NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

Virus Focus Group

NAI Virus Focus Group inaugural meeting, October 2002

Ken Stedman, Co-Chair
Portland State University
Portland, Oregon
kstedman@pdx.edu

Baruch Blumberg, Co-Chair
NASA, Life Sciences Division
BS_Blumberg@fccc.edu

The purpose of the NAI Virus Focus Group is to provide a forum for researchers from many disciplines, both within the NAI and the broader science community, to define and address fundamental questions in astrovirology, review the current state of knowledge in this area, and formulate new areas of research to advance our understanding of how viruses may have influenced the origin and evolution of life here on Earth, and perhaps elsewhere in the Solar System.

Recent Activities

AbSciCon 2008 (April 15-17): The NAI-ViFoG had a meeting at the
AbSciCon2008 meeting in Santa Clara. Approximately 30 people attended,
there was active discussion of where the group should meet again and
general themes for future collaboration. This fitted in very nicely
with the Astrovirology session at the meeting, where a number of
NAI-ViFoG members presented, including Susanna C. Manrubia, Ester
Lázaro, and Carlos Briones all from the Centro de Astrobiologia in
Spain, Matti Jalasvuori from University of Jyväskylä , Finland, James
Laidler and Adam Clore from Portland State University, and Mark Young
and Alice Ortman from Montana State University in the USA. A wide
variety of subjects were presented; theories and examples of virus
evolution (Manrubia, Lázaro, Briones), the role of viruses in the origin
of cells (Jalasvuori), virus and host biogeography, genomics and
metagenomics (Clore, Young), characterization of an extreme virus
(Ortmann), and putative virus fossils (Laidler). Finally Ken Stedman,
co-chair of the NAI-ViFoG presented the activities of the NAI-ViFoG to
the NAI-Executive committee who were also meeting at AbSciCon2008.

ASM 2008 (June 1-5): The NAI-ViFoG co-sponsored and organized a
colloquium at the American Society for Microbiology General Meeting in
Boston, USA. The title of the colloquium was “Viruses, Viruses
Everywhere : What How and When”. The speakers were Eugene Koonin,
NIH-NCBI, USA, David Prangishvili, Institut Pasteur, France, Ken
Stedman, Portland State University, USA, Karyna Rosario, University of
South Florida, USA, and Siobain Duffy from Pennsylvania State
University, USA. Despite the colloquium being held at 8am, it was
extremely well attended with more than 200 people in the audience and
elicited a lively discussion. Presentations were on virus ubiquity and
diversity, viruses as model systems to study fundamental evolutionary
questions, the role of viruses in the origin of life, and the origin of
viruses.

Other: Ken Stedman, co-chair, presented an overview and activities of
the NAI-ViFoG to the National Research Council’s Committee on the
Origins and Evolution of Life at the Beckman center of the National
Academies on Oct. 28th, 2008.

A NAI-ViFoG meeting is planned for the upcoming AbSciCon2010 meeting
(April 26-29) in Houston, USA. NAI-ViFoG representation is planned for
the Viruses of Microbes meeting to be held at the Institut Pasteur in
Paris, France in June 2010.

The Virus Focus Group met at the 2007 Annual American Society for Virology meeting, from July 14-18, 2007, in Corvallis, Oregon.

Journals

Kenneth Stedman, Baruch S. Blumberg. Astrobiology. 2005, 5(4): 441-443.
doi:10.1089/ast.2005.5.441. The NASA Astrobiology Institute Virus Focus
Group Workshop and Field Trip to Mono and Mammoth Lakes, CA, June 22–24,
2004 Link

A report of the NAI Virus Focus Group Field Trip to Mono and Mammoth
Lakes, California June 22-25, 2004 Link

Related Links

Viruses Relevant to Space Exploration: Marist College Scientist Infected
with Curiosity Link

Virus Hunters Link