s degree from University of California Davis in 1974 and earned his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology in 1981. From 1986-2000, Dr. Rice was a faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis. His research team has helped to understand the biogenesis and structure of HCV-encoded proteins, discovered a highly conserved RNA element at the 3’ terminus of HCV genome RNA, and produced the first infectious molecular clone of the virus—an essential tool for future studies on this important human pathogen. His laboratory has established cell culture systems and animal models for studying HCV replication and evaluating antiviral efficacy. Dr. Rice has co-authored over 500 articles in the field of virology, serves as a reviewer for numerous journals, is a past President of the American Society for Virology, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the M. W. Beijernick, Dautrebande, Robert Koch, InBev Baillet-Latour prizes, the Lasker-Debakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Invited Speakers
Institute of Genetics, Technische Universität Braunschweig (TU Braunschweig), Germany
Melanie Brinkmann studied biology at the Georg-August University Göttingen and the Humboldt University Berlin in Germany. During her PhD at the Institute of Virology, Hannover Medical School, Germany, she studied how the tumorvirus Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) manipulates its host. For her postdoctoral time she joined Hidde Ploeghs laboratory at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, which is affiliated with the Massachusettes Institute of Technology in Cambridge, USA. During these four years she worked on highly specialized sentinels of the innate immune system, so called pattern recognition receptors. These cellular receptors play an essential role for the detection of viral infections. Since July 2010 Melanie Brinkmann is head of a research group at the HZI. From 2012 to 2018, she was assistant professor (W1 Innate Antiviral Immunity) at the Institute of Virology at the Hannover Medical School. She held an associate professorship (W2 Virus Genetics) at the Institute of Genetics at the TU Braunschweig from 2018 to 2022 and since December 2022, she is full professor (W3) of Virology and Innate Immunity at the Institute of Genetics. From December 2021 to April 2023, Melanie Brinkmann was vice-chair of the COVID-19 Expert Council of the German Government.
Wolfram Brune is a Professor at the Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV) in Hamburg. He received his MD degree from the University of Heidelberg Medical School in 1995. After his internship in pediatric neurology, he trained as a postdoc at the University of Munich (with Ulrich Koszinowski) and as a visiting research fellow at Princeton University (with Tom Shenk). In 2002, he became an independent Junior Group Leader at the Rudolf Virchow Center for Experimental Biomedicine, University of Würzburg, supported by an Emmy Noether career development grant. For his work, he received the Robert Koch Postdoctoral Award in 2003. From 2005 to 2010, he was head of the Divison of Viral Infections at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. He joined the LIV in Hamburg in 2010 as head of the Research Department Virus-Host Interaction. Since 2015, he serves as the Deputy Scientific Director of the LIV. His laboratory uses forward and reverse genetics to study cytomegalovirus-host interaction and cytomegalovirus pathogenesis with a focus on viral subversion of programmed cell death, autophagy, and innate antiviral defenses. His lab also investigates the molecular basis of the cytomegalovirus host species specificity.
Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK
After studying medicine in Germany (Frankfurt/Main, Marburg, Berlin) and France (Paris) and completing a M.D. thesis in Berlin (Free University, 1967), I trained as a virologist at Hannover Medical School (Germany) (Dr Joachim Drescher) and gained academic qualification by habilitation in 1976 with a thesis on influenza viruses. After further research on influenza viruses at Mt Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, USA (Dr Peter Palese, 1977-1979), I was appointed Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK (1980-86), where I started rotavirus research. In 1987 I moved to Birmingham, U.K., as Consultant Virologist and Director of the Regional Virus Laboratory. From 1990-2002 I served as Consultant Virologist and Director of the Clinical Microbiology and Public Health Laboratory, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK (since 1998 also as Clinical Director of Pathology). After retiring from this post, I continued carrying out rotavirus research in laboratories in France (Dr J Cohen, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, 2002-2004), Italy (Dr O Burrone, ICGEB, Trieste, 2005-2006), and in Cambridge (as Director of Research at the Department of Medicine since 2007 and Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow since 2014). My scientific work has been published in >200 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and >30 book chapters. The research was funded by the Medical Research Council, The Wellcome Trust and a Fulbright Fellowship. I continue to serve on the editorial boards of various professional journals and was/am editor/co-editor for scientific journals and of several books.
