The 1st CEIRR Annual Network Meeting took place from August 14th-17th in Memphis, TN. Over 300 members of the CEIRR Network traveled to attend the in-person meeting, which was hosted at the Historic Peabody Hotel. A wealth of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 research was shared with over 45 speakers and 160 poster presentations taking place over the duration of the conference. The first day consisted of 9 breakout meetings that spanned various topics that included cohort sustainability, human subject research overviews, future effort strategies, and data management. The first day ended with dedicated breakout sessions for each CEIRR Center.
The last three days of the meeting were dedicated to sharing cutting edge research across influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and consisted of 6 session topics, which included Immunology, Molecular Virology and Pathogenesis, Transmission and Adaption, Human-Animal Interface, Animal Surveillance, Human Cohorts and Surveillance, and Immunology and Vaccines. Two poster sessions spanning all the session topics were also held and highlighted the strong trainee presence at the meeting.
Throughout the week the social events were an incredible success and helped trainees network with senior investigators. One highlight included a game where principal investigators (PIs) were given trading cards with their likeness and trainees were tasked with starting a conversation with PIs to collect as many trading cards as possible. The trainee who engaged in the most conversations and collected the most cards was given the immense honor of serving as the Peabody Duckmaster. This year's Duck Master was awarded to Dillon McBride, a graduate student in Dr. Andrew Bowman’s lab! The game provided a fun platform to facilitate new connections between researchers at different career stages.
It is safe to say that the inaugural CEIRR Annual Network Meeting fostered many new collaborations and spurred creative new directions for the network. We look forward to another successful meeting in 2023!