The 2nd CEIRR Annual Network Meeting was a successful event, with over 300 members from the Network attending to discuss and share their research on influenza and SARS-CoV-2. The meeting took place at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor Hotel from August 28th - 31st. The first day of the Annual Network Meeting featured five breakout sessions that covered data management, clinical research, risk assessment, communications, and computational modeling. The Influenza Data Processing and Communication Center (iDPCC) hosted its first Communications Trainee, Dr. Rabeh El-Shesheny of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital CEIRR (SJCEIRR), through the CEIRR Training Program, who helped develop the first communications breakout session on Best Practices in Giving a Scientific Presentation. The first day ended with each of our six CEIRR research Centers hosting individual networking sessions.
Over the course of the Annual Network Meeting, we heard from over 50 session speakers sharing cutting-edge research across topics related to Immunology, Human-Animal Interface & Animal Surveillance, Molecular Virology & Pathogenesis, Human Cohorts & Surveillance, and Immunology & Vaccines. Two poster sessions highlighted the strong trainee presence at the meeting, with over 165 poster presentations and nearly 50 flash talks. This year, two awards for outstanding posters went to Nahara Vargas-Maldonado, a PhD candidate from Dr. Anice Lowen's lab (Emory-CEIRR), and Dr. Faten Okda, a post-doctoral fellow from Dr. Richard Webby's lab (SJCEIRR), from Poster Sessions 1 & 2, respectively.
In addition to scientific research sessions, a variety of social and networking activities took place throughout the meeting. Each CEIRR Center competed for a Teambuilding Prize and earned points from CEIRR trivia, a trading card networking game, outstanding poster presentation nominations, and more! Graduate student Nahara Vargas-Maldonado (Emory-CEIRR) took home the prize for most trading cards collected, while SJCEIRR won the Center Competition prize! Overall, it was an amazing experience that brought together experts from around the world who are passionate about advancing our understanding of influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and other emerging viruses with pandemic potential.
We look forward to another successful meeting in 2024!