Santiago Elena is CSIC professor and co-chairman of the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), where he is the head of the Evolutionary and Systems Virology group. In addition, he is an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute (NM, USA). He graduated in Biochemistry and did a PhD thesis on Evolutionary Genetics of RNA viruses at the University of Valencia. His work has always focused on the study of the mechanisms by which RNA viruses adapt to their hosts and how this adaptation results in the manipulation of cellular resources for their own benefit. For this work, he combines experimental evolution, molecular biology and omics, molecular epidemiology, and mathematical modeling. Among other merits, he is member of the European Organization for Molecular Biology (EMBO), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAA&S) and the Academia Europaea.
Dr. Svetlana Y. Folimonova received her PhD in Virology from Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. She held a postdoctoral position at the S. R. Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma and a postdoctoral position at the University of Florida, Citrus Research and Education Center, Lake Alfred, Florida. Dr. Folimonova was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Plant Virology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, in 2012. In 2016, she was promoted to Associate Professor, and, in 2022, to Professor. Dr. Folimonova’s research program focuses on viral pathogens of plants, with the main emphasis on citrus tristeza virus (CTV). Her primary research effort is concentrated on understanding the mechanisms of the infection process, host responses to the pathogens, and developing management strategies for these diseases. In 2020, Dr. Folimonova received a prestigious Syngenta Crop Protection Award from the American Phytopathological Society for her contributions to research on CTV and, specifically, for the elucidation of the mechanism of the CTV superinfection exclusion and for the development of the CTV-based vector for expression of the genes of interest in citrus trees. Dr. Folimonova has also served as Councilor for Plant Virology at the American Society for Virology.
Felicia Goodrum is the Associate Department Head and a Professor in the Department of Immunobiology at the University of Arizona. She is the Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Virology and past President of the American Society for Virology. She received her Ph.D. from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and completed her postdoctoral training at Princeton University in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Shenk before joining the faculty at the University of Arizona in 2006. Her work seeks to define the complex virus-host interactions the define the mechanisms by which the beta herpesvirus, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), enters and exists the latent infection and the host pathways important. The work of her laboratory has defined viral factors important to both latency and reactivation and defined host pathways, including growth factor signaling, innate immune responses, DNA damage responses, and sterol homeostasis that are targeted by these viral factors to control HCMV infection. Her work understanding viral latency has been recognized through the Howard Temin Award, the Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences Award, Kavli Young Investigators Award, and the Presidential Award for Early Career Scientists and Engineers. Dr. Goodrum in an active advocate for science and diversity in science.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA
Dr. Margaret Kielian is a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She received her PhD at Rockefeller University and did her postdoctoral training with Dr. Ari Helenius at Yale University. She then joined the faculty at Albert Einstein, where she is currently the Samuel H. Golding Chair in Microbiology. Her work has focused on studies of virus entry, membrane fusion, assembly and transmission using alphavirus, rubivirus, and flavivirus systems. Recent work defined the mechanism for selective packaging of alphavirus RNA, and demonstrated that virus-induced intercellular extensions mediate alphavirus cell-to-cell transmission in vitro and in vivo. Dr. Kielian has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Virology, Cell Host and Microbe, and Virology, and as Editor for Advances in Virus Research. She received the Marshall S. Horwitz Faculty Prize for Research Excellence at Einstein, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was the recipient of the Hirschl/Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award, the Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences Award, and American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Research Award. Dr. Kielian is particularly proud of her student and postdoctoral trainees, and has greatly enjoyed working with them.
