Scientists find a new way coronaviruses can get into human cells An international team of researchers has identified an East African bat coronavirus capable of entering human cells.

We did a thing:
Scientists find a new way coronaviruses can get into human cells www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

The dynamics and strategy of RNA replication in astroviruses Abstract. Astroviruses are positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses that cause significant disease across avian and mammalian hosts, yet their replicatio

🚨 New paper from the lab! 🚀 We explore “The dynamics and strategy of RNA replication in astroviruses”, now out in NAR Molecular Medicine. Many thanks to all co-authors and congratulations to David Noyvert on his first first-author paper🎉
doi.org/10.1093/narm...

#JGV is recruiting a new Editor for positive-strand RNA viruses. If you’re interested in contributing to the journal and the field, I’d be happy to share my editorial experience - please get in touch!

Congratulations to David Noyvert on acing his PhD viva! Many thanks to the excellent examiners @markohyvonen.bsky.social and Lidia Vasilieva!

Flexibility and modulation of translation initiation in enterovirus genomes Author summary Enteroviruses cause over a billion infections annually, leading to serious conditions such as hand, foot, and mouth disease and viral meningitis. While these viruses are known to encode...

🚨 New paper from the lab! 🚀 We explore flexibility and modulation of IRES-dependent translation in enterovirus genomes through upstream ORFs. Many thanks to all co-authors from the @campathology.bsky.social, CIMR and Cambridge Stem Cell Institute!
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

📢How do astroviruses replicate their RNA genome? Led by a talented PhD student in the lab, David Noyvert, this story identifies novel (-)sgRNA species, shows terminal features of viral RNAs, and uncovers the secret life of RNA replication dynamics and packaging!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📢 5 days left to apply for a PhD studentship in molecular virology in my lab: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Avian-origin influenza A viruses tolerate elevated pyrexic temperatures in mammals Host body temperature can define a virus’s replicative profile—influenza A viruses (IAVs) adapted to 40° to 42°C in birds are less temperature sensitive in vitro compared with human isolates adapted t...

How does fever work?

Our new Science paper shows how elevated body temperature can protect against severe influenza and that avian-origin viruses escape this defence.

This is likely one reason why bird flus and some pandemic influenzas can be so severe.🧵

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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

A paper design for cutting out some sort of snowflake

On the first day of Christmas, a virus gave to me...

A paper design for cutting out some sort of snowflake

On the second day of Christmas, a virus gave to me…

Favorite volunteering gig: Big Biology Day in October! 💚
Huge thanks to our next-generation assistants — the teens who made it all run so smoothly!
And to @valerialulla.bsky.social, who inspires (and leads!) our station every year 🙌

My paper is out! Uncovering hundreds of exogenous and endogenous RNA viral RdRp sequences amongst uncharacterised sequences in public protein databases. doi.org/10.1093/ve/v... 💻🧬 1/5 🧵

📢 We are hiring! We have a fully funded 4-year PhD studentship to study how RNA viruses steal ribosomes and reprogram host translation, thanks to funding from @campathology.bsky.social and @wellcometrust.bsky.social! Come join us!
Full details: www.path.cam.ac.uk/graduate/ful...

Structural and mechanistic insights into translation initiation on the enterovirus Type 1 IRES Enteroviruses are a widespread and diverse set of pathogens responsible for over ~1 billion human infections annually. Upon cell entry, translation of the virus genome is mediated by an internal ribos...

Enteroviruses cause over a billion infections each year, but the details of how their genomes capture host ribosomes have remained elusive. I'm pleased to share a new preprint from Miguel in our group, providing some new insights into this problem:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Enteroviruses use two start sites to gain an edge 🦠🧬 #Enterovirus

Check out the latest @reviewcommons.org #preprintpeerreview of this study Lulla @valerialulla.bsky.social ‪ @cam.ac.uk

Reviews and author's reply here 👇
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Many thanks to all authors from Lulla, Deane, Graham, Zilbauer and Firth labs! Great work from Rhian's PhD time👍
@campathology.bsky.social @atomicvirology.bsky.social @zilbauerlab.bsky.social

Flexibility and modulation of translation initiation in enterovirus genomes Enteroviruses comprise a large group of mammalian pathogens that often utilize two open reading frames (ORFs) to encode their proteins: the upstream protein (UP) and the main polyprotein. In some enteroviruses, in addition to the canonical upstream AUG (uAUG), there is another AUG that may represent an alternative upstream initiation site. An analysis of enterovirus sequences containing additional upstream AUGs identified several clusters, including strains of pathogenic Enterovirus alphacoxsackie and E. coxsackiepol. Using ribosome profiling on coxsackievirus CVA-13 (E. coxsackiepol), we demonstrate that both upstream AUG codons can be used for translation initiation in infected cells. Moreover, we confirm translation from both upstream AUGs using a reporter system. Mutating the additional upstream AUG in the context of CVA-13 did not result in phenotypic changes in immortalized cell lines. However, the wild-type virus outcompeted this mutant in human intestinal organoids and differentiated neuronal systems, representing an advantage in physiologically relevant infection sites. Mutation of the stop codon of the shorter upstream ORF led to dysregulated translation of the other ORFs in the reporter system, suggesting a potential role for the additional uORF in modulating the expression level of the other ORFs. These findings demonstrate the remarkable plasticity of enterovirus IRES-mediated initiation and the competitive advantage of double-upstream-AUG-containing viruses in terminally differentiated intestinal organoids and neuronal systems. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

📢Enteroviruses can have two upstream ORFs, and both can be translated! Led by Rhian O’Connor, this work shows the remarkable flexibility of enterovirus genomes and the advantage of double-uAUG virus in terminally differentiated cells – intestinal organoids and neurons
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Very proud of Dr Rhian O'Connor on smashing her PhD viva today! First one from the lab🥲 Thanks to great examiners Alex Borodavka and Julie Aspden - Rhian enjoyed it!🎉

We have found a capped flu RNA that was hiding in plain sight. In our preprint we show how this RNA activates RIG-I through a non-canonical mechanism. Fantastic work by Liza Elshina and many thanks to collaborators @alistairrussell.bsky.social and Joe Marcotrigiano! biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I made a quick Starter Pack for scientists working on virus discovery - please reply if you’d like me to add you to the pack (or remove you) or to recommend anyone! #scisky go.bsky.app/HK1wxRb

Couldn’t find a virology starter pack so here’s one to get the ball rolling. Repost/reply if you are a virologist so I can find and add you to the list!

go.bsky.app/SinqoJU

Our lab is looking for a Research Assistant->
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/44688/
Please share!

The astrovirus N-terminal nonstructural protein anchors replication complexes to the perinuclear ER ... bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

Excited to share our first preprint of 2024!🎉
In astroviruses, the N-terminal domain of nonstructural protein drives the formation of replication complexes in tight association with perinuclear ER membranes. Great work by Hashim and colleagues!