BatID 2025 Schedule

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

5:00 – 7:00 pm
Registration open at Nichols Park picnic tables on 53rd Street.
Food and drink available for purchase next door at Small Cheval.

Thursday, July 10, 2025

Location: Cloister Club, Ida Noyes Hall, The University of Chicago

7:00 – 8:00 am Registration open in Ida Noyes Hall. Coffee and pastries provided.

8:00 – 8:15 am
Opening Remarks – Cara Brook, University of Chicago

Session 1: Bat immunology and within-host dynamics

Moderator: Cara Brook, University of Chicago

Plenary 1

(25 min + 5 min Q&A)

8:15 – 8:45 am – Liliana Davalos, Stony Brook University
“Demographic circumstances necessary to explain unique bat (immune) adaptations”

Short Talks

(12 min + 3 min Q&A)

8:45 – 9:00 am – Matae Ahn, LKC Medicine, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore
“Bat-inspired new targets to fight infectious diseases and beyond”
9:00 – 9:15 am – Ken Field, Bucknell University
“Humoral immune responses to Ebolavirus antigens in little epauletted fruit bats (Epomophorus labiatus) show evidence of disease tolerance towards RNA-virus sensing pathways”
9:15 – 9:30 am – Sarah van Tol, NIH/NIAID Rocky Mountain Labs
“Filovirus – bat compatibility is spectral”
9:30 – 9:45 am – Arinjay Banerjee, VIDO, University of Saskatchewan
“An insectivorous bat model to investigate Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection dynamics, tissue tropism, antiviral immunity and persistence”
9:45 – 10:00 am – Peter Cresswell, Yale University
“Adaptations to the MHC-I antigen processing pathway in bats”

10:00 – 10:35 am
Coffee Break and Networking

10:35 – 10:50 am – Nolwenn Jouvenet, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
“Entry, replication and innate immunity evasion of BANAL-236, a SARS-CoV-2-related bat virus, in Rhinolophus cells”
10:50 – 11:05 am – Hannah Frank, Tulane University
11:05 – 11:20 am – Lea Gaucherand, CNRS - University of Strasbourg - IBMC
“Deciphering the role of the Dicer protein in bat antiviral immunity”
11:20 – 11:35 am – Rita M. Quintela-Tizon, VIDO, University of Saskatchewan
“Interferon beta specificity in humans and bats contributes to differences in viral replication and tolerance”
11:35 – 11:50 am – Daniel Becker, University of Oklahoma
“Viral relapse is driven by the immunological costs of spring migration in wild bats”
11:55 – 12:05 pm – Lane Pierson, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
“Testing of bat STING orthologs reveals species specific differences in STING functionality”

12:05 – 1:10 pm
Boxed lunches will be provided. Feel free to eat in the lecture hall, in the lobby of Ida Noyes Hall, or out front on the lawn.

Session 1 (continued)

Moderator: Karen Sears, University of California-Los Angeles

1:10 – 1:25 pm – Eric M. Poeschla, University of Colorado School of Medicine
“Retroviral restriction in bats: characterization of a specific Pteropid post-entry restriction to primate lentiviruses and identification of P. alecto TRIM5 as a functional antiretroviral restriction factor”
1:25 – 1:40 pm – Jyoti Batra, Gladstone Institutes
“Mapping SARS-CoV-2 host networks: A comparative analysis in bats and humans”

Lightning Talks

(5 min, no Q&A)

1:40 – 1:45 pm – Samuel Donaire-Carpio, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
“Exploring the proteomic landscape of Eptesicus fuscus cells following Rio Bravo Virus infection”
1:45 – 1:50 pm – William H. Carr, Medgar Evers College (CUNY)
“MENTOR - Multiplex Embedding of Networks for Team-Based Omics Research analysis identifies potential novel mechanisms for regulating anti-viral immunity in the cave nectar bat”
1:50 – 1:55 pm – Kaushal Baid, VIDO, University of Saskatechwan
(may be presented by labmate Victoria Gonzalez)
“Early innate immune response and evolution of a SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site inactive variant in bat cells”
1:55 – 2:00 pm – Vincent Caval, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
“Bat antiviral effectors: from comparative transcriptomic analysis to functional studies”
2:00 – 2:05 pm – Ashley Reers, Tulane University
“IGH reference sequences enable investigations and reveal insights into bat-specific immunity”
2:05 – 2:10 pm – Amanda Vicente-Santos, University of Oklahoma
“Ecological and evolutionary predictors of bat immunity”

2:10 – 2:45 pm
Coffee Break and Networking

Session 2: Bat pathogen evolution

Moderator: Arinjay Banerjee, VIDO, University of Saskatechwan

Plenary 2

(25 min + 5 min Q&A)

2:45 – 3:15 pm – Benhur Lee, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Short Talks

(12 min + 3 min Q&A)

3:15 – 3:30 pm – Olivia Cords, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
“Ecological drivers of cross-species coronavirus transmission in bats”
3:30 – 3:45 pm – Luis Viquez-R, Bucknell University
“Despite the increasing number of studies, bat diversity is underrepresented in viral experimental infection studies”
3:45 – 4:00 pm – Phillida Charley, Colorado State University “MERS-CoV passaged on Jamaican fruit bat cells selects a variant with mutations in Orf5 gene with enhanced infectivity and immunogenicity in bats”
4:00 – 4:15 pm – Hannah J. Eiseman, Tulane University
“Patterns and drivers of hemispheric differences in global bat-viral diversity”

Lightning Talks

(5 min. No Q&A)

4:15 – 4:20 pm – Robert Cohen, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences
“Ebolavirus evolution and emergence are associated with land use change”
4:20 – 4:25 pm – Annabel Anyang, University of Utah
“The role of intermediate hosts in the molecular evolution of zoonotic coronaviruses”

Poster Session

4:30 – 6:00 pm

All posters will need to fit on an easel that measures 40x32 inches. The easels can be oriented either vertically or horizontally, so you may choose to display your poster in whichever direction suits you best.
Odd number posters: 4:30 – 5:15 pm
Even number posters: 5:15 – 6:00 pm Drinks and hors d’oeuvres provided

Dinner
Self-organized. See main website for recommendations.

