Important work that supports the ongoing vaccination trial throughput Europe by the EEHV research group @utrechtvirology.bsky.social
@utrechtuniversity.bsky.social
#EEHV

Merbecovirus S2 subunit vaccines elicit cross reactive antibodies and provide partial protection against MERS coronavirus - npj Viruses npj Viruses - Merbecovirus S2 subunit vaccines elicit cross reactive antibodies and provide partial protection against MERS coronavirus

Merbecovirus S2 subunit vaccines elicit cross reactive antibodies and provide partial protection against MERS coronavirus

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs - Nature Mouse models show that respiratory infections from viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 can trigger metastasis of dormant breast cancer cells in the lungs, a finding supported by epidemiological d...

Respiratory infections reactivate dormant metastatic breast cancer cells in mouse lungs, correlating with evidence in humans that #SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the risk of cancer-related mortality & lung metastasis

😎 biology but double whammy for cancer patients

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪

Very excited to announce that my first, first author paper, is now on BioRxiv! In this paper we unambiguously show #COPII coated vesicles in unperturbed human cells for the very first time!!

Make my day and check it out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#Cryo-ET #TeamTomo #Cryo-CLEM ❄️🔬❄️🔬❄️🔬❄️🔬

Virion motility of sialoglycan-cleaving respiratory viruses - npj Viruses npj Viruses - Virion motility of sialoglycan-cleaving respiratory viruses

New review paper from the influenza group
@utrechtvirology.bsky.social
together with Mengying Liu and Erik de Vries on virion motility of sialoglycan-cleaving respiratory viruses through mucus and on the surface cells in NPJ viruses @natureportfolio.nature.com
doi.org/10.1038/s442...

We sequenced the anti-RSV-F antibody 131-2a by mass spec and determined its epitope by cryoEM. New insights in postfusion specific binding and antigenic site I. Now published in ACS Infectious Diseases @pubs.acs.org.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
@xdh.bsky.social @hangryhobbit.bsky.social

Full article: Identification of β4GALNT2 as an anti-hPIV3 factor through genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 library screening. Nice work by former PhD student Xuesheng Wu. Many thanks to our collaborators!

We are happy this work by Sarah Peterl et al. is out in EMBO J! It was an exciting collaborative effort of several groups in the SFB1129 consortium on pathogen replication and spread. Check out the correlated light and scanning EM method to study virus morphology changes during spread!

Cell-based sialoglycan arrays for directly comparing influenza A virus receptor requirements for binding and infection Biological sciences; Microbiology; Natural sciences; Virology

www.cell.com/iscience/ful... Great work by Mengying Liu and others!

There's still time to submit your molecular biology abstracts to this year's #ESWI2025 meeting on #Influenza, #RSV and #SARSCoV2. The ESWI meetings are a brilliant way to see your work in context, as they consider these respiratory viruses all the way from molecular biology to policy...

Eurosurveillanc : Human infections with Eurasian avian-like swine influenza virus detected by coincidence via routine respiratory surveillance systems, the Netherlands, 2020 to 2023

Dirk Eggink et al

www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2...

Molecular basis of influenza ribonucleoprotein complex assembly and processive RNA synthesis Influenza viruses replicate and transcribe their genome in the context of a conserved ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex. By integrating cryo–electron microscopy single-particle analysis and cryo–electro...

Excited to share our new @science.org paper! Led by postdocs Ruchao Peng and Xin Xu, we used cryo-EM/ET to reveal the influenza ribonucleoprotein complex structure and its strand-sliding mechanism for RNA synthesis, paving the way for new antivirals.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Also - we eradicated rinderpest in 2010 (joining smallpox as only diseases eradicated).

Turns out fewer anti-vaxxers among cattle 🤦🏻‍♂️

Binding antibody titers against the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase correlate with protection against medically attended influenza A and B disease | Journal of Virology There is a great need to better understand correlates of protection (CoP) against influenza A and B viruses (IAV/IBV). In our study, we analyzed paired plasma and nasal swabs from patients presenting ...

Binding antibody titers against the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase correlate with protection against medically attended influenza A and B disease journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Saudi Arabia confirms 9 MERS cases, including hospital cluster

Saudi Arabia confirms 9 MERS cases, including hospital cluster www.cidrap.umn.edu/mers-cov/sau...

