Meeting Report of the Second Symposium of the Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes and Launch of the Phage Valley
Salomé Desmecht,
Agnieszka Latka,
Pieter-Jan Ceyssens,
Abel Garcia-Pino,
Annika Gillis,
Rob Lavigne,
Gipsi Lima-Mendez,
Jelle Matthijnssens,
Roberto Vázquez,
Jolien Venneman,
Jeroen Wagemans,
Yves Briers,
Damien Thiry
Affiliations
Salomé Desmecht
Veterinary Bacteriology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals and Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège (ULiège), 4000 Liège, Belgium
Agnieszka Latka
Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University of Ghent (UGent), 9000 Gent, Belgium
Pieter-Jan Ceyssens
Division of Human Bacterial Diseases, Sciensano, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Abel Garcia-Pino
Cellular and Molecular Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Annika Gillis
Laboratory of Food and Environmental Microbiology, Earth and Life Institute, Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Rob Lavigne
Laboratory of Gene Technology, Department of Biosystems, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Gipsi Lima-Mendez
Biology of Microorganisms Research Unit (URBM), Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences (NARILIS), University of Namur (UNamur), 5000 Namur, Belgium
Jelle Matthijnssens
Laboratory of Viral Metagenomics, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Division of Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Roberto Vázquez
Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University of Ghent (UGent), 9000 Gent, Belgium
Jolien Venneman
Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
Jeroen Wagemans
Laboratory of Gene Technology, Department of Biosystems, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Yves Briers
Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University of Ghent (UGent), 9000 Gent, Belgium
Damien Thiry
Veterinary Bacteriology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals and Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège (ULiège), 4000 Liège, Belgium
The second symposium of the Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes (BSVoM) took place on 8 September 2023 at the University of Liège with 141 participants from 10 countries. The meeting program covered three thematic sessions opened by international keynote speakers: two sessions were devoted to “Fundamental research in phage ecology and biology” and the third one to the “Present and future applications of phages”. During this one day symposium, four invited keynote lectures, nine selected talks and eight student pitches were given along with thirty presented posters. The president of the Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes, Prof. Yves Briers, took advantage of this symposium to launch the Phage Valley concept that will put the spotlight on the exceptionally high density of researchers investigating viruses of microbes as well as the successful triple helix approach between academia, industry and government in Belgium.
