Image of sites where BA.3.2 was detected from wastewater.

Here are the BA.3.2 wastewater detections (just the ones submitted in the last week).

Human coronavirus OC43 infection in human cerebral organoids: novel insights on pathogenesis and potential therapeutic interventions - Journal of Biomedical Science Background Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a documented rise in the incidence of neurological manifestations among individuals complicated with encephalitis or myelitis. The spectrum of ne...

Human coronavirus OC43 infection in human cerebral organoids: novel insights on pathogenesis and potential therapeutic interventions

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Heart-nosed bat alphacoronaviruses use human CEACAM6 to enter cells - Nature Human CEACAM6, which is widely expressed in the lung, is identified as a receptor used by the spike proteins of Cardioderma cor (heart-nosed bat) alphacoronaviruses to enter cells.

A study in Nature finds that a subset of bat alphacoronaviruses (a major group of coronaviruses) has the potential to enter human cells by exploiting a previously unknown cellular gateway. 🧪

Heart-nosed bat alphacoronaviruses use human CEACAM6 to enter cells

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

56 toewijzingen in de Open Competitie ENW-XS pakket 26-1 | NWO De onderwerpen variëren van het ontrafelen van ziektemechanismen in het brein en het ontwikkelen van nieuwe, niet invasieve methoden om kankers eerder op te sporen tot het verbeteren van technologie v...

Exciting news from our lab 🎉

One of our talented postdocs, Dr. Robin Veenstra, has been awarded an NWO XS grant for the high-risk, high-reward project “Bridging the gap between virus and host.”

www.nwo.nl/nieuws/56-to...

Congrats Robin, and good luck with the project!

This week, we had our biannual away day, a valuable opportunity to step away from the bench and connect as a team.

We heard career talks from our principal investigators, as well as guest speakers who shared perspectives on career paths beyond academia.

A big thanks to the organising committee!

Shapeshifting spike proteins help coronaviruses infect whales and dolphins Coronaviruses use spike proteins to enter cells. This study shows these spikes can change shape, helping the viruses adapt to new hosts, including whales and dolphins. Understanding this flexibility may help predict and prevent future cross-species infections.

For a plain-language overview of our work, see this lay summary courtesy of Kudos:

www.growkudos.com/publications...

Cetacean coronavirus spikes highlight S glycoprotein structural plasticity pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41950284/ #cryoEM

Out now at PLoS Pathogens @plos.org. Nice collaboration with @danielhurdiss.bsky.social @utrechtvirology.bsky.social. Some beautiful glycoproteomics work by @tshamorkina.bsky.social mapping N- and O-glycan shield of coronaviruses infecting whales and dolphins 🐋🐬🐳.
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Our paper describing the #cryoEM structures of unusual spike proteins from marine mammal–infecting gammacoronaviruses is now published in PLOS Pathogens! 🐬

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Is BA.3.2 Disproportionately Infecting Children? A Look at the Age Distribution Data - Lungfish BA.3.2 sequences show a striking enrichment of children compared to other circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages across five countries. We investigate why.

Summary about BA.3.2 disproportionately infecting kids. My first ever blog.

lungfish-science.github.io/blog/2026-04...

Graph of receptor binding curves showing an ancestral and recent H5N1. The ancestral virus does not bind NeuGc receptor well, whereas the recent virus birds NeuGc and NeuAc containing receptors equally.

Really excited to be able to share our latest preprint, describing how during its evolution in cattle, H5N1 has got better at using a type of alternative receptor that's abundant in cows, but not found in humans and birds.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Structure of SARS-CoV-2 spike in complex with its co-receptor the neuronal cell adhesion protein contactin1

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Check out our new preprint. Cool structure by Sabrina Krepel with Bert Janssen.
Thanks to @danielhurdiss.bsky.social @utrechtvirology.bsky.social #covid #pais

🧵The Covid Inquiry’s latest reports have made one thing brutally clear: the first year of the pandemic - and especially the second Covid wave in winter 2020/21 - was devastating.

Much of that devastation was avoidable.

This 🧵: impact on NHS, impact on bereaved, and avoidable harm. 1/19

Cryo-electron microscopy scientist Join our team to contribute to the operation and innovation of state-of-the-art cryo-electron microscopes and empower groundbreaking research.

The newly established NeCEN Utrecht is looking for a #cryoEM scientist!

www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

Work with a new Krios 5 + pFIB and support cutting-edge life science research.

📍 Utrecht | 🗓 Apply by 30 April

Please share with your network!

Congratulations to Jelle Melchers on his first first-author publication in PLOS Pathogens! 🎉

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Using the ReCaP AI tool, Jelle developed a strategy to stabilize Embecovirus spike proteins for vaccine design! 💉

Great work by everyone involved!

AI-guided prefusion stabilization of the human coronavirus OC43 spike protein enables universal embecovirus antigen design pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41871159/ #cryoEM

Structures of Marburgvirus glycoprotein and its complex with NPC1 receptor - Nature Marburgvirus glycoprotein binds to the endosomal receptor NPC1 in a distinct orientation with higher affinity compared with Ebola virus glycoprotein, accompanied by fusion-relevant rearrangements...

Structures of Marburgvirus glycoprotein and its complex with NPC1 receptor

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Hot off the press!

I'm thrilled to share that our paper "Unravelling the Maturation Pathway of a Eukaryotic Virus through Cryo-EM" has been published!

Link to the paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Nature is full of remarkable protein nanomachines, and now we can watch one more in action.

Welcome to the lab, Teja!

Excited to welcome @tejashyamk.bsky.social to the ERC starting grant team, as he starts his PhD!

Teja joins us from @sc-lab.bsky.social, where he built a solid foundation in biochemistry & #cryoEM 🔬

He’ll be uncovering new insights into norovirus replication and assembly. Exciting science ahead!

A STING signaling pathway that inhibits DNA virus replication is also protective against RNA viruses, forming spillover barrier against influenza
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@science.org

Out today in @natecoevo.nature.com!

📝 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We compare the mutational tolerance of enteroviruses A & B across their full proteomes, mapping distinct host interaction strategies 🦠 and identifying mutation-resistant regions that could inform antiviral development 💊

In new study we examine constraints on evolution of endemic "common-cold" coronavirus 229E

We find strong tradeoff between antibody neutralization & receptor binding, due to up-down position of spike RBD

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

See lead author Sheri Harari's summary: x.com/SheriHarari/...

Another one flew off today. We all said Good bye to @tejashyamk.bsky.social with both joy and heavy heart as he heads to @danielhurdiss.bsky.social lab at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social to start his PhD. We wish him all the best and looking forward to his success and an exciting journey ahead.

Off to a new chapter in @danielhurdiss.bsky.social lab at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social super excited and grateful for this opportunity!!

Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of MERS CoV, NL140422, and HKU4 spike protein nanoparticle vaccines - npj Viruses npj Viruses - Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of MERS CoV, NL140422, and HKU4 spike protein nanoparticle vaccines

Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of MERS CoV, NL140422, and HKU4 spike protein nanoparticle vaccines

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

This giant virus hijacks cells’ protein-making machinery to multiply wildly A virus that is big enough to be seen under an ordinary light microscope co-opts its host’s systems with the help of potentially purloined genes.

This giant virus hijacks cells’ protein-making machinery to multiply wildly www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Integrase anchors viral RNA to the HIV-1 capsid interior pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41708858/ #cryoEM

ER protein CLCC1 promotes nuclear envelope fusion in herpesviral and host processes - Nature Communications Herpesvirales utilize a unique nuclear egress route for capsid export. Here the authors show that herpesviruses exploit a cellular membrane protein, once thought to transport chloride, to facilitate membrane fusion and egress from the nucleus.

#Virology

Herpesviruses exploit a cellular membrane protein, once thought to transport chloride, to escape the nucleus by tapping into an ancient membrane fusion process