Next week I will move to the lab of Adolfo Garcia-Sastre at Mount Sinai for a three month sabbatical. Looking forward to meeting many old and new colleagues and friends and to visiting NYC itself!

Time for the Dutch Annual Virology Symposium, in the beautiful Geertekerk in Utrecht. Stoked to present our work on antibody sequencing 😁

Uganda’s Ebola Sudan outbreak appears stable

No transmission has been found outside of a single chain, and eight patients in treatment are stable.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/e...

Photo: NIAID/Flickr cc

Purification of Influenza Virions This chapter describes basic workflows for concentrating and for purifying influenza virions. It presents several ways in which ultracentrifugation can be used to concentrate influenza virions from th...

Do you like doing experiments on influenza virus particles but want them to be super-squeaky clean? Or perhaps you'd like to work with filamentous influenza virions but don't know how? Jack Hirst has the protocol chapter for you: link.springer.com/protocol/10....

Clear statement from the virology community

Deglycosylation and truncation in the neuraminidase stalk are functionally equivalent in enhancing the pathogenicity of a high pathogenicity avian influenza virus in chickens | Journal of Virology Avian influenza poses significant economic challenges to the poultry industry and presents potential risks to human health. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that facilitate the emergence of chic...

Deglycosylation and truncation in the neuraminidase stalk are functionally equivalent in enhancing the pathogenicity of a high pathogenicity avian influenza virus in chickens journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Structurally convergent antibodies derived from different vaccine strategies target the influenza virus HA anchor epitope with a subset of VH3 and VK3 genes - Nature Communications Structurally convergent antibodies targeting the conserved influenza HA anchor epitope have provided a template for next-generation vaccine development. The authors identified four anchor antibodies e...

Structurally convergent antibodies derived from different vaccine strategies target the influenza virus HA anchor epitope with a subset of VH3 and VK3 genes www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Multiple independent acquisitions of ACE2 usage in MERS-related coronaviruses Two coronaviruses related to MERS-CoV, which infect European Pipistrellus bats, have been found to use ACE2 as their receptor. These viruses target an ACE2 surface region distant from those recognized...

With participation of Jimin Lee, Jack Brown, Risako Gen, @dabiophysicist.bsky.social, Cameron Stewart in our lab & in collaboration with the labs of Huan Yan and Tyler Starr

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Xuesheng WU on LinkedIn: After four incredible years, I have officially earned my PhD! Grateful for… After four incredible years, I have officially earned my PhD! Grateful for all the support and for the many small but shining moments that made this journey…

www.linkedin.com/posts/xueshe...

Since the emergence of clade 2.3.4.4 H5 viruses, they have shown a remarkable ability to team up with other NA subtypes (and with N1 without a stalk deletion). This in contrast to the “old” H5. Presumably linked to changes in receptor binding. After N2, N6, and N8, we now find N9.

This is bad news. It suggests reassortment of circulating H5N1 viruses with viruses containing N9 NA.

Although this indicates reassortment with avian viruses, it's still bad. Reassortment makes pandemics. The last 3/4 flu pandemics (and likely 1918 too) were reassortant viruses.

Receptor-binding proteins from animal viruses are broadly compatible with human cell entry factors - Nature Microbiology Functional systematic pseudotype virus-based analysis of the ability of diverse animal viruses to enter into a panel of well-characterized human cell lines shows a broad compatibility between animal v...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Brandgans met oriëntatieproblemen, een symptoom van hoogpathogene vogelgriep. Foto: Roy Slaterus

In recente dagen is weer een toename gezien in het aantal zieke en dode wilde vogels, vooral brandganzen, door hoog-pathogene vogelgriep. Het melden van dode vogels kan o.a. via de websites van het DWHC (dwhc.nl/meldingsform...) en Sovon (portal.sovon.nl/dood).

www.sovon.nl/actueel/nieu...

Today we gathered over coffee and cake to thank Raoul de Groot for 40 years of service to the Utrecht Virology Lab 💐

Raoul is, quite literally, a giant in the coronavirus field, and we are extremely fortunate to work with him! 😄

Association of poultry vaccination with interspecies transmission and molecular evolution of H5 subtype avian influenza virus Mass poultry vaccination affects H5 avian influenza virus transmission and evolution, revealing complex host-virus dynamics.

Association of poultry vaccination with interspecies transmission and molecular evolution of H5 subtype avian influenza virus www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...