15 May 2025
The OneBAT consortium gathered on 13–14 May 2025 for its 18-month General Assembly, hosted at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona – one of the project’s partners.
The meeting began with a welcome speech by Jordi Serra-Cobo (IRBIO), followed by a series of updates from consortium members. Eugenio Vecchi (beWarrant) presented the status of coordination and management activities and the preparation of the First Periodic Report.
Lorenza Carabba and Andrea Spotti (beWarrant) shared progress on dissemination and exploitation, while Paola Bendictis (IZSVE), along with ANSES, underlined the importance of networking within the project.
The agenda continued with technical sessions:
Laurent Dacheux (Institut Pasteur), Simon Scott (University of Kent), and Maria Francesca Priore (IZSVE) presented developments on the Methodological Platform. This was followed by abstract presentations from:
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Sandra Martinez Puchol (UB) – New methodological approaches using next generation sequencing
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Petra Drzewniokova (IZSVE) – Validation of Pan-CoV Real-Time RT-PCR and its implementation within OneBAT
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Victoire Perraud (Institut Pasteur) – EQA implementation and results on molecular detection methods
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Maria Francesca Priore (IZSVE) – In vitro and in vivo characterization of divergent lyssaviruses
Later, Gábor Kemenesi (University of Pécs) discussed Human susceptibility and zoonotic potential, Pierre Nouvellet (University of Sussex) introduced the Transmission dynamics within the reservoir and spillover hosts, and Fiona Mathews (University of Sussex) concluded with a presentation on Host ecology and the bat-human interface.
It was a fruitful and intense two-day meeting full of knowledge exchange and collaboration. The work continues!
Below you’ll find a gallery of pictures from the event.