Felix Rey graduated in physics at Instituto Balseiro in Bariloche, Argentina a obtained a PhD in structural biology at the Université de Paris-Sud (Orsay, France). He specialized in virus structure at Harvard University, USA (1988-1995). After being junior group leader and then Director of the Structural Molecular Virology laboratory of the CNRS at Gif-sur-Yvette (1995-2004), Felix Rey moved Institut Pasteur in Paris in 2005. His laboratory studies the mechanism of membrane fusion used by enveloped viruses to enter cells. His work has led to the identification of a separate structural class of viral membrane fusion proteins and shown that they are related to proteins that drive gamete fusion in numerous eukaryotic organisms during sexual reproduction. Félix Rey has also made important contributions to understand the epitope targeted by neutralizing antibodies against pathogenic viruses, providing important insight for the development of novel immunogens in an epitope-focused reverse vaccinology approach.
Dr. Linda Saif, a Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University (OSU), holds positions in the Center for Food Animal Health and College of Veterinary Medicine, while also co-Directing the Virus and Emerging Pathogens Program at OSU's Infectious Diseases Institute. She has degrees from The College of Wooster and OSU, specializing in virology and immunology. Her research covers enteric and respiratory viral infections (coronaviruses, rotaviruses, and caliciviruses) affecting animals and humans, including pathogenesis, mucosal immunity, and vaccine development. She also investigates the impact of malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies (vitamin A), probiotics, and gut microbiota on the neonatal immune system, vaccines, and viral pathogenesis. Dr. Saif is renowned globally for her four decades of work on coronavirus infections across livestock, wildlife, and humans, advising organizations like the WHO and CDC during the 2003 SARS outbreak. Her lab serves as a WHO and FAO International Reference Lab for Animal Coronaviruses and she contributed to strategies for controlling MERS in camels in Saudi Arabia. As a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina, she studied cattle viral infections and vaccines. She's an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the Argentine Academia Nacional de Agronomía y Veterinaria. Dr. Saif is a Fellow of various organizations, received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ghent, and was the first woman to receive the Wolf Prize in Agriculture in 2015. She has authored over 450 journal publications and 80 book chapters. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she offers One Health expertise on coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2, pathogenesis, vaccines, interspecies transmission, and zoonoses.
Dr. Mikael Skurnik, Professor of Bacteriology (emeritus), Medical Faculty, University of Helsinki, Finland, obtained his PhD in biochemistry 1985 at University of Oulu, Finland. Postdoc 1985-7 with Hans Wolf-Watz at Umeå University, Sweden, then 1987-2002 different posts at University of Turku, Finland, and appointed as full Professor of Bacteriology at University of Helsinki in 2002, retired 2020. Presently employed as Research Director at University of Helsinki. Since 1980 studied molecular biology and genetics of microbial pathogenesis using Yersinia-bacteria as model organisms and molecular biology of bacteriophages. Since 2013 he has directed a project to set up phage therapy in Finland. Has supervised 21 PhD-theses. Published >285 papers, H-factor 59. Presently acts as an Associate Editor for Viruses, section Bacterial Viruses.
