The 21st Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Virology Association

Nestled within the Rocky Mountain National Forest, 114 scientists and students gathered at Colorado State University's Mountain Campus for this year's 21st annual Rocky Mountain National Virology Association meeting. This 3-day retreat consisted of 31 talks and 30 poster presentations discussing advances in research pertaining to viral and prion diseases. The keynote address provided a timely discussion on zoonotic coronaviruses, lessons learned, and the path forward towards predicting, preparing, and preventing future viral disease outbreaks. Other invited speakers discussed advances in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance, molecular interactions involved in flavivirus genome assembly, evaluation of ethnomedicines for their efficacy against infectious diseases, multi-omic analyses to define risk factors associated with long COVID, the role that interferon lambda plays in control of viral pathogenesis, cell-fusion-dependent pathogenesis of varicella zoster virus, and advances in the development of a vaccine platform against prion diseases. On behalf of the Rocky Mountain Virology Association, this report summarizes select presentations.

Automated summary

Held at Colorado State University's Mountain Campus within the Rocky Mountain National Forest, this year's 21st annual Rocky Mountain National Virology Association meeting brought together 114 scientists and students for a 3-day retreat featuring 31 talks and 30 poster presentations. Discussions centered around advances in research pertaining to viral and prion diseases, with a keynote address focusing on zoonotic coronaviruses and the importance of predicting, preparing, and preventing future viral disease outbreaks.