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Call for papers - Respiratory viruses: surveillance, diagnostics, and emergence

Guest Editors

Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, MBBS, MD, PdipID, The University of Hong Kong, China
Vivian Huiping Shuai, PhD, The University of Hong Kong, China

Submission Status: Open   |   Submission Deadline: 4 July 2025

Genome Medicine is inviting submissions to a new Collection on the surveillance, diagnostics, and emergence of respiratory viruses. Included topics are virus surveillance and genomics, host-pathogen interactions and immune evasion, and diagnostic, treatment, and vaccine development.


New Content ItemThis Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Wellbeing.

About the Collection

Genome Medicine is inviting submissions to a new Collection on the surveillance, diagnostics, and emergence of respiratory viruses. Included topics are virus surveillance and genomics, host-pathogen interactions and immune evasion, and diagnostic, treatment, and vaccine development. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent re-emergence of avian influenza A(H5N1) have brought the importance of respiratory viruses to global attention. Respiratory viruses remain a threat to public health and research on emerging and re-emerging respiratory viruses remains a high priority. This Collection calls for submissions to advance our understanding of respiratory viral infections, insights into viral genomics, host-pathogen interactions, immune response and evasion, interspecies transmission as emerging human infections, and the development of novel diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines. Submitted research will highlight the intersection of genome medicine and viruses, encompassing diverse areas such as viral genomics, vaccine development, and the molecular basis of viral pathogenesis. 

Emerging research in this area is crucial for developing targeted interventions against viral infections and understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying viral pathogenesis. Recent advances have highlighted the importance of genomic diversity of respiratory viruses in a range of hosts, have facilitated the development of diagnostic tools and vaccines, as well as contributing to predictions of emerging human-pathogenic respiratory viruses.

We are now inviting the submission of Research, Method, Software, Database, and Guideline manuscripts, including but not limited to the following topics:

  • Viral genomics and evolution
  • Surveillance and pandemic preparedness for emerging and re-emerging respiratory viruses 
  • Host-pathogen interactions 
  • Host switching for emerging viruses
  • Immune reactions and immune evasion
  • Long-term effects of viral infections
  • Novel diagnostic technologies
  • New antiviral treatments
  • Vaccine development


Image credit: © [M] Dr_Microbe / Stock.adobe.com

Meet the Guest Editors

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Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, MBBS, MD, PdipID, The University of Hong Kong, China

Dr Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan is currently Assistant Dean (Global Engagement) and tenured Clinical Associate Professor at Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and control of emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential and/or special relevance in Asia. He has published >340 papers in these areas, including (co-)first/corresponding-author publications in The Lancet, Science, and Nature. He has been ranked by Clarivate as a “Highly Cited Researcher” (2 fields: “Microbiology” and “Immunology”) since 2021. He has served as expert member or ambassador of various international organizations, including as member of the WHO ad hoc Expert Group focused on COVID-19 disease modelling (WHOCOM) and Young Ambassador of Science of the American Society for Microbiology. Dr Chan’s team reported the world’s first familial cluster of COVID-19 that confirmed person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which resulted in major control policy changes globally. His team also established the world’s first COVID-19 Syrian hamster model, which has become one of the most commonly used COVID-19 animal models worldwide.
 

Vivian Huiping Shuai, PhD, The University of Hong Kong, China

Dr Vivian Huiping Shuai is currently Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Microbiology, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on the investigation of coronaviruses pathogenicity and antiviral research, with a main focus on highly pathogenic human coronaviruses in animal models. She has 40 publications on emerging infectious pathogens with over 4,000 citations, including first/co-first publications in Nature, Nature Microbiology, Lancet Microbe, and Science Advances. Her series publications on the attenuated pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strain were one of the first studies that provided direct experimental evidence in supporting the relaxation of social restrictions to pave the way for returning to normalcy in Hong Kong and worldwide.

 

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research, Method, Software, Database, and Guideline Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Respiratory viruses: surveillance, diagnostics, and emergence" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.