Faculty of Biological Sciences, School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Leeds, UK
Professor Nicola J. Stonehouse is a virologist, interested in both the fundamental aspects of the viral lifecycle and the development of novel vaccines. While a post-doctoral fellow, an interest in perusing high-resolution structural studies of RNA-protein complexes led to a long-term collaboration with Lars Liljas’ group in Uppsala, Sweden and ultimately led to the award of a Career Development Fellowship from the UK Medical Research Council. Over time, she moved from working on bacteriophage to picornaviruses and was appointed as Lecturer in 2001 and to Chair in Molecular Virology in 2014. She collaborates widely and her current funding supports studies of the replication of foot-and-mouth disease virus; understanding the fundamental aspects of viral capsid assembly and vaccine development. The vaccine projects involve studies to generate a generic vaccine ‘scaffold’ and the development and characterisation of stabilised empty viral capsids as vaccine candidates for poliovirus and other enteroviruses. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB), the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (FRSA) and the UK Higher Education Academy. She teaches at all levels and has undertaken a number of roles aiming to support more junior scientists.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Australia
Dr Carolien van de Sandt is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne (UoM). She completed her PhD in 2016 at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands with Prof Rimmelzwaan and Prof Osterhaus where she investigated the longevity, cross-reactivity and immune evasion strategies of influenza-specific CD8+ T-cells, followed by two years of postdoctoral research. She established a long-sought for in vitro model to co-culture influenza viruses and CD8+ T-cells to study their effect on viral replication and immune evasion. In 2018, she was awarded the European Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship and the University of Melbourne’s McKenzie Fellowship to join the laboratory of Prof Kedzierska, where she leads the Aging Immunity Research Program which aims to unravel the mechanisms that underly gain-and-loss- of virus-specific CD8+ T-cell function across human lifespan. During the pandemic, Carolien studied SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity in children and the elderly, and she temporarily relocated to the Netherlands (2020-2021) to lead a small research team at Sanquin Research studying SARS-CoV-2 immunity in healthy and autoimmune patients. In 2022 she was awarded the ARC-DECRA fellowship to continue her research on virus-specific aging Immunity and T-cell development at the University of Melbourne using cutting-edge single-cell technologies.
Virus-specific T cell immunity, Aging immunity, Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, CD8+ T cells
Registration
In-Person Registration
The registration fee includes attendance at all conference sessions, morning/afternoon coffee breaks, lunches, a conference bag, and a program book. Participation in the conference is considered final only once the registration fees have been paid. The number of participants is limited: once the number of paid registrations reaches the maximum number of participants, unpaid registrations will be canceled.
When registering, please provide us with your institutional email address. This will accelerate the registration process.
Important Information
Please note that abstract submission and conference registration are two separate processes. During registration, please provide us with the same email address you used to submit your abstract(s). Otherwise, leave us a comment in the registration form, providing the email address used during the submission process. In addition, please use your institutional email address for both processes.
In order to finalize the scientific program in due time, at least one registration by any of the authors, denoted as the Covering Author, is required to cover the presentation and publication of any accepted abstract. Covering Author registration deadline is 20 December 2023. Your abstract will be withdrawn if your registration is not complete by this date.
Participants of the event will be able to download an electronic Certificate of Attendance by accessing their dashboards on Sciforum.net once the event is concluded. The certificates will be found under the "My Certificates" category.
Discounts
Group Registration
Groups of five or more attendees are offered a 10% discount on the registration fees. To enjoy this discount, you need to complete one multiple registration by selecting the number of people attending in each category (type of registration) during the first step of the registration process. Kindly note that no other discounts will be applicable. Please do not use the same email address for each person, but their individual institutional email addresses. Thank you for your understanding.
Partnering Societies
Members from partnering societies are granted a 20% discount on all registration fees. Please make sure to provide us with proof that you are part of one of our partnering societies. Are you part of a society that isn't partnering with the conference? Contact us to discuss a possible partnership!
Reduced fees
If you are from a low- or middle-income country, you are automatically eligible for a price reduction. However, please note that the reduced price will only be added to your registration when it is processed. This means that you will not have to pay the stated price immediately upon registration, and you will receive an invoice with the price adjustment after registering. Below you can find the list of low- and middle-income countries.
Registration fees
|
Early Bird Until 4th December 2023 |
Regular Until 31st January 2024 |
Late From 1st February 2024 |
Supported documents | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic | 600.00 EUR | 700.00 EUR | 800.00 EUR | |
| Student | 400.00 EUR | 400.00 EUR | 500.00 EUR |
Scanned copy or photograph of your current student ID is required. |
| Editorial Board Member of Viruses | 350.00 EUR | 450.00 EUR | 550.00 EUR | |
| Author/Reviewer of Viruses | 500.00 EUR | 600.00 EUR | 700.00 EUR | |
| Non-Academic | 900.00 EUR | 1000.00 EUR | 1100.00 EUR | |
| Chairs, Invited Speakers, MDPI Guests | Free | Free | Free |
Active discounts
Group of 5: 10% discount
Note: Group size refers to the number of registered attendees in the same registration order.
