To keep you up to date with the latest developments in virus bioinformatics, especially new tools that might help you in your research, the European Virus Bioinformatics Center is organising a regular lecture series entitled viruses in silico.
The lectures will usually take place on the last Thursday of the month at 4 pm CET/CEST | 10 am EST/EDT | 7 am PST/PDT.
The lectures take place online via Zoom – Use the registration form below to receive the login details (registration is possible until 1 hour before the start of the event). Registration is only necessary once, you will then receive updates about all upcoming speakers (you can unsubscribe at any time). Please note that the lectures are not recorded. Exceptions can be requested in advance – please contact us beforehand.
RegistrationUpcoming lectures
30 April 2026 | 4 pm CEST
Michael Lässig (University of Cologne, Germany)
Influenza and SARS-CoV-2: from evolutionary predictions to prospective vaccination
Human influenza viruses, as well as SARS-CoV-2, undergo fast evolution to escape adaptive immunity of their hosts. These viruses have become paradigms of tightly coupled, fast-evolving host-pathogen systems. Fitness models are an important tool to predict antigenic evolution and to guide the selection of vaccine strains. In this talk, I present key concepts of predictive analysis and discuss recent progress towards prospective vaccination strategies, based on next-generation predictions of new mutations before they appear in circulating strains.
25 June 2026 | 4 pm CEST
Elliot Lefkowitz (The University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States; International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses)
The ICTV at Sixty Years: Classifying the Worldwide Virosphere
Viruses infect every kind of organism on the planet. They play an integral role in maintaining healthy ecosystems but can also cause disruptions with adverse impacts on human health, agriculture, and the wider environment. Understanding the role that this worldwide virosphere plays in these ecosystems, and developing approaches to mitigate its undesirable effects, represents a major goal of virologists. All organisms, including viruses, can only be understood in the context of their relationships. This begins with identifying shared and distinguishing properties, formalized through taxonomy — the science of ordered, hierarchical classification and nomenclature. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), founded in 1966, is responsible for the taxonomic classification of all viruses and other virus-like mobile genetic elements. To ensure that the virus taxonomy is available to all, the ICTV supports a web-based knowledgebase, https://ictv.global, that provides a variety of resources to access, search, display, and utilize the taxonomy and associated metadata. During this webinar we will provide an overview of the ICTV and the processes used to produce the taxonomy. We will then take a tour of the various resources that comprise the virus knowledgebase, demonstrating how to search for data, find additional information about the classified viruses, and use our tools to help you better understand the viruses that interest you. Looking ahead, we aim to build on sixty years of progress by expanding the effectiveness of the ICTV and deepening its connections with the full community of researchers, clinicians, educators, policy makers and others with a stake in understanding viruses.