Event Details

7^th May 2026 at 12:00
Onsite event
in Presidentti auditorium, BioCity
Spring 2026 program

Prof. Edward Holmes, University of Sydney, Australia
Metagenomics in One Health – from detection to prediction of emerging infections

Host: Heli Harvala (heli.harvala@utu.fi)

Coffee and sandwich served at 11:45, first come first serve!

Six PhD researchers and early-career postdocs are welcome to have a lunch and discuss with Prof. Holmes after the seminar. This is a great possibility to learn hosting skills in a friendly environment and create connections for future. Everyone is welcome to join, BioCity Turku will offer the lunch.

If you got interested, please send an email to biocityturku@bioscience.fi

Professor Eddie Holmes is known for his work on the evolution and emergence of infectious diseases, particularly the mechanisms by which RNA viruses jump species boundaries to emerge in humans and other animals. He currently holds an NHMRC Leadership Fellowship and is Professor of Virology at the University of Sydney. He moved to the University of Sydney in 2012. He has studied the emergence and spread of such pathogens as SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus, dengue virus, HIV, hepatitis C virus, myxoma virus, RHDV and Yersinia pestis. He is the author of 792 peer-reviewed papers and two books. His publications have >157,000 citations (h-index of 178

Selected publications

Zhou H, Liu H, Wang YX, Zhao S, Guo M, Cui M, Chen J, Li J, Wang S, Zhang X, Qin J, Lv Z, Ma Z, Zhang R, Zhang B, Zheng W, Ji J, Wang T, Holmes EC, Wang YZ, Shi W. 2025. The risk of human- and mammal-infecting tick-borne viruses in northwest China and adjacent countries. Nat Commun. 2025 Dec 2;17(1):175.

Pierce MP, Worthington BM, Han S, Ni XB, Liao Y, Shum MH, Guan Y, Holmes EC, Lam TT. 2025. Phylogenomics redefines the evolutionary history of mosquitoes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Oct 21;122(42):e2519291122.

Feng Y, Kuang G, Pan Y, Wang J, Yang W, Wu WC, Pan H, Wang J, Han X, Yang L, Xin GY, Shan YT, Gou QY, Liu X, Guo D, Liang G, Holmes EC, Gao Z, Shi M. 2024. Small mammals in a biodiversity hotspot harbor viruses of emergence risk. Natl Sci Rev. 2024 Dec 17;12(6):nwae463.

Chen YM, Hu SJ, Lin XD, Tian JH, Lv JX, Wang MR, Luo XQ, Pei YY, Hu RX, Song ZG, Holmes EC, Zhang YZ. 2023. Host traits shape virome composition and virus transmission in wild small mammals. Cell. 2023 Oct 12;186(21):4662-4675.e12.

Wu F, Zhao S, Yu B, Chen YM, Wang W, Song ZG, Hu Y, Tao ZW, Tian JH, Pei YY, Yuan ML, Zhang YL, Dai FH, Liu Y, Wang QM, Zheng JJ, Xu L, Holmes EC, Zhang YZ. 2020. A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China. Nature. 2020 Mar;579(7798):265-269.

General information

• Registration is not needed, participation list is circulated in the audience
• If you are a student and later wish to get a certificate of attendance from the Frontier of Science seminars, print out the seminar diary and after the seminar ask the BioCity coordinator to sign it https://seafile.utu.fi/f/0cd08ce7e61b419b88cb/
• Please note that any audio or video recording of the seminars is strictly forbidden.
• Spring 2026 image credits to Jan Kaslin: Motor neurons (green) and newly produced cells (red) are organized around the central canal (blue cells surrounding channel that crosses the image) in the adult zebrafish spinal cord. Image taken using Leica SP8 confocal microscope.