Dear virology & microbiology enthusiasts, we warmly invite you to our next Tandem Coffee Talk, where NFDI4Microbiota aims to connect current microbiome research practices with research data management (RDM) services in a practical and accessible way. This time with insights into Viral Ecology and Omics research with our guest speaker Prof. Dr. Bas E. Dutilh (University of Jena, Excellence Cluster "Balance of the Microverse") and Dr. Noriko Cassman (NFDI4Microbiota's VirJenDB, University of Jena). 🕒 Time: Monday, February 23rd, 14:00 – 15:00 CET/ CEST (Berlin time) 💻 Join here via Zoom<https://rwth.zoom-x.de/j/69637480434?pwd=aq6VlWq8JB8w3W4OJ3P3pI7aQcRahP.1> Meeting ID: 696 3748 0434 Passcode: 760425 In this talk, Prof. Dr. Bas E. Dutilh will show how curated big data enables us to learn phage–host interactions at scale to answer fundamental questions in viral ecology and microbiome research. His work highlights how interoperable data resources can transform metagenomics from descriptive cataloguing into predictive, system-level insight. High-throughput sequencing has generated an unprecedented volume of data — but researcher-submitted datasets in public repositories require extensive curation and quality control before they can be reliably reused. Addressing this challenge, VirJenDB - presented by Dr. Noriko Cassman - offers a user-friendly platform for versioned, community-driven curation and ontology development. Virus sequences were ingested from 16 sources, integrating ~200 metadata fields covering taxonomy, sample, and host information, with curated metadata now linked to 15.4 million virus sequences. We warmly invite PIs and researchers interested in interdisciplinary, data-driven research to join the discussion and explore how curated big data can accelerate discoveries in phage–host biology. [Find more information on our <b>Coffee Talk series</b> here.] ________________________________ ☕ Grab your coffee and join us online! We look forward to learning state-of-the art research and exchanging ideas how good scientific data practices can empower the virology research community. The NFDI4Microbiota Outreach Team Carmen (Paulmann), Lina (Junctorius) und Maja (Magel) Interested in more talks? Join our NFDI4Microbiota Coffee Talk series 2026!<https://nfdi4microbiota.de/community/coffee_talk_series/> Website<https://nfdi4microbiota.de/> | Helpdesk <https://nfdi4microbiota.de/de/support/helpdesk/> | LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/company/nfdi4microbiota>| GitHub<https://ddei5-0-ctp.trendmicro.com/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=htt… | Mastodon<https://nfdi.social/@NFDI4Microbiota> | BlueSky<https://bsky.app/profile/nfdi4microbiota.bsky.social> You want to stop receiving NFDI4Microbiota's e-mails? Please write to contact@nfdi4microbiota.de<mailto:contact@nfdi4microbiota.de> to unsubscribe from the mailing list.