Cancellation policy
| Cancellation of paid registration is possible under the terms listed below: | |
| > 2 months before the conference | Full refund but 60 EUR are retained for administration |
| > 1 month before the conference | Refund 50% of the applying fees |
| > 2 weeks before the conference | Refund 25% of the applying fees |
| < 2 weeks before the conference | No refund |
Disclaimer
In the unlikely event that MDPI deems it necessary to cancel the conference, all pre-paid registration fees will be reimbursed. MDPI shall not be liable for reimbursing the cost of travel or accommodation arrangements made by individual delegates.
Insurance
The organizers do not accept liability for personal accident, loss, or damage to private property incurred as a result of participation in Viruses 2024 – A World of Viruses. Delegates are advised to arrange appropriate insurance to cover travel, cancellation costs, medical, and theft or damage of belongings.
Photographs and/or videos will be taken during the conference
By taking part in this event, you grant the event organizers full rights to use the images resulting from photography/video filming and any reproductions or adaptations of the images for fundraising, publicity, or other purposes to help achieve the conference’s aims. This might include (but is not limited to) the right to use them in its printed and online publicity, social media, press releases, and funding applications.
Payment methods
Wire transfer, Credit card
Currencies accepted by this event
Swiss francs (CHF) , Euros (EUR) and US dollars (USD)
Instructions for Authors
Viruses 2024 will accept abstracts only. The accepted abstracts will be available online on Sciforum.net during and after the conference. Moreover, participants will have the opportunity to contribute a full manuscript to a Special Issue related to the conference in the open-access journal Viruses.
Please note that abstract submission and conference registration are two separate processes. Please use your institutional email address for both processes.
To present your research at the event
- Create an account on Sciforum if you do not have one and then click on ‘New Submission’ in the upper-right corner of the window; or, click on ‘Submit Abstract’ at the top of this webpage.
- Choose a session that is best suited for your research.
- Submit an abstract in English—the word limits are a minimum of 150 words and a maximum of 300 words.
- The deadline to submit your abstract is 1 November 2023. You will be notified about its acceptance by 29 November 2023.
- Upon submission, you can select if you wish to be considered for oral or poster presentation (or both). Following assessment by the Chairs and Scientific Committee, you will be notified by 29 November 2023 whether your contribution has been accepted for oral or poster presentation.
- Please note that, in order to finalize the scientific program in due time, at least one registration by any of the authors, denoted as the Covering Author, is required to cover the presentation and publication of any accepted abstract. The Covering Author registration deadline is 20 December 2023. Your abstract will be withdrawn if your registration is not complete by this date.
Oral Presentations
Short talks will be 15 min long, including questions (12+3 Q&A). The typical presentation should be up to a 10–12-minute talk.
Poster Presentations
Each presenter will be provided with a vertical poster board. Maximum poster size limited to A0: 84 x 120 cm / 33 x 47 in (width x height) in the vertical orientation (portrait). Please print your poster prior to the conference. A plan for the poster session will be circulated later.
Publication Opportunities
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All accepted abstracts will be available online in Open Access form on Sciforum.net during and after the conference.
- Participants of this conference are cordially invited to contribute with a full manuscript to the Special Issue "Viruses 2024 - A World of Viruses" in the journal Viruses, with a 20% discount on the publication fees. Please note that no other discounts will be applicable.
- Viruses is indexed within Scopus, SCIE (Web of Science), PubMed, and other databases, and has an Impact Factor of 5.818 (2021) and a 5-Year Impact Factor of 5.811 (2021).
