Invited Speakers / Keynote Talks
We are very happy to announce our keynote speakers at ViBioM 2026:
Rayan Chikhi | Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
Logan: Planetary-scale assembly of DNA/RNA sequencing data and its applications in virology
Petabytes of valuable DNA sequencing data reside in public repositories, roughly doubling in size every three years. They contain a wealth of genetic information about viruses, bacteria, animals, humans. We have developed two bioinformatics cloud infrastructures, Serratus and Logan, to perform petabase-scale sequence analysis. In particular, such an infrastructure is useful for applications in virology. With Serratus, we analyzed 10 petabases of public RNA-seq samples and discovered 10x more RNA viral species than previously known (Edgar et al, Nature, 2022). In Logan, we are making Earth’s sequencing data more accessible by reducing its size by 100x without significant loss of information. In this talk, I will give an overview of Logan and recent progress on improving its accessibility, and present some of the work we have done on mining RNA viruses and satellites. Gytis Dudas | Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Thought over throughput: a public data-fueled deep dive into orthomyxovirus biology
Orthomyxoviruses are a moderately sized group of RNA viruses with segmented genomes that includes a number of known vertebrate pathogens. Despite ever higher throughput and cheaper sequencing these days, orthomyxoviruses remain poorly understood owing to frequent inability to identify their segments as such amongst metatranscriptomic “dark matter”, and are virtually uncharacterised outside of influenza and infectious salmon anaemia viruses. Over the last few years our lab has used a combination of computational, experimental and molecular biology approaches to fix this situation. We made use of advances in protein structure prediction combined with sensitive phylogenetic methods to establish the relationships between known orthomyxoviruses to explore the evolution of their surface protein use. A series of ancient horizontal gene transfers for a class III viral membrane fusion protein called gp64 can be inferred, including their directionality involving orthomyxoviruses and unrelated virus groups. Additionally, we identified and recovered a number of orthomyxovirus genome segments from public sequence datasets that would otherwise constitute metatranscriptomic “dark matter”. We propose that most orthomyxoviruses found in arthropods have genomes comprised of eight segments with hints that tick hosts select for reduced genomes, and identify many blindspots where orthomyxovirus genome composition cannot be determined at this time. Finally, we’ve been developing Wuhan mosquito virus 6 (WuMV-6) – a common and globally distributed orthomyxovirus of Culex mosquitoes – into an experimental and evolutionary model system. Our experiments on WuMV-6, its population dynamics, and evolution so far present at least a few exciting paradoxes whose resolution will tell us much about how wild arthropod RNA viruses “experience” the world. Darius Kazlauskas | Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Comparative Proteomic and Structural Analysis of Newly Discovered (Pro)phages within the Phylum Cyanobacteriota
The phylum Cyanobacteriota, comprising the classes Cyanobacteriia, Vampirovibrionia, and Sericytochromatia, represents a critical lineage of bacterial diversity. While some lytic cyanophages infecting Cyanobacteriia are well-characterized, our knowledge of (pro)phages in the non-photosynthetic Vampirovibrionia and Sericytochromatia remains remarkably sparse. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive bioinformatic survey across more than 2,500 genome assemblies from GTDB and NCBI, integrated with viral sequences from Prophage-DB, MTVGD, and ICTV. Using five prophage identification tools we identified approximately 23,000 viral contigs, from which 5,000 sequences were selected for in-depth analysis after CheckV quality filtering. Proteome-based clustering alongside characterized viruses revealed 70 distinct clusters (≥5 members). Notably, 11 of the 14 largest clusters contained no previously characterized members, highlighting a vast reservoir of “dark matter” within the Cyanobacteriota virome. These clusters exhibited strong host-taxonomic specificity, suggesting localized viral spread. To explore the evolutionary history of these viruses, we performed phylogenetic analyses of highly conserved proteins, including terminases, capsids, and integrases, supplemented by AlphaFold3 structural modeling. Our results demonstrate that the genomic compositions of lysogenic and lytic phages typically do not overlap. Furthermore, we observed a distinct divergence in auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs); unlike lytic T4/T7-like phages, Cyanobacteriota prophages rarely carry photosynthetic genes, reflecting their specialized ecological niches. This study provides a new framework for understanding the diversity, proteomic composition, and evolution of viruses infecting the Cyanobacteriota phylum.
