Data-Driven Insights into Infectious Disease Epidemiology: Highlights from DDLS Symposium at Campus Albano
The Epidemiology and Biology of Infection research area of the SciLifeLab and Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS) hosted a lunch-to-lunch symposium on May 5–6 at Campus Albano, Stockholm University. The event brought together a diverse group of researchers and health officials to discuss infectious disease epidemiology, with sessions focusing on epidemic surveillance, variant tracking, short-term forecasting, and scenario modelling.
“I am really pleased with how the event turned out – the atmosphere was friendly and inclusive and the speakers very professional and pedagogic. It was also fun to finally see the new Campus Albano,” says Tove Fall (UU), one of the organizers of the event.
The symposium quickly attracted participants from across Sweden and beyond, reflecting the strong interest in data-driven approaches to infectious diseases. The program featured keynote talks from leading international experts, invited talks by national researchers, and a dynamic mix of flash talks and posters selected from submitted abstracts. While many presentations drew on experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic, the scope extended broadly — from Ebola to ancient mammoth oral microbes — demonstrating the versatility and generalizability of data-driven methods in infection biology and public health.
A common theme raised by several speakers was the importance of collaboration between academia, healthcare, and policy makers — not only during major pandemics, but also in between — to improve pandemic preparedness. Events like this help build and sustain such collaborations. The event was organized by the DDLS program, an initiative hosted by SciLifeLab and funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
“I was impressed by the great mixture of talks: Evolution of virus variants, microbes in mammoth, declaration of outbreak termination of Ebola, and vaccination policies during the Covid-19 pandemic,” concludes co-organizer Tom Britton (SU).
