We are excited to announce that the 3rd Bunyavirus-specific meeting ‘Bunyavirus 2024’ will take place over July 15-16, 2024 at the University of Leeds, UK.

The Bunyavirales order comprises over 500 arthropod- and rodent-borne viruses that infect plants, insects, animals and humans. Many bunyaviruses cause serious or fatal human disease, and as evidence of this, three are listed by WHO as priority pathogens in their recent blue print for disease, namely Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, Rift Valley fever virus and Lassa virus.

Despite the evident threat, no approved vaccines or therapies are available to treat or prevent bunyaviral disease.

Additionally, while this group of viruses has been considered to predominantly affect low- and middle-income tropical countries, climate change is expanding the habitat of the associated vectors, and consequently many bunyaviruses pose an emerging threat in more temperate regions.

Bunyavirus 2024 follows on from Bunyavirus 2022, held in Cambridge, UK and will be dedicated to providing a forum to exchange cutting-edge expertise and knowledge to all those interested in bunyavirus-related topics and to strengthen the network of bunyavirologists. The meeting will be structured around 6 sessions:

1. Evolution and epidemiology.
2. Virus entry and assembly.
3. Virus replication.
4. Antiviral immunity and pathogenesis.
5. Vector biology.
6. Vaccinology and antivirals.

Our keynote speaker for Bunyavirus 2024 will be Erica Ollmann Saphire, from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, California. Erica is a world-leading expert in structural virology, having solved the structures of many bunyaviral proteins, and having deciphered structure-function relationships of components from all stages of viral replication cycles. With a recent focus on viral glycoproteins, Erica will deliver her talk as part of the ‘Virus entry and Assembly’ session.

We will open registration early in 2024, with abstracts accepted for both oral and poster presentations. Please ensure you use the abstract submission template when submitting your abstract.

In the meantime, please come back and visit this page often; we will regularly update the site with information about the meeting schedule, invited participants, accommodation and travel options.

Organisers:

John N. Barr j.n.barr@leeds.ac.uk (University of Leeds, UK) 

Juan Fontana j.fontana@leeds.ac.uk (University of Leeds, UK)

Toshana Foster toshana.foster@nottingham.ac.uk (University of Nottingham, UK)

Maria Rosenthal rosenthal@bnitm.de (Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany)