Responsible Brittany Rife Magalis and Marta Giovanetti
TIME
CONTENT
SPEAKERS
SUNDAY 21 AUGUST
14:00
to
16:00
Registration.
16:00
to
16:40
Welcome to VEME.
Jairo Mendez, Luiz Alcantara, Tulio de Oliveira, Juan Miguel Pascale, Ana Riviere, Luis Sucre
16:40
to
17:00
Keynote lecture 1: Genomic pathogen surveillance in Panama, from research to public health, Gorgas Memorial Institute experience
Alexander Martinez
17:00
to
17:20
Keynote lecture 2: PAHO Genomic Surveillance Regional Networks: genomics to support public health response for the world
Juliana Leite
17:20
to
17:30
Questions & Answers
A. Martinez and J. Leite
17:30
to
19:00
Keynote lecture 3: Collaboration in South Africa to help the world on the characterisation of pandemics and epidemics
Tulio de Oliveira
19:00
to
21:30
VEME Cocktail
Monday 22 AUGUST
8:30
to
9:00
Welcome and practical instructions.
L. Franco and L. Alcantara
9:00
to
10:30
Fundamentals of molecular evolution
M Salemi
10:30
to
11:00
Coffee break.
11:00
to
12:30
Constructing a proper dataset: practical
M Giovanetti and E Wilkinson
12:30
to
14:00
Lunch.
14:00
to
16:00
Alignment algorithms.
S van Wyk
16:00
to
17:00
Coffee break + poster session.
17:00
to
17:40
Keynote lecture 4: A transdisciplinary approach to pandemic preparedness
A-M Vandamme
17:40
to
18:20
Keynote lecture 5: Portable DNA sequencing: impacting the response to emerging and re-emerging viral pathogens on the ground
M. Giovanetti
Tuesday 23 AUGUST
8:30
to
9:30
Sequence alignments and editing: practical
S Van Wyk and E Wilkinson
9:30
to
10:30
Phylogenetic signal and phylogenetic noise: theory
H. Schmidt
10:30
to
11:00
Coffee break.
11:00
to
12:30
Phylogenetic signal and phylogenetic noise: practical
M Giovanetti and E Wilkinson
12:30
to
13:30
Lunch.
13:30
to
14:30
Evolutionary models: theory
H. Schmidt
14:30
to
15:30
Testing evolutionary models: practical
E Wilkinson and M Giovanetti
15:30
to
16:00
Coffee break.
16:00
to
16:50
Free computer time.
M. Giovanetti and E. Wilkinson
16:50
to
17:10
Keynote lecture 7: Project VigenDA: Genomic Surveillance of Dengue in the Americas
Jorge L. Munoz
17:10
to
18:10
Keynote lecture 8: Putting ecology into virus evolution
Edward Holmes
Wednesday 24 AUGUST
8:00
to
8:30
Keynote lecture 9: Modernizing Pathogen Surveillance with Fully Automated Genomic Sequencing and Data Ecosystem
Sasan Amini
8:30
to
10:30
Methods for phylogenetic tree reconstruction
H. Schmidt
10:30
to
11:00
Coffee break.
11:00
to
12:30
Constructing phylogenetic trees: practical (NJ)
M Giovanetti, E Wilkinson and L Santos
12:30
to
13:30
Lunch.
13:30
to
15:00
Hypothesis testing and ML methods
H Schmidt
15:00
to
16:00
Hypothesis testing and ML methods: practical
M Giovanetti and E Wilkinson
16:00
to
17:00
Coffee break + poster session.
17:00
to
17:40
Keynote lecture 10: Quick and Accurate identification of SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Lineages in Africa
H Tegally
17:40
to
18:20
Keynote lecture 11: Modeling and forecasting virus evolution and pathogenesis in the XXI century: from genomic epidemiology to single cell sequencing
M Salemi
Thursday 25 August
8:00
to
8:30
Keynote lecture 6: Molecular Epidemiology based on Ampliseq Technology: SARS-CoV 2 and Beyond
Gonzalo Sepulveda
8:30
to
9:30
Reconstructing ancestral states
E Wilkinson
9:30
to
10:30
Reconstructing ancestral states: practical
E Wilkinson and M Giovanetti
10:30
to
11:00
Coffee break.
11:00
to
12:30
Free computer time
M Giovanetti and E Wilkinson, R Kato L Santos, and L Alcantara
12:30
to
13:30
Lunch.
13:30
to
15:30
Molecular Clocks
M Salemi
15:30
to
16:00
Coffee break.
16:00
to
17:30
Introduction to phylodynamics
M Giovanetti
18:30
to
20:30
Course teachers dinner
Important VEME Update
2025 Workshop Cancelled
2026–2027 Secured
Dear VEME applicants,
We regret to inform you that, due to a global decline in international funding, we will need to cancel VEME2025. Despite our best efforts to secure financial support for this exceptional workshop, we were unable to obtain the necessary commitments to host the event at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) this year.
While this is disappointing news, we are pleased to share that funding has been secured for VEME2026—and most likely for 2027 as well. The 2026 edition is expected to take place in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and the 2027 workshop in Dakar, Senegal. Both events will be supported through the CERI and IPD African Stars Fellowship Program, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. Unfortunately, these funds could not be applied to the 2025 event, as it was reliant on a different funding source.
We thank you for your patience and regret we cannot give you better news. We encourage you to apply again for next year’s VEME. Now more than ever, it is essential that our VEME training continues to prepare the next generation of scientists to respond to global health challenges.
