Explore life’s remarkable diversity from the human gut microbiome to viral hosts and coral ecosystems across four dedicated sessions and 12 outstanding presentations. The programme spans advances linking gut microbiota to health; new methods for metagenomic sequence cleanup, inverton detection and alignment visualisation; large language models and agent-based modelling in health and protein–protein interactions; and innovative approaches to virus–host prediction and coral microbiome diversity.

It features five selected Highlight Talks alongside seven peer-reviewed Proceedings contributions, which will appear in the dedicated ECCB 2026 issue published by Oxford University Press.