Sponsorship Opportunities
As organizers, we are excited to create an immersive and insightful conference, and we invite you to be a vital part of "Viruses 2024 - A World of Viruses". Your support is instrumental in making this event a success. Explore our sponsorship opportunities and join us in shaping the future of virus-related research and innovation.
Please find below our sponsorship brochure, which contains details about our participants and various sponsorship packages designed to assist you in finding the right level for your budget and the exposure you would like to have.
Feel free to contact us via email at viruses2024@mdpi.com if you have any questions. We appreciate your consideration!
Venue, Travel and Accommodation
Venue
Barcelona
Barcelona is the capital and largest city of Catalonia and is Spain's second-largest city, with a population of over one and a half million people.
Located on the northeastern Mediterranean coast of Spain, this city has a rich and diverse history, with its roots dating back to Roman times. The fruitful medieval period established Barcelona's position as the economic and political center of the Western Mediterranean. The city's Gothic Quarter bears witness to the splendor enjoyed by the city from the 13th to the 15th centuries.
The 20th century ushered in widespread urban renewal throughout Barcelona city, culminating in its landmark Eixample district, which showcases some of Barcelona's most distinctive Catalan art-nouveau, or modernista, buildings. The Catalan Antoni Gaudí, one of the most eminent architects, designed buildings such as La Pedrera, the Casa Batlló, and the Sagrada Família church, which have become world-famous landmarks.
In 1992, Barcelona gained international recognition by hosting the Olympic games, which brought about a massive upturn in its tourism industry. For visitors, this has translated into the very modern yet incredibly old city you see now in the 21st century, where new elements work to both preserve and celebrate the city’s heritage and origins.
Barcelona has plenty of outdoor markets, restaurants, shops, museums, and churches. The city is also very walkable, with an extensive and reliable Metro system for more far-flung destinations.
For a complete overview, see wikitravel.org or visit barcelonaturisme.com.
The AXA Convention Center
The AXA Convention Centre is located in a vibrant modern zone of the city, with easy access from the airport, as well as the urban and suburban areas of the city. It is part of the "L'Illa Diagonal", a modern complex with a shopping center, two four-star hotels, several offices, a sports center, a public park, and a car park with 2500 spaces.
Address: Avinguda Diagonal, 547, 08029 Barcelona
Travel
The international airport of Barcelona is called Barcelona-El Prat and is located 10 km from the city center. The airport is well connected to airport hubs in Europe and several locations around the world. For more information about the airport and flights, please visit the official website at https://www.aena.es.
Once you get to the airport, you have several options to reach the city center.
To the city center
- By shuttle bus: AEROBUS (https://aerobusbarcelona.es). This bus connects Barcelona Airport (Terminal 1 and Terminal 2) with the city center (Pl. Catalunya) in 35 minutes. It runs every day of the year with departures every 5 minutes and costs EUR 6,75.
- By train: TRAIN R2 NORD (https://rodalies.gencat.cat). This train connects Terminal 2 of the airport with the city center (Barcelona-Passeig de Gràcia). It runs every day of the year with departures every 30 minutes and costs EUR 2,40.
- By taxi: Taxis just outside the arrival area. The taxi from the airport to the city center (Plaza Catalunya) costs approximately EUR 30–35. Public taxis can apply four types of fares in Barcelona. These fares must be visible inside the taxi and are usually printed on a sticker over the window. Finally, the amount payable must be indicated on the taximeter. VTC apps that work in Barcelona are Bolt and Cabify and might offer cheaper rates.
To the conference venue
- By metro: LINE L9 (https://www.tmb.cat). This metro line connects Barcelona Airport (Terminal 1 and Terminal 2) with the northwest of the city (Zona Universitària). From here, you can take TRAM T1, T2, or T3 (get off at L'Illa stop) or bus 7 or 67 (get off at Diagonal—Entença stop) (https://www.tmb.cat). The metro from the airport costs EUR 5,15 and the tram or bus EUR 2,40. You can buy the bus/tram ticket at the tram stop or on the bus.
