Learning objectives:

• Gain an appreciation for the petabases (1e15 bp) of publically available sequencing data
• Learn about a new-generation of petabase-scale sequence analysis tools and how they have been applied for gene discovery, including for RNA viruses
• Be introduced to the frontiers of RNA virus discovery, and explore the limits of “What is a virus?”

Speaker bio:

Artem Babaian’s PhD was in Medical Genetics was with Dr. Dixie Mager at the University of British Columbia, focused on the role of Endogenous Retroviruses in the development of human cancer. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as an independent scientist (read: unemployed), he initiated and lead the Serratus project with the aim of re-analyzing all the world’s RNA sequencing data to uncover the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and all novel RNA virus species. After brief few months at The University of Cambridge as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, he joined the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor where his lab focuses on characterizing the total biodiversity of Earth’s RNA viruses