Manja Marz | Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
VirusREvolution: Decoding tools for virus research
The continued emergence and re-emergence of viruses cause global outbreaks and exposes fundamental gaps in our understanding of virus genomes, structures, evolution, and host interactions. Their rapid adaptation and diversity challenge existing analytical frameworks. Current bioinformatic, phylogenetic, and imaging approaches remain limited and insufficiently integrate genomic, structural, and functional data. This highlights the need for advanced tools to characterise pathogenic potential, tissue tropism, and replication strategies in real time. The VirusREvolution project addresses these challenges by developing integrated bioinformatic and photonic tools specifically tailored for viruses. By combining computational, optical, and experimental methods, the consortium aims to facilitate the systematic, high-resolution analysis of virus sequences, structures, interactions, and infection dynamics. Research is organised into three synergistic areas: (A) sequence- and regulation-focused bioinformatics, (B) structure-, function-, and interaction-based computational tools, and (C) photonic technologies for analysing virus morphology, entry, and signatures, as well as host responses, at high spatial and temporal resolution. Tool development is guided by application to model systems, including SARS-CoV-2 and bacteriophage N4, and subsequently extended across diverse RNA and DNA viruses. By integrating computational, experimental, and optical approaches, VirusREvolution establishes a framework for linking iterative tool development and application. This accelerates hypothesis-driven research into virus identification, classification, and function, while generating scalable, transferable technologies for the broader community. The long-term vision is a comprehensive platform that connects genomic, structural, and phenotypic data, enabling rapid, data-driven responses to emerging virus threats and fundamentally transforming how viruses are studied across disciplines. The presentation will outline key objectives and projects within this framework, highlighting avenues for scientific exchange and collaboration.
Mathias Munschauer | Medical Faculty Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
An RNA-centric perspective on human pathogenic RNA viruses
RNA viruses pose a significant burden to human health. Identifying host cell factors that bind and regulate viral RNA during infection is crucial for understanding how viruses hijack host cells, subvert host processes, and evade innate immune defense mechanisms. We recently introduced a cutting-edge suite of RNA interactomics techniques to resolve interactions between distinct viral RNA species and the host cell proteome at unprecedented resolution. Here, we describe the data-driven discovery of several previously unknown host-dependency mechanisms that uncover unique viral strategies to produce and utilize RNA in an infected cell. Our approach charts a path toward a systemscale characterization of RNA-centric regulatory mechanisms utilized by virus or host and identifies pathways for therapeutic exploitation.
Ingrida Olendraitė | European Virus Bioinformatics Center; RdRp Summit
Illuminating Viral Dark Matter
Over the past decade, large-scale sequencing and mining of public datasets have transformed RNA virus discovery, revealing vast numbers of candidate viruses through identification of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) sequences. However, finding more RdRp sequences is only the beginning. Much less attention has been given to turning these large-scale findings into high-quality assemblies and genomes, reliable annotations, robust alignments and evolutionary interpretation, realistic virus-host associations, and computational results ready for experimental validation.
In this talk, I will illustrate my approach to deeper data mining with an example of a novel mononegavirales-like virus in which we identified unusual splicing in the RdRp core region. By detailed interrogation of the contig, we showed that this represented genuine splicing-dependent RdRp expression. In addition, while expanding the number of sequences in the Polycipiviridae family by over 100-fold overall, this increase did not illuminate the unknown biology, but instead uncovered substantial hidden diversity. These examples show that we are nowhere near saturation of virus discovery and, at the same time, we are reaching a turning point in our research community, with a need to pause and investigate rather than focus primarily on detection.
Finally, I will highlight the “RdRp Summit” efforts to tackle the field issues discussed above. The initiative has evolved into a strong collaborative community for RNA virus discovery researchers, where people share practical advice, discuss tools and datasets, work on collaborative tools and joint publications.
Programme Schedule
to be announced