Virus ecology group annual Workshops

We now hold our annual 2-day workshop at  Leamington Spa cricket club during the half-term week in February each year, with meetings in 2002, 2003, 2004 , & 2005. We hold up to 22 talks over the 2 days covering a wide range of subjects in virus ecology. The meeting is particularly suited to students and postdocs who wish to present their results at an informal forum with a friendly atmosphere.  We also try to encourage up to half a dozen of the more experienced researchers to provide some keynote talks. In addition, we invite an international speaker each year. 

February 2002 Meeting

The first meeting was held on the 14/15 February 2002 and 21 scientists presented talks covering the subject areas mentioned above. It was agreed at this meeting that more discussion time should be incorporated; hence the 2003 meeting would include 2 x 2-hour discussions. The group increased in size throughout 2002 with 75 members named on the list before the 2003 meeting.

 February 2003 Meeting

The second meeting was held on the 20/21 February 2003. 42 participants attended the meeting and 8 scientists presented talks covering freshwater viruses, Phage therapy, baculoviruses, soil phages and marine cyanophages. In addition, the surplus from the 2002 meeting was used to help fund an international speaker, Dr Henry Krisch (University of Toulouse, France) who presented a keynote talk entitled: “The Diversity and Evolution of the T4-type Bacteriophages.” In a departure from 2002’s format, 2 x 2-hour discussions on virus genome sequencing and virus latency were included in the workshop. The genomic sequencing discussion led by Willie Wilson started with short talks by Willie on the E. huxleyi virus genome and by Sarah Turner (CEH Oxford) on the Baculovirus Updated Genome site (BUGs) (a prototype pipeline for small genome annotation and comparisons). The second discussion was led by John Burden (CEH Oxford) who focussed on the factors controlling virus latency (lysogeny).

The inclusion of a keynote speaker worked well and generated a lot of extra discussion and it was felt that this should continue in future meetings if the funds allow it. The 2-hour discussions sessions didn’t work as well as expected, particularly in the second discussion where many people left either before or during the discussion. One suggestion would be to have more talks at the 2004 meeting with say 2 or 3 specific themes; then include a discussion period at the end of each theme rather than a ‘cold’ discussion without much pre-amble (as it was at the 2003 meeting). Overall there was still a great deal of enthusiasm for the virus ecology group and everyone was unanimously in favor of holding future meetings.

February 2004 Meeting

The third meeting was held on the 18/19 February 2004. 62 UK-based scientists (from PhD students to PIs) attended the meeting and 18 scientists presented talks over 6 sessions covering baculoviruses, plant viruses, exploitation, marine viruses, bacteriophages and public health viruses. In addition, 2 international guest scientists presented talks on: A new method to detect single genes in situ (Dr Katrin Zwirglmaier, Technical University, Munich, Germany) and The genomic analysis of a bacteriophage that infects a sponge-associated alpha-proteobacterium (Jayme Lohr, Centre of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland, USA). Although Katrin’s talk had nothing to do with viruses (the method – RING FISH was developed to detect single genes in bacteria) it was a fascinating sideline to the meeting and several people said they would be interested in using the technique. Jayme’s talk emphasized the genomic analysis trend starting to grip virus research. Of course the advantage with viruses is their small genome size that brings such projects within the realms of a basic Masters project.

Taking ‘VEG’ literally, the main addition to this year’s meeting was the inclusion of four plant virus talks (carrot, turnip & mushroom viruses) bringing in a welcome new community to VEG (helping to swell their numbers significantly – thanks largely to HRI, Wellsbourne). In addition, we welcomed talks from the public health virus group from the Centre for Public and Environmental Health; and talks on the more applied aspects of bacteriophage ecology (Profs. George Salmond & Maggie Smith). These groups added variety to the meeting and increased the portfolio of research topics/groups for future VEG meetings.

