Meeting report: Fourth Summer School on Innovative Approaches for Identification of Antiviral Agents (IAAASS)

The 4th Summer School on Innovative Approaches for the Identification of Antiviral Agents (IAAASS) was held at the Sardegna Ricerche Research Park in Santa Margherita di Pula, Sardinia, Italy from September 24–28, 2018. The Summer School assembled 21 internationally recognized experts and 46 graduate and postgraduate students, with the goal of discussing advances in antiviral drug discovery from the perspective of high-throughput screening, medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, virology, molecular and structural biology. The meeting format involved three components: (a) morning sessions of plenary talks/overviews from invited speakers, (b) afternoon sessions of posters and short presentations from student participants, and (c) informal small-group discussions between students and participating faculty. Plenary talks also featured a roundtable discussion of the pros and cons of moving into an academic career versus employment in the pharmaceutical industry, featuring individuals with experience in one or both arenas. The success of the IAAASS has come from placing emphasis on informal interactions, through which speakers made themselves available to students throughout the Summer School. This report provides a summary of scientific contributions presented by the lecturers at the 4th IAAASS, with enclosed a supplementary file containing the abstracts of selected oral presentations and poster presentations.