GVN Meetings

The Global Virus Network (GVN)  regularly convenes general meetings of the network, including the first meeting launch in Washington, DC at the Embassy of Italy in March 2011. Initiating and executing consistent international meetings including GVN’s diverse, dispersed international group of top medical virologists is integral to the success of GVN.  These meetings, among other things, facilitate ongoing organization and future plans as well as provide a unique opportunity to learn about each member’s current research and concerns.  Our diverse group facilitates conversations and collaborations that may not otherwise occur. Since the formal establishment of the non-profit organization, Global Virus Network, Inc., the general meetings have become a critical platform for identification or program priorities and the exchange of ideas.

The 11th International Global Virus Network Meeting was held from June 9-12, 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. It was co-hosted by GVN Center of Excellence, the Centre De Recerca En Sanitat Animalas (CReSA) at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelone (UAB), and the Spanish Society of Virology (SEV). The meeting was headed by Dr. Christian Bréchot, GVN President, Dr. Joaquim Segalés, President of the Local Organizing Committee, and Dr. Albert Bosch, President of SEV. The meeting spanned topics such as immunology and vaccines, anti-virals, virus-host interaction, diagnostic virology and epidemiology, morphogenesis and structural biology, emerging and re-emerging viruses, viruses as biotechnological tools and trending topics in virology.

The 10th International Global Virus Network (GVN) Meeting: Eradication and Control of (Re-)Emerging Viruses was held from November 28-30, 2018 in Veyrier du Lac, France and was co-hosted by GVN Centers of Excellence, the Mérieux Foundation and the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo), and led by FM’s Dr. Hubert Endtz, TiHo’s Dr. Ab Osterhaus and GVN’s Dr. Christian Bréchot.

The 9th International Meeting of the GVN took place in September 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. Co-hosted by Australia’s Peter Doherty Institute, and the Institut Pasteur, this year’s meeting highlighted research advances in HIV, HCV, HTLV-1, and emerging viruses important to Australia and the Southeast Asian region. This included a public “Forum on HTLV-1 in Remote Indigenous Australians,” and later, a session on “New and emerging viruses in Australasia and beyond.”

The 8th meeting of GVN took place in October 2016 in Sapporo, Japan. It was in partnership with the Japanese Society for Virology (JSV), the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) of Japan and the Research Center for Zoonosis Control (CZC) at Hokkaido University. The announcement was made today by Robert Gallo, MD, GVN Co-Founder and International Scientific Advisor, Hideki Hasegawa, MD, PhD, Director of the Department of Pathology of NIID and Hirofumi Sawa, MD, PhD, Deputy Director of CZC and Professor of Molecular Pathobiology at CZC. Both CZC and NIID comprise Japan’s GVN Center of Excellence which also includes the Institute of Medical Science of the University of Tokyo and the Institute for Virus Research (IVR) at Kyoto University.

The 7th meeting of GVN took place in May 2015 in Beijing, China. It was hosted by the Beijing University of Technology, a GVN Center of Excellence, in Beijing, China. During a time of mass migration, global climate change and threats of remerging viruses such as Ebola, the timing and location of the meeting is of significant importance.  Experts shared information on varying viral threats, including those causing hemorrhagic fevers, hepatitis, HIV, measles, influenza, dengue and chikungunya, to name a few. GVN members also reviewed strategies at the center of the organization including the creation of specialized task forces and the launch of training programs to address growing viral threats.

The 6th meeting of the GVN took place in September 2013 in Moscow, Russia. The meetings were hosted by the Russian GVN consortium, led by the Moscow Center for HIV/AIDS Prevention & Treatment and were held at the Moscow City Hall Conference Center. GVN Centers of Excellence presented on their current research on emerging viral threats.

The 5th meeting of the GVN took place in May 2013 in Munich, Germany. The meeting was hosted and organized by the Technical University of Munich (Technische Universität München) and with support from donors identified by GVN, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gilead Sciences and the U.S. NIH. This meeting featured a one-day workshop on durability of vaccine response and a public session to engage new colleagues in the GVN mission.

The 4th meeting of the GVN was held in September 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland USA at the Hilton Baltimore, and was organized by the Institute of Human Virology at UMB. Current research was presented, and several new Centers of Excellence were admitted to the GVN.

The 3rd meeting of the GVN occurred in June 2012 in Naples, Italy. The meeting took place at a hotel in central Naples, and was organized by members of the Italian GVN, specifically from the Italian National Cancer Institute (IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori Fondazione G Pascale.) Foundational members of the GVN Board of Directors were introduced, members presented on their current research areas, and collaborations were strengthened.

The 2nd GVN meeting took place in October 2011 in Dublin, Ireland. The meeting was hosted at University College Dublin and was organized by the Center for Research in Infectious Diseases (CRID) at UCD. Progress was made both on refining the scientific priorities and administrative matters to apply for the GVN to be recognized as a non-profit institution under U.S. law.

The 1st meeting of the GVN took place in March 2011 at the Italian Embassy to the United States in Washington, DC, USA. Drs. Robert Gallo, Reinhard Kurth, and William Hall were established as the co-founders of the GVN. It was organized by the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. This meeting established the first members of the GVN and set the mission, goals and objectives of the organization.