This year more time was allocated at the end of each topic for further discussion on that particular area of science. This worked well and generated quite a bit of discussion, more importantly it worked better than the specific discussion sessions that were used last year (which fell flat). Less people left early this year, which may have something to do with holding the meeting on Wednesday/Thursday instead of Thurs/Fri when people presumable leave early for the weekend. Overall there is still a great deal of enthusiasm for VEG and everyone was unanimously in favor of holding future meetings. Participants felt that, in future, PhD students or 1st postdocs should present talks instead of established researchers. Perhaps some financial incentive could be given (reduced fees? cash prize?) to persuade PhD students to sign up for a talk? Inclusion of keynote speaker(s) was certainly a good idea and part of the surplus from this year will be used to secure a good speaker for next year.

February 2005 Meeting

The fourth meeting was held on the 18/19 February 2005. 48 UK-based scientists (from PhD students to PIs) attended the meeting and 18 scientists presented talks over 5 sessions covering baculoviruses, plant viruses, marine viruses & cyanophages, bacteriophages and knowledge transfer initiatives. In addition, 2 international guest scientists presented talks on: "Viral diversity in the marine environment, effect on the species richness of planktonic organisms." by Dr Ruth-Anne Sandaa (Department of Microbiology, University of Bergen) who detailed some excellent data on virus/host dynamics using a range of molecular methods. and  "Viruses Rule the World." by Professor Curtis Suttle (University of British Columbia) who gave a typically resounding reminder (if we ever needed one!) that there are alot of viruses in the ocean and, actually, they are somewhat important! Indeed, Curtis told us that if you put all the 10³¹ viruses estimated to be present in the ocean, end to end, they would stretch 200 million light years!  Do the sums: it does actually add up to that much.

VEG receives funding through NERC Knowledge Transfer (KT) fund

At the February 2005 meeting we announced the exciting news that we had received funding through a M&FMB programmatic proposal “Using knowledge on marine and freshwater microbial biodiversity” to the NERC Knowledge Transfer (KT) fund.  VEG (through Willie Wilson and Declan Schroeder) received funding to: Invite speakers to future VEG meetings; Design a website on viral ecology and exploitation; Run a training course on viral ecology methods. Funding was approved in late 2004. The VEG part of the proposal came under tasks 3.2.1 & 3.2.2 thus:

Task 3.2.1   KT role for the Virus Ecology Group (VEG)   Whilst most VEG members are based in universities and research laboratories, a few commercial organizations and Public Health bodies are also represented.  It is now timely to expand end-user involvement in the annual meetings and develop other activities, so that VEG can provide a stronger KT role in addition to its research-related functions.

·        VEG meetings.  Future annual meetings will include sessions on application and exploitation issues. To maintain the high calibre of the science discussions (and attract research users), eminent international speakers will be invited to give keynote presentations.

·        Website on viral ecology and exploitation.  This will be initiated as part of the main M&FMB KT site (bluemicrobe), but will subsequently managed via VEG (Dr Willie Wilson, PML).  In addition to disseminating information on environmental virology to a very wide range of  web surfers (including students, journalists and other non-specialists), it will provide the main communication medium for the VEG group (details of meetings and events; online registration) and enable links to be made (via key word searches) to the sites of virus ecology research groups and other relevant contacts.

Task 3.2.2       Training course on viral ecology methods  Many key techniques developed by researchers in environmental virology are currently only known by a few individuals.  A training course (of 4-5 days) will help disseminate and standardise research-based protocols, whilst also introducing technologies developed elsewhere for other purposes (eg medical and agricultural). Participants are expected to include PhD students and other researchers who have just started work on virus ecology, together with industry scientists, public sector personnel and instrument manufacturers.  An overall aim will be to ensure that future requirements for technique and instrumentation development are appreciated by all relevant parties.  A methods manual will also be developed, that is expected to be of great practical value to both researchers and research users. By holding the workshop in Plymouth, it will be possible to use inshore research ships and high-quality laboratory facilities (the MBA Resource Centre) to work on samples from a range of local marine and freshwater environments.

DETAILS OF TRAINING COURSE click here