A woodcut of a highland cow peering through a square frame (image credit Ed Hutchinson)
🚨New pre-print!🚨
Influenza viruses need proