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Posts by Ben Gern

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Expression of CD103 facilitates localization and activation of CD4+ T cells within Mycobacterium tuberculosis lung-lesions from @rmortensenssi.bsky.social and colleagues www.mucosalimmunology.org/article/S193...

2 months ago 6 3 0 0

Pleased to see this out now in @jem.org 🔬

We characterise the early immune response during M. tuberculosis infection in mouse models and demonstrate a detrimental role for type I interferon activated neutrophils in TB lesions. Thanks to all involved @crick.ac.uk and i3S, Porto.

6 months ago 7 3 0 0

A nice discussion here of our work on the early immune response in M. tuberculosis infection and the great recent paper from @bengern.bsky.social et al

5 months ago 6 2 1 0

Congratulations on a very nice story, Will! I agree an excellent writeup by Dr. Andrea Cooper. It's been great to learn a ton from your paper, and see so many parallels with our findings

5 months ago 0 0 1 0
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Insights from Andrea Cooper: Mtb drives expression of type I IFN–mediated #neutrophil accumulation, which limits interaction btwn CD4 T cells & macrophages. Failure to limit type I IFN very early in the process allows rapid progression of disease rupress.org/jem/article/...

#Tuberculosis

5 months ago 8 5 1 0
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Asymptomatic Tuberculosis in Children with Household Exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis

✅ Just Accepted
#IDSky
🔗 https://bit.ly/47csDBA

6 months ago 3 2 0 10
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Tertiary lymphoid structures support the development of allergen-specific progenitor CD4+ T cells Tissue-resident memory CD4+ T cells (TRM) are key sentinels of the adaptive immune response that provide a rapid, robust inflammatory response upon reactivation in non-lymphoid tissues. While CD4+ TRM...

Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by acute, intermittent, recurrent episodes of airway inflammation. A decade of work developing the tools, techniques and collaborations needed to figure out how CD4+ T cells in the lungs propagate disease can be found here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

6 months ago 43 17 1 1
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We are inviting applications for postdoctoral fellows in immunology of TB at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative, University of Cape Town. For more information see the attached ad:

idm.uct.ac.za/media/739223

6 months ago 82 40 4 3
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Our October issue is here! rupress.org/jem/issue/22...
The cover image shows the lung of a mouse infected with M. #tuberculosis stained for #neutrophils (orange) normal lung parenchyma (blue), collagen (white) and CD4 T cells (green). See @bengern.bsky.social et al. rupress.org/jem/article/...

6 months ago 6 1 0 1
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Clinical Pathway Revision Increases Amoxicillin Monotherapy and 5-Day Durations of Therapy for Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia in the Emergency Department and Urgent Care: A Quality Improvement... The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 5-day amoxicillin monotherapy as first-line treatment for pediatric uncomplicated community-acquired pne…

Treat pediatric CAP with 5 days of amox monotherapy. Check out our QI project here in @annalsofem.bsky.social using pre-clicked durations in order sets and an EHR-integrated pathway! #Pedsky #PedsIDSky #AntimicrobialStewardship #EM #PEM #EmergencyMedicine

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

7 months ago 4 3 0 0
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A recent study from the Gerner and Urdahl labs at UW and @seattlechildrens.org uncovers fundamental determinants of tuberculosis lung pathology. This has important implications for new strategies to prevent or treat tuberculosis.

🧐 See the abstract in @jem.org : https://bit.ly/41IdeHA

7 months ago 2 2 0 0
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Conflict between the innate & adaptive immune system responses determines the kind of damage lungs suffer when infected with TB

Image made with @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social microscopy

📷 @bengern.bsky.social et al @seattlechildrens.org in @jem.org

➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025...

7 months ago 3 1 0 0

Happy to share our new pre-print, led by PhD student Linh Pham! We examine inhibition of MHC II expression by NRF2 during Mtb infection and its impact on innate-adaptive crosstalk. Special thanks to the Behar lab who helped us set up a T cell co-culture system for the project! #TB #immunology

8 months ago 4 1 0 0

We are hiring! The Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics is looking for faculty at the Assistant or Associate professor level (tenure track). Please consider joining our vibrant microbiology and immunology community at the University of Pittsburgh School of medicine

8 months ago 105 106 1 4
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#WomenInSTEM becoming independent: People should feel free to be themselves and do great science. We asked ten women researchers about their science and the process of setting up a lab as an independent researcher: rupress.org/jem/article/...

8 months ago 26 11 1 2
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Early and opposing #neutrophil and CD4 T cell responses shape pulmonary #tuberculosis pathology, say Benjamin Gern @bengern.bsky.social, Michael Gerner, Kevin Urdahl et al. rupress.org/jem/article/...

#TB

8 months ago 4 2 0 0

Thanks, @alissarothchild.bsky.social!

8 months ago 1 0 0 0
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In @jem.org, @bengern.bsky.social et al. show that the early interplay between #neutrophils & CD4 T cells is pivotal in determining #TB pathology, and that depleting neutrophils can improve outcomes even at late timepoints, which has therapeutic relevance rupress.org/jem/article/...

8 months ago 1 1 0 0
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@bengern.bsky.social et al. show that the early interplay between #neutrophils & CD4 T cells is pivotal in determining #TB pathology, and that depleting neutrophils can improve outcomes even at late timepoints, which has therapeutic relevance rupress.org/jem/article/...

8 months ago 9 3 0 0
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I’m excited to announce that our paper, describing early and opposing roles for neutrophils and CD4 T cells in determining #TB lesion structure, is out at @jem.org ! Huge thanks to my lab, and the Urdahl, @michael-gerner.bsky.social, and Aitchison labs who made this possible

doi.org/10.1084/jem....

8 months ago 22 7 1 0

Tuberculosis continues to impair quality of life long after the antibiotics have finished...

Need to work out how to prevent and treat these post-TB sequelae.
#IDSky #TBSky

9 months ago 20 4 0 0
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The immunometabolic topography of tuberculosis granulomas governs cellular organization and bacterial control Despite being heavily infiltrated by immune cells, tuberculosis (TB) granulomas often subvert the host response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection and support bacterial persistence. We prev...

Happy to share a preprint from the Angelo lab many years in the making. Read on for a saga of multiplexed imaging, immunometabolism, and TB granulomas with some fun side quests into the realms of geographical information sciences and transcriptomics… (1/20) doi.org/10.1101/2025...

1 year ago 42 23 3 7

Congrats on a really cool story, Erin!

1 year ago 0 0 0 0
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Type I IFN-mediated NET release promotes Mycobacterium tuberculosis replication and is associated with granuloma caseation Sur Chowdhury et al. report that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection results in the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that promote Mtb replication and associate with tissue damage. Blocking NET release results in better control of Mtb replication, revealing a strategy for treating these deadly infections.

Very excited for this story to be out!! Check out our dissection of how type I IFN promotes NET release, which contributes to Mtb pathogenesis and is associated with granuloma necrosis. Congratulations to all authors!! www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

1 year ago 60 18 3 3
Graphical summary of our paper.  In mice, prior lower airway exposure to diverse inflammatory stimuli, including chronic bacterial infections such as M. tuberculosis, acute bacterial infections such as pulmonary S. aureus, viral infections such as Influenza A, type-II allergic responses such as the OVA-Alum model, activation of pulmonary TLR9 by CpG or pulmonary TLR1/2 by Pam3CSK4
 leads to reduced viral burden upon subsequent infection with SARS-CoV-2 (SCV2). (2) This SCV2 restriction occurs prior to induction of SCV2-specific adaptive immune responses 
and is mediated through innate immune responses, including the induction of IFN-I, TNFα and IL-1 and sustained changes to the TRM (Tissue resident macrophage) cellular 
compartment and the pulmonary epithelium. (3) Innate cytokine and TLR signaling to both recruited immune cells and the pulmonary epithelium creates a microenvironment in the 
lung that limits early replication of SCV2. IFN-I signaling to pulmonary ECs (epithelial cells) increases expression of interferon-stimulated genes, that likely cell-intrinsically limit viral
 replication. TNF- or IL-1 suppress SCV2 independently of IFN-I signaling. TNF acts exclusively through radio-resistant cell types such as the lung epithelium, whereas IL-1 affords 
control both direct and indirectly, through either stromal and hematopoietic cell types, to restrict overall early SCV2 burden.

Graphical summary of our paper. In mice, prior lower airway exposure to diverse inflammatory stimuli, including chronic bacterial infections such as M. tuberculosis, acute bacterial infections such as pulmonary S. aureus, viral infections such as Influenza A, type-II allergic responses such as the OVA-Alum model, activation of pulmonary TLR9 by CpG or pulmonary TLR1/2 by Pam3CSK4 leads to reduced viral burden upon subsequent infection with SARS-CoV-2 (SCV2). (2) This SCV2 restriction occurs prior to induction of SCV2-specific adaptive immune responses and is mediated through innate immune responses, including the induction of IFN-I, TNFα and IL-1 and sustained changes to the TRM (Tissue resident macrophage) cellular compartment and the pulmonary epithelium. (3) Innate cytokine and TLR signaling to both recruited immune cells and the pulmonary epithelium creates a microenvironment in the lung that limits early replication of SCV2. IFN-I signaling to pulmonary ECs (epithelial cells) increases expression of interferon-stimulated genes, that likely cell-intrinsically limit viral replication. TNF- or IL-1 suppress SCV2 independently of IFN-I signaling. TNF acts exclusively through radio-resistant cell types such as the lung epithelium, whereas IL-1 affords control both direct and indirectly, through either stromal and hematopoietic cell types, to restrict overall early SCV2 burden.

Best #Nikolaus 🎅! Our paper on how the 🫁 microenvironment can shape #innate immunity against #viruses is out @sciimmunology.bsky.social This was a herculean effort brilliantly led by @pauljbaker.bsky.social who singlehandedly established the model in the lab during the pandemic. 🧪 #Immunosky 1/9

1 year ago 296 84 28 9
yellow book cover reading Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection Signed Edition

yellow book cover reading Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection Signed Edition

My new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, explores the history of our deadliest infectious disease. It's also about our horrifying present: TB still kills kills over a million people per year, even though it's been curable since the 1950s.

Signed copies can be ordered at everythingistb.com

1 year ago 4069 455 167 50

Ok, in time for the International Day of Pride in STEM, here's a starter pack of LGBTQ+ immunologists. Since not everyone is open (or able to be open) about their identities, we're only adding people by request, so let me know if you'd like to be added #Immunosky #PrideInSTEM 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ go.bsky.app/7WTavcd

1 year ago 59 18 10 2
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Hi! Would you include me in the global health starter pack?

I’m a PI focusing on #tuberculosis immunology at the Seattle Children’s Center for Global Infectious Disease Research and a peds ID specialist.

1 year ago 1 0 0 0
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We are hiring a technician! This position is a great fit for motivated individuals who plan on going to graduate/medical school and want to study host-pathogen interactions using advanced imaging and immunologic tools. Please spread the word!

seattlechildrens.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...

1 year ago 1 0 0 0
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Absence of c-Maf and IL-10 enables Type I IFN enhancement of innate responses to low-dose LPS in alveolar macrophages bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

So happy to share the latest preprint from our lab, led by grad student @PameliaLim9! Pamelia set out to study alveolar #macrophage innate sensing and found that lack of c-Maf and IL-10 enables Type I IFNs to enhance responses to low-dose LPS. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

1 year ago 5 3 0 0