Chair Dr Dalan Bailey (Pirbright Institute)

Speaker 1 Dr Rachael Tarlinton (University of Nottingham) “Update on Wildlife Coronaviruses, a European perspective”.

Rachael is a European Specialist in Veterinary Microbiology and Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham. Originally from Australia she has a long clinical and research career in veterinary virology covering species across the range from mice to elephants. Current research includes host ranges of coronaviruses in European Wildlife, host genome integration of retroviruses (koalas, cats, rodents), Genetic resistance to lentiviruses (Maedi Visna in sheep), emerging vector borne diseases of ruminants (Bluetongue and Schmallenberg), and viral triggers of autoimmune disease (Multiple Sclerosis in people). Methods used include whole genome sequencing of both host and pathogens as well as epidemiology and social sciences approaches to uptake of control options for viral diseases by animal owners and landscape managers.

Speaker 2 Dr Wilhelm Furnon (University of Glasgow) Phenotypic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 spike during the COVID-19 pandemic”

Wilhelm Furnon is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research. His work primarily focuses on virus-host interactions with a particular emphasis on the molecular determinants of cross-species barriers, transmission and viral pathogenesis. Generally, he contributed to investigating key host antiviral innate immune mechanisms as barrier for virus cross-species transmission alongside characterising SARS-CoV-2 variants fitness and virulence using reverse genetics. Wil is now focusing on understanding experimentally the evolution of coronaviruses and their phenotypic traits such as viral fitness and virus-host interactions in the human respiratory tract related to transmission and pathogenesis.