Keystone Symposia’s 2026 Infectious Disease Conferences: From Emerging Threats to Transformative Solutions

Infectious diseases continue to shape human health on a global scale, from sudden outbreaks that capture headlines to persistent challenges that continue to cause suffering year after year. At Keystone Symposia, our 2026 lineup of conferences in infectious disease research is designed not as isolated events, but as a connected scientific journey – one that begins with emerging threats, moves through endemic and unresolved challenges, and culminates in transformative prevention and treatment strategies against a range of viral, bacterial and fungal pathogens.

We invite scientists to follow this arc across the year, as each meeting builds upon the next to create a richer, more integrated understanding of infectious disease research. Researchers are encouraged to take advantage of the series throughout the season, whether in person or virtually via the Livestream and On Demand options, to discover a complete picture of the field, integrating insights from the molecular to the patient to the global health levels.  Attendees will broaden their perspectives, and inspire their work in new and impactful directions.

These conferences are specifically designed to bring together experts and rising stars across basic science, clinical medicine, industry and public health, to collectively address today’s greatest infectious disease challenges and derive innovative cross-disciplinary approaches, collaborations and solutions.  In addition to highlighting cutting-edge research, programs feature panel discussion on big-picture issues that address real-world hurdles to implementation and impacts.  Our goal is to not only empower scientists to do their best work, but to also empower them to have the greatest impact on the world.  

Become part of the conversations, networks and collaborations that will transform our understanding of the pathogens that wreak havoc around the world, from COVID, to HIV, Tuberculosis, vector-borne diseases and countless others, and drive the advent of innovative treatment and prevention strategies to safeguard humanity. 

Learn more about our Infectious Disease conferences below. 

Part I: Emerging Infectious Disease Threats 

We kick off the 2026 season with three conferences focused on understanding emerging infections.  These conferences will explore challenges in surveillance, preparedness and response, from identifying zoonotic reservoirs of novel or re-emerging pathogens, to identifying antigens for rapid vaccine development.  Many of these issues were brought to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic, but remain unsolved. And yet, outbreaks of mpox, measles, ebola, and many others around the world serve as constant reminders that these threats have not passed.  

These programs explore emerging infectious disease challenges from the molecular level to the broader patient and public health perspectives, to provide a holistic understanding and approach that includes the immediate and the prolonged consequences of infection. The Long COVID and Other Post-Acute Infection Syndromes (F1)  conference, now available On Demand, reminds us that the aftermath of the most recent pandemic remains an urgent frontier, while the Predicting and Responding to Emerging Viral Infections (F2),  which will be held in October in Geneva, Switzerland aims to better prepare us for the next one.  Meanwhile, an often overlooked but growing infectious threat will be explored in the second iteration of our Fungal Pathogens: Emerging Threats and Future Challenges (A1)  conference in Breckenridge, Colorado, in January, 2026.

These meetings are reminders of the constant threat of new outbreaks, and importance of research to prepare for their emergence. They set the tone for the year: anticipating the unexpected, and ensuring that science – and related global and political awareness – keeps pace with evolving threats before they spiral into global crises. 

Watch meeting highlight videos and organizer interviews below!

Part 2: Endemic and Unsolved Infectious Disease Challenges 

Tuberculosis: Understanding the Disease Across Scales (C4) 

Decoding HIV Persistence: Strategies for Curing HIV Infection (P3) joint with  HIV Vaccines: Intersections of Basic and Clinical Science (P4) (Livestream Available)

Viral Pathogenesis and Immunity: From Molecular Discoveries to Therapeutics (E2) 
 

The next part of the series delves into some of the world’s most enduring adversaries: HIV, tuberculosis, and viral pathogens that defy eradication. These formidable foes have challenged infectious disease and public health experts for decades, and while we have made significant strides and advances against them, they continue to cause significant global health burdens. Yet there is new hope with modern technological advances that enable scientists to better understand these pathogens and their context within the body, and how they masterfully maneuver to survive despite our best efforts to eradicate them.

Tuberculosis and HIV are the masters of immune evasion and drug resistance, and as such our annual conferences dedicated to these topics gather the best and the brightest in these fields to battle these persistent pathogens. This year we return to Africa with our annual Tuberculosis: Understanding the Disease Across Scales (C4)  conference, to ensure representation from scientists and patients in this region most impacted by the disease. Meanwhile, our annual conference on HIV has forged the forefront of advances in this field time and time again, and this year is no exception. The Decoding HIV Persistence: Strategies for Curing HIV Infection (P3) will cover transformational new approaches using gene therapy and other innovative strategies that hold promise of a cure. Finally in June we will look more broadly at Viral Pathogenesis and Immunity: From Molecular Discoveries to Therapeutics (E2)  to discover common lessons in virulence and immune-targeted interventions across diverse viral classes.

This segment of the series covers insights into pathogen biology and virulence, drug resistance and novel therapeutic approaches such as immunotherapies, gene-editing and vaccine advances that are revolutionizing our arsenal against these infectious agents, promising to finally turn the tide in our favor.

See speaker highlights:

Part 3: Transformative Prevention & Treatment Strategies 

HIV Vaccines: Intersections of Basic and Clinical Science (P4)  joint with Decoding HIV Persistence: Strategies for Curing HIV Infection (P3) (Livestream Available)

Vaccinology: A New Era in Immune-Driven Vaccine Design (D3) (Livestream Available)

Beyond Antibiotics: Emerging Strategies for Combating Bacterial Infection (D4)  (Livestream Available)

As spring unfolds, the series ties everything together with a broader look at prevention and treatment strategies. These conferences are designed to engage virologists and microbiologists with immunologists, clinicians and industry scientists to collectively develop innovative strategies that synthesize novel targeting approaches with new tools in vaccine and antibiotic design. 

The HIV Vaccines: Intersections of Basic and Clinical Science (P4)  and Vaccinology: A New Era in Immune-Driven Vaccine Design (D3) explore the next era in vaccine innovation:  one that leverages immune insights to design smarter, more effective and more durable vaccines against novel targets, including HIV, cancer and autoimmune disease. In parallel, the Beyond Antibiotics: Emerging Strategies for Combating Bacterial Infection (D4)  will examine alternative strategies, including deploying bacteriophage, the microbiome and host-directed therapies, to combat the looming crisis of antimicrobial resistance.

These meetings aim to catalyze transformative breakthroughs that may be applied across a broad spectrum of infectious agents for greater clinical impacts.

See speaker highlights below:

Together, these conferences are more than the sum of their parts. They chart a progression: from recognizing new and unexpected infectious threats, to grappling with the diseases that continue to evade global eradication, to harnessing scientific ingenuity for transformative solutions. Along the way, they highlight not just the pathogens that challenge us, but the immune systems that defend us, the societal inequities that exacerbate disease, and the innovations that promise to reshape prevention and treatment for decades to come. 

Keystone Symposia’s 2026 infectious disease series is, at its core, a story of scientific momentum—one that moves from uncertainty to understanding, from persistence to possibility, and from challenge to change. We invite you to be part of this journey. 

See all Upcoming Infectious Disease Conferences Here

Return to the September 2025 Keypoint Newsletter