Virus Evolution across scales

Chairperson: Yannis Michalakis
MIVEGEC UMR CNRS IRD UM 5290, 911 avenue Agropolis BP64501, 34394 Montpellier CEDEX 5, France
Phone: +33 4 48 19 18 67
Email: yannis.michalakis@ird.fr 

Vice-chairperson: Anice Lowen
Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, 1510 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA, 30030, USA
Phone: +1-404-727-4721
Email: anice.lowen@emory.edu 

A series of Jacques Monod Conferences on the central theme of Virus Evolution started in 2009. The fifth edition, which will take place in Roscoff in 2027 (October 18-22), aims at bringing together scientists working at and across different biological scales to further understanding of the forces shaping viral evolution. While research focused at a single scale of biological organization often yields valuable insights, integration across scales can be extremely revealing: it is now well accepted that processes at one scale condition outcomes across scales.

For example, viral processes occurring within individual cells define the spatial and genetic structures of viral populations within hosts. These features of within-host populations in turn shape virus transmission modes and bottlenecks. Within- and between- host processes are potent determinants of host range and viral emergence, which in turn drive effects at the level of host populations and ecosystems, including the timing and duration of epidemic waves and viral evolutionary change over long time scales.

To explore these concepts the meeting will gather researchers using theoretical, bioinformatic and empirical approaches. It will furthermore draw on experts working with a broad range of viruses, including those of distinct taxa, genomic architecture and host kingdoms, potentially allowing the identification of generalizations and idiosyncrasies. This conference is very timely, as emerging viruses continue to challenge human, animal and plant populations, rendering our understanding of the underlying processes and the scales at which they operate extremely relevant.

Sessions:

1. Host range and emergence
2. Virus host interactions, defence and manipulation
3. Spatial structure
4. Transmission and bottlenecks
5. Ecosystem processes

Invited speakers (provisional titles)

Raul Andino (Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UC San Francisco, USA) 
Harnessing evolutionary principles to engineer safer, more robust live-attenuated vaccines 

Christian Althaus (University of Bern, ISPM, Bern, Switzerland) 
From viral evolution to pandemic preparedness 

Mike Boots (Department of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley, USA) 
Population structure and the evolution of pathogens 

Ignacio G. Bravo (MIVEGEC, CNRS UMR 5290, Montpellier, France) 
Swimming the river of latent viral infections 

Anne Chevallereau (Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France) 
Role of mobile genetic elements in spreading anti-phage systems 

Simon Dellicour (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium) 
Molecular epidemiological approaches to investigate the dispersal dynamic of viruses and the environmental factors impacting it 

Matthias Fischer (Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany)
The diverse particle structures of uncultured giant viruses 

Emma Hodcroft (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland) 
Diversity, recombination, and the evolutionary dynamics of enteroviruses 

Katia Koelle (Emory University, Atlanta, USA) 
How fate leads and drags viral mutations within and across hosts 

Mart Krupovic (Institut Pasteur, Paris, France) 
Origin and organization of the virosphere 

Ryan Langlois (University of Minnesota, Minnesota, USA) 
Using a fibroblast zoo to determine host factors driving virus evolution 

Anice Lowen (Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA) 
Influenza A virus population dynamics within and between hosts 

Rosa Lozano-Durán (University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany) 
A virus' guide to hijack a plant 

Karim Majzoub (Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier, Montpellier, France) 
Deltavirus infection in human and animal hosts 

Yannis Michalakis (MIVEGEC, Montpellier, France)
Genome segmentation and multipartite viruses 

Louise Moncla (The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA) 
Ecology and evolution of avian influenza viruses

Israel Pagan (Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, Madrid, Spain)
Plant virus evolution in the presence of phytopathogenic bacteria 

Mathilde Richard (Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands) 
Tracking the antigenic evolution of H5 influenza viruses to enable subtype-wide H5 vaccine development 

Simon Roux (Joint Genome Institute, Berkeley, USA) 
Viral ecogenomics: exploring viral diversity and virus-host interactions from metagenomes 

Carla Saleh (Institut Pasteur, Paris, France) 
Thermal stress shifts Drosophila-virus interactions along the parasitism-mutualism continuum 

Manuela Sironi (University of Milano-Bicocca, Monza, Italy) 
Structural-functional relationships in the evolution of viral proteins 

Silke Stertz (University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland) 
MHC-II entry competence as zoonotic trait of influenza A viruses 

Clara Torres-Barceló (Plant Health Institute Montpellier, INRAE, Montpellier, France) 
The Red Queen in rice paddies: spatial and evolutionary dynamics of phage–host interactions 

Romain Volmer (INRAE- Ecole nationale vétérinaire de Toulouse, Toulouse, France) 
Evolutionary pathways leading to the emergence of high pathogenicity avian influenza viruses

Sheree Yau (Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls, Banyuls-sur-Mer, France)
Hypervariable genomic regions in prasinoviruses: drivers of virion architecture and host–virus interactions? 

Deadline for application: June 6, 2027

Registration fee (including board and lodging)

• 570 € for PhD students 
• 790 € for other participants 

Application for registration 

The total number of participants is limited to 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Selection is made on the basis of the affinity of potential participants with the topics of the conference. Scientists and PhD Students interested in the meeting should deposit online before the deadline:

• their curriculum vitae
• the proof of their student status
• the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
• the abstract of their presentation

The abstract must respect the following template:

• First line: title
• Second line: list of authors
• Third line: author's addresses
• Fourth line: e-mail of the presenting author

Abstract should not exceed 600 words. No figures.

After the deadline, the organizers will select the participants. Except in some particular cases approved by the Chairperson, it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in- session talk. The organizers choose the form in which the presentations are made. No payment will be sent with application. Information on how and when to pay will be mailed in due time to those selected.