Friday, July 11, 2025

8:00 – 8:10 am
Day 2 Opening Remarks – Cara Brook, University of Chicago

Session 3: Bat Pathogen Persistence & Transmission Dynamics

Moderator: Daniel Becker, University of Oklahoma

Plenary 3

(25 min + 5 min Q&A)

8:10 – 8:40 am – Daniel Streicker, University of Glasgow

Short Talks

8:40 – 8:55 am – Gwen Kettenburg, University of Chicago
“The dynamics of henipavirus persistence in wild, Madagascar fruit bats”
8:55 – 9:10 am – Tamika Lunn, University of Georgia
“Periodic shifts in viral load increase risk of spillover from bats”
9:10 – 9:25 am – Vera C. Mols, Erasmus University Medical Center
“Metagenomics reveals recurrent coronavirus shedding pulses in a Serotine Bat maternity colony are not driven by variant introductions or immune escape mutations”
9:25 – 9:40 am – Kristian Forbes, University of Arkansas
“Exposure as a prerequisite to spillover: understanding human-bat interactions in houses of rural Kenya”
9:40 – 9:55 am – Jon Epstein, One Health Science
“Co-circulation dynamics of henipaviruses, filoviruses and rubulaviruses in South Asian bat populations”

9:55 – 10:30 am
Coffee Break and Networking

10:30 – 10:45 am – Stephanie Seifert, Washington State University
“Longitudinal serosurveys reveal bat-virus dynamics in northern Republic of Congo”
10:45 – 11:00 am – Benny Borremans, Wildlife Health Ecology Research Organization
“Reconstructing prevalence dynamics from pooled and individual samples”

Lightning Talks

(5 min. No Q&A)

11:00 – 11:05 am – Maya Weinberg, University of Cambridge, University of Essex UK
“Bats as bacterial reservoirs - Unravelling Staphylococcus aureus dynamics in Rousettus fruit bats”
11:05 – 11:10 am – Sophia Horigan, University of Chicago
“Seasonal infection dynamics and anthropogenic landscape change drive henipavirus spillover risk from a Malagasy fruit bat”
11:10 – 11:15 am – Johnny Uelmen, University of Wisconsin
“Anthropogenic change, bat stress, and ecotonal shifts: Identifying high-risk Nipah virus spillover zones in Bangladesh”

11:30 am – 12:45 pm
Lunch

Session 4: Bat pathogen discovery

Moderator: Stephanie Seifert, Washington State University

Plenary 4

(25 min + 5 min Q&A)

12:45 – 1:15 pm – Simon Anthony, University of California-Davis

Lightning Talks

(5 min. No Q&A)

1:15 – 1:20 pm – Caleb Huntington, UC Davis
“Building out our toolkit: environmental air sampling for wildlife viral surveillance”
1:20 – 1:25 pm – Lexi E. Frank, University of Minnesota
“Nanopore adaptive sampling as a rapid molecular barcoding tool for identification of host species and their metacommunities”
1:25 – 1:30 pm – Maya Juman, Cambridge University
“Model-guided paramyxovirus discovery in museum bat collections”
1:30 – 1:35 pm – I-Ting Tu, University of Glasgow
“Recurrent spillover of H5 avian influenza to vampire bats at the marine-terrestrial interface”

Session 5: Reconciling bat infectious diseases and conservation

Moderator: Hannah Frank, Tulane University

1:40 – 2:10 pm
Plenary 5 Plenary 5 (25 min + 5 min Q&A) – Tigga Kingston, Texas Tech University

Short Talks

(12 min + 3 min Q&A)

2:10 – 2:25 pm – AKM Dawlat Khan, IEDCR, Bangladesh
“Bats as beneficial animals: Perceptions and public health implications in a bat-hunting community of Bangladesh”
2:25 – 2:40 pm – Abby Rutrough, Texas Tech University
“Protecting researchers, protecting bats—norms and control drive bat researchers’ intent to adopt field hygiene practices”
2:40 – 2:55 pm – Kendra Phelps, University of Minnesota
“The Western Asia Bat Research Network (WABNet): First regional network to integrate bat ecological and virological research”
2:55 – 3:10 pm – Benneth Obitte, Texas Tech University
“Targeting taste and leveraging leadership influence: a behavioral approach to reducing bat meat consumption and zoonotic disease risk”
3:10 – 3:25 pm – Natalie Wickenkamp, Colorado State University
“Genomic insights into a Horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus fumigatus/eloquens) cryptic species complex”

3:30 – 4:30 pm
Open Discussion, including final plan for Conference Proceedings Paper.

4:45 – 7:00 pm Closing Social Hour at The Pub

Back to the main BatID 2025 page