Viruses are the most abundant and diverse biological entities on the planet. They can have profound impacts at the scale of individuals to ecosystems serving as both commensals and pathogens. The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has also sparked renewed interest in examining the global virome highlighting the devastating effects the viruses can have on the human population and driving new researchers into the field.

The goal of this meeting is to improve our understanding of how the global virome impacts humans. To accomplish this, we will explore virus zoonosis, one health and virus surveillance and discovery. This meeting will also focus on the human virome and the role viruses play as commensal agents. Finally, this meeting will discuss how to leverage viruses as therapeutics. To supporting these topics this meeting will have a particular focus on computational virology (AI, virus discovery, virus evolution) and novel methodological and experimental model advances. This unique meeting will bring together experts representing diverse disciplines (eg eukaryotic and prokaryotic virologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, computer scientists, and public health experts) to address fundamental biological questions and geopolitical issues that require collaborations across traditional boundaries.