The 12^th European Seminar in Virology (EuSeV), held from 29–31 May 2026 in Bertinoro, Italy, and dedicated to the theme “Navigating through DNA viruses – Novel disease associations and common host manipulations”, was strongly shaped by DEEP‑DV this year:

DEEP‑DV organized the seminar in close cooperation with the European Society for Virology (ESV) and played a decisive role in shaping its scientific direction. With a large number of its researchers present, DEEP‑DV made a substantial contribution to interdisciplinary exchange within the European virology community.

As a co‑organizer, DEEP‑DV brought together international scientists from diverse disciplines to discuss current findings on DNA viruses, their shared strategies of host manipulation, and newly identified disease associations—topics that lie at the core of the DEEP‑DV research program.

Invited speakers included Patrick Schwab (GlaxoSmithKline) and Tobias Derfuss (University Hospital Basel), who presented on the links between varicella‑zoster virus reactivation and dementia risk, as well as on the role of B cells in EBV infection and multiple sclerosis. Additional talks by Simon Baker (University of York) and Jo Parish (University of Birmingham) highlighted the significance of polyomaviruses and papillomaviruses in cancer development.

DEEP‑DV P10 project leader Manja Czech‑Sioli (University Medical Center Hamburg‑Eppendorf) and Philipp Kolb (University Medical Center Freiburg) presented new model systems for studying infections with DNA viruses. The DEEP‑DV Mercator Fellow Matthew Weitzman (University of Pennsylvania) showcased innovative methods and experimental systems that enable the investigation of dynamic virus–host interactions with high temporal and spatial resolution.