The 21st Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Virology Association
Laura A. St Clair,
Ali L. Brehm,
Shelby Cagle,
Tillie Dunham,
Jonathan Faris,
Paul Gendler,
Monica E. Graham,
Sandra L. Quackenbush,
Joel Rovnak,
Rushika Perera
Affiliations
Laura A. St Clair
Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
Ali L. Brehm
Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
Shelby Cagle
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
Tillie Dunham
Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
Jonathan Faris
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
Paul Gendler
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Development Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
Monica E. Graham
Department of Immunology & Microbiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Sandra L. Quackenbush
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
Joel Rovnak
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
Rushika Perera
Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
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.