- By taxi: Taxis just outside the arrival area. The taxi from the airport to the conference venue costs approximately EUR 30–35. VTC apps that work in Barcelona are Bolt and Cabify and might offer cheaper rates.
Barcelona Sants station is Barcelona's largest train station and provides rail services both in and around Barcelona and for the whole of Spain and beyond.
For more information about the station and train service, please visit the official website at https://www.renfe.com.
Once you get to the station, you have the following options to reach the conference venue:
- By bus: LINES V7 or 78 (https://www.tmb.cat).
- By taxi: Taxis just outside the station. The taxi from the station to the conference venue costs about EUR 10.
Accommodation
We want your stay in Barcelona during the conference to be as comfortable as possible. With that in mind, we have agreed on a discount with several hotels to make your accommodation choice easier. Please book your accommodation online and contact the hotels directly with any issues or requests related to accommodation bookings.
We are delighted to announce that the following hotels will offer a discounted price for all Viruses 2024 attendees:
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Arenas Atiram: The Arenas Atiram Hotel offers a highly personalized service together with very friendly, elegant facilities, and it is within walking distance from the conference venue.
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Oriente Atiram and Meson Castilla Atiram: Located in Las Ramblas, they have a fantastic central location next to Plaza Catalunya and the famous Boqueria market, 25–30 minutes away (by metro) from the conference venue.
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Tres Torres Atiram: Located in the center of one of the best residential neighborhoods of Barcelona, next to the distinguished commercial and leisure districts, Diagonal Avenue, it is 1.5 km away from the conference venue.
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Hostal Aslyp 114: The Hostal Aslyp114 is a cozy hotel with private rooms located just 10 minutes away from the conference venue. Please add the 5% discount code ‘BCN114’ and indicate that you will be attending Viruses 2024 while making your reservation.
Beware of Unauthorized Registration and Hotel Solicitations
Note that Sciforum is the only official registration platform to register to Viruses 2024 and that we are not associated with any hotel agency (other than those listed above). While other hotel resellers and travel agencies may contact you with offers for your trip, they are not endorsed by or affiliated with Viruses 2024 or Sciforum. Beware that entering into financial agreements with non-endorsed companies can have costly consequences.
Visa Information
Please note that you must apply for your own visa application. MDPI is not responsible for any visa application. However, MDPI can provide a Visa Support Letter. To be eligible for such a document, the criteria below must be fulfilled.
Visa Support Letter
- Applicants must have paid for registration and submitted an abstract in order to get a letter of support.
- Applicants must provide us with a scan of their valid, in-date passport that contains a photo of them.
- Applicants must provide us with a letter of support from their institution to confirm that they support the delegate attending the meeting.
- This must be carried out in good time before the meeting; "last minute" requests will not be processed.
More useful information on visa application
Event Awards
In order to recognize the works presented during the conference in the format of posters and presentations, two awards will be offered to our conference participants, sponsored by the journal Viruses. The Awardees will be announced during the Award Ceremony on the last day of the conference.
The award winners will be selected by the Selection Committee after evaluation of all selected talks and posters presented at the conference.
We will be offering the following two awards to our conference attendees:
Best Oral Presentation
Number of Awards Available: 1
Prize: EUR 500
Best Poster
Number of Awards Available: 1
Prize: EUR 300
Special Issue "Viruses 2024 - A World of Viruses"
Participants of this conference are cordially invited to contribute a full manuscript to the Special Issue "Viruses 2024 - A World of Viruses" in the journal Viruses, with a 20% discount on the publication fees. Please note that no other discounts will be applicable.
Sponsors and Partners
We invite you and your company to participate in and sponsor Viruses2024! Find all information on sponsorship opportunities in our Sponsorship Agenda. If you have any questions or wish to discuss options further, please do not hesitate to contact the Conference Secretariat. We thank you for your consideration!
Organizers
Partnering Societies
Media Partners
