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Held in the beach resort of Florianopolis (‘Floripa’ to the locals), the meeting was a great opportunity to see some recent highlights of Brazilian virology and speak to editors, authors and readers about our infectious disease journals.

The conference began with a roundtable discussion on scientific publishing, where I gave the opening talk on publishing options at BioMed Central, as well as highlighting our growing presence in Latin America.

I was followed by several editors of local Brazilian journals: Adeilton Brandão, the Editor-in-Chief of Memorias Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; Mauricio Nogueira, an Associate Editor for the Brazilian Journal of Microbiology; and Fernando Rosado Spilki, the Editor-in-Chief of Virus Reviews and Research, published by the Brazilian Society of Virology.

These journals are all well respected in their fields, and free to publish in (sponsored by societies or institutes), but struggle to attract the best research papers – a problem for many regional journals.

A recurring theme was the challenge that some Brazilian researchers have to find funding for the Article Processing Charges. Funding varies depending on university and region and so there was great interest in BioMed Central’s membership options as a way to reduce costs.

The scientific quality of the talks was very high and it was a real pleasure to be back at a virology meeting – even bumping into some old friends from my time as a virology postdoc at Imperial College London!

There was a Brazilian thread running through the meeting, with many talks on dengue, vaccinia, environmental virology and other topics of importance to the region – as well as some international speakers from Europe, the USA and Asia.

A particular highlight for me was the talk from Jônatas Abrahão, a rising star of Brazilian virology and discoverer (with Bernard de Scola) of Samba Virus, the first giant virus from the Brazilian Amazon – published in our very own Virology Journal.

The conference was ably chaired by Célia Barardi, an expert in water-borne viruses at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, and an Associate Editor of Virology Journal. BioMed Central sponsored the meeting and provided prizes for the best oral presentations from PhD students and postdocs.

Congratulations to the award winners, listed below. Each of whom will receive a free submission to Virology Journal with no article processing charge (subject to successful review!). We look forward to receiving the first submissions soon.

Best Oral Presentations

Costa, G.B. – Marinho, P.E.S. – Vilela, A.P.P. – Crispim, A.P.C.-Silva, A.T.S. -Ferreira, P.C.P – Nogueira, M.L. – Kroon, E.G.-Trindade, G.S. SEROPREVALENCE OF SAINT LOUIS ENCEPHALITIS VIRUS AMONG HUMANS AND HORSES FROM MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL

De Oliveira, A.S. – Kormelink, R. – Resende, R.O. THE SW-5 GENE CLUSTER: ANALYSIS OF TOMATO RESISTANCE AGAINST TOSPOVIRUSES

Budaszewski, R.F. – Canal, C.W. – Schnell, M.J. – von Messling, V. IMMUNOGENICITY AND EFFICACY ASSESSMENT OF AN INACTIVATED RABIES-BASED CANINE DISTEMPER VACCINE

Pilotto, M.R. – Souza, D.S.M. – Dominot, A.F.A. – Barardi, C.R.M. ACQUISITION, STABILITY AND INACTIVATION OF ENTERIC VIRUSES IN OYSTERS CRASSOSTREA GIGAS

Tavares, L. A. – Da Silva, E. M. – Carvalho, J. V. – Dasilva, L. L. THE MECHANISM OF CD4 DOWNREGULATION BY HIV-1 NEF REVEALS DISTINCT ROLES FOR γ1 and γ2 ADAPTINS IN INTRACELLULAR TRAFFICKING

Martins Júnior, R. B. – Criado, M. F. – Gagliardi, T. B. – Jesus, B. L. S.- Cardoso, R. S. – Silva, M. L. – Carenzi, L. R. – Tamashiro, E. -Valera, F. C. P. – Anselmo-Lima, W. T. – Arruda, E. HUMAN RHINOVIRUS REPLICATION IN LYMPHO – MONONUCLEAR CELLS FROM HUMAN TONSILS

Matos, A.C.D. – Villani, F.N.A. – Gallinari, G.C.F. – Rehfeld, I.S.-Costa, A.G. – Rosa, J.C.C. – Costa, E.A. – Silva, N.L.-Rodrigues, T.V. – Lage, A.P. – Guedes, M.I.M.C. – Lobato, Z.I.P. BOVINE VACCINIA: TESTING AN INACTIVATED VACCINE IN CATTLE

Versiani, A.F. – Souza, H. L. – Bueno, L.L. – Fujiwara, R.T.-Ladeira, L. O. – Da Fonseca, F. G. IMMUNIZATION WITH A DENGUE 3 E PROTEIN-FUNCTIONALIZED GOLD NANORODS IMMUNOGEN INDUCES HIGH AMOUNTS OF PROINFLAMMATORY CYTOKINES

Fernandes, J.E.A. IMPACT OF SINGLE AND MULTIPLE MORPHOTYPES ON GENOME-WIDE SELECTION IN BACULOVIRUS

Ardisson-Araújo D.M. P. – Rollie J. Clem – Fernando L. Melo – José L. C. Wolff – Bergmann M. Ribeiro. THE BETABACULOVIRUS-DERIVED GP64 HOMOLOG IS A FUNCTIONAL ENVELOPE FUSION PROTEIN