An illustration of an apical region of an animal cell in cross section, shown crowded with individual molecules. The plasma membrane is densely occupied by influenza virus glycoproteins, and from the surface bud influenza virions with different morphologies (L-R): spherical, bacilliform, filamentous with a genome, filamentous and empty, filamentous with a helical inner layer, and filamentous with a cofilactin cytoskeleton.

🚨New pre-print!🚨
Because influenza virions are highly variable in form no single method can show their molecular architecture in detail. Here, we integrate multiple structural and compositional approaches to identify new features of these beautiful virus particles
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🔬Fully funded PhD

Applications are open for the BBSRC–GSK Transformative Technologies in Pharmaceutical Science programme!

Apply by 15 May 2026

👉 www.postgradschl.lifesci.cam.ac.uk/funding/tran...

#PharmaceuticalScience #CambridgeUniversity #GSK

Want to hear the story first hand? If you're at #microbio26 then come to my talk today at 13:15 (virus forum on molecular and cellular biology, meeting room 2).

FULLY FUNDED PhD - Visualising avian influenza virus tropism and co-infection in avian hosts at University of Glasgow on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - FULLY FUNDED PhD - Visualising avian influenza virus tropism and co-infection in avian hosts at University of Glasgow, listed on FindAPhD.com

Excited to advertise a fully funded PhD with @socialinfluenza.bsky.social investigating how influenza virus evolution differs between different avian hosts (and how this impacts pandemic potential). Joint between @pirbrightinst.bsky.social + @cvrinfo.bsky.social

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

This work was a tour de force by the very talented PhD student @danandviruses.bsky.social as part of a super-enjoyable collaboration with @deanelab.bsky.social 💪🤓. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the work with ideas, techniques and viruses!

a man wearing a green mask is smiling and wearing a red robe ALT: a man wearing a green mask is smiling and wearing a red robe

We need more studies to work this out, but we now know which virus protein to focus on. And in pUL56 HSV has given us a brilliant genetic tool to silence neuronal activity in specific cell types.

So what? Other studies show that subclinical neonatal infection with HSV causes cognitive issues in adult mice, and many studies link HSV to increased dementia risk. Could pUL56 expression during subclinical infection or latent HSV reactivation silence neurones to cause mild cognitive impairment?

So pUL56 is necessary for neuronal silencing, but is it sufficient? To test this, we made neurones expressing pUL56 outside the context of infection and measured their electrical activity directly using a multi-electrode array. Sure enough, cells expressing pUL56 were electrically silent 🤫

...and these neurones continued happily firing for at least 48 hours after being infected with HSV-1.

However, we found that ion channels weren’t removed from the surface of neurones infected with HSV 1 lacking the protein pUL56...

These ion channels mediate electrical signalling in the brain – you can watch this in our iPSC-derived neurones using calcium biosensors. We observed loss of synchronous calcium flux in infected neurones within 24 hours…the cells weren’t dead 🦜, they just weren’t firing any more.

We used advanced proteomics to study how HSV-1 alters the protein composition of infected human cortical neurones (grown from iPSCs in a dish, not taken from people!). Surprisingly, we found that HSV infection causes a dramatic loss of voltage gated ion channels from the neurone surface.

Most adults are infected for life with herpes simplex virus (HSV) 1. In addition to causing cold sores, HSV 1 is the leading cause of deadly viral encephalitis and is linked to increased risk of neurodegenerative disorders like dementia or ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). [Image: BMJ 2012; 344]

Can a single viral protein change how you think 🧠🧐? We think so! Our new preprint shows how herpes simplex virus protein pUL56 turns off neuronal electrical activity.

www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

🟦🧵👇

It finally happened! I had such a great time studying for my PhD here and thank you to both Ade and Jonny for a fun viva!

Dan even found time to bake a cake for his own post viva party

Post viva party

Congratulations to Dr @danandviruses.bsky.social on passing his PhD viva in style! 🥳🎉🕺🎓
Many thanks to the examiners Ade Whitehouse and @abelljonny.bsky.social for putting him through his paces (for 4 hours!! 😅)
@campathology.bsky.social

Junior Research Groups (m/f/d) in the field of Infection Biology Junior Research Groups (m/f/d) in the field of Infection Biology

Junior Research Groups (m/f/d) in the field of Infection Biology

This is a lab biochemicals quiz. Seriously, that's the kind of thing I come up with in my spare time. I know, it's weird, right?

You might have missed out on our lab Christmas party this year, but you can still try your hand at our "common lab chemicals" quiz. Apparently me handing out a sheet of chemical drawings is 'not fun', so this year we also had cryptic clues...

EM is the culprit this time... At least it didn't also send me a new login and password (for once!)

a man in a purple robe is sitting on a set of stairs surrounded by two women . ALT: a man in a purple robe is sitting on a set of stairs surrounded by two women .

Definitely not you Alain! My beef isn't with the timing of the request, we all need to get things done as and when we can, it's the reminder on a Sunday morning that seems tone deaf...

Surely it can't be hard to update the code to send a reminder on the n+2 work day...

Seriously @plos.org - what is the deal with sending a review request at 8 pm on a Friday night and then following up on Sunday morning if people have had the temerity to not respond over the weekend to a request for free labour?

The infamous virology Christmas party rides again!

Top UK scientist says research visa restrictions endanger economy Prof Sir Paul Nurse says the UK is "shooting itself in the foot" with its visa system for researchers.

BBC News - Top UK scientist says research visa restrictions endanger economy
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Raccoon gets drunk at Ashland ABC store and passes out in bathroom Talk about a trashed panda.

Raccoon gets drunk at a Virginia liquor store and passes out in bathroom

Viral protease-mediated polyprotein processing in human astroviruses Positive-sense RNA viruses often encode large polyproteins that are proteolytically processed by viral and host proteases into functional replication proteins. Astroviruses infect intestinal and neuro...

📢Astrovirus polyprotein processing is finally uncovered - these viruses use peculiar dual cleavage sites around their protease! Led by a talented PhD student, David Noyvert, this work provides a map of astrovirus genomes. Great collaboration with @emmottlab.bsky.social @leandroxneves.bsky.social

Nah, probably the end of the road for us with this particular project (blame UKRI)

Just published in JBC @asbmbjournals.bsky.social - HSV-1 pUL21 teaches us that the universe of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) binders may be much larger than previously recognised: www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Bluetorial at bsky.app/profile/atom...

Viruses - is there anything they can't do? 🦠💪

Come and join us here in Cambridge! Applications open for a new faculty position, for a researcher in computational and/or theoretical biology, based jointly in Genetics and Mathematics. Happy to answer questions about research, teaching and working here.

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/faculty...

I love AlphaFold—but please include PAE (Predicted Aligned Error) plots for every “interaction.” Pretty PDBs ≠ proof. If the PAE doesn’t show an interface, it ain’t one. Show the plots. Structural biology's reputation is on the line.