The VEGA Symposium
In parallel with the 2018 Meeting, the JGI hosted the first ever Viral EcoGenomics and Applications (VEGA) Symposium.
Viral EcoGenomics and Applications (VEGA) 2018:
Big data approaches to help characterize earth’s Virome
The goals of the workshop are to bring together a “viral ecogenomics” community to foster discussion on how to best capture and characterize uncultivated viruses, understand the role of viruses in natural ecosystems, and functionally explore viral genetic diversity toward innovative biotechnological and industrial applications.
March 14 – 15, 2018, at the Hilton San Francisco in Union Square
Agenda and Speakers
Go here to see the full agenda.
Keynote Speakers
- Joe DeRisi, UCSF
- Eugene Koonin, NCBI
- Marilyn J. Roossinck, Penn State
Other Confirmed Speakers
- Siobain Duffy, Rutgers University
- Britt Koskella, UC Berkeley
- Sylvain Moineau, Laval University , Québec
- Matt Sullivan, Ohio State University
- Lisa Zeigler-Allen, J. Craig Venter Institute
JGI Organizers
Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh, Natalia Ivanova, Nikos Kyrpides, Rex Malmstrom, David Paez-Espino, Simon Roux, Tanja Woyke
External Co-Organizers
Devaki Bhaya (Stanford), Joanne Emerson (UC Davis), Vivek Mutalik (LBNL), Matt Sullivan (OSU), Lisa Zeigler-Allen (JCVI)
Overview of Symposium
The workshop will focus on experimental innovations, computational advances, and other technological developments that will enable researchers to move from observation to predictive and prescriptive analysis. Specifically, a main objective of this workshop is to enable big data for viral ecogenomics, i.e. envisioning the methods, resources, and integrative approaches to further characterize the millions of uncultivated viruses researchers started to unveil, and address long-standing fundamental biological questions while inspiring new biotechnological and industrial applications.
Participants will notably be invited to open discussions designed to shape the future design of IMG/VR (the database of uncultivated viral genomes) to maximize its usefulness for the different actors in the field (i.e. gene-centric experimental approaches, ecosystem models, host-based evolutionary analysis, etc), as well as frame a potential viral-focused call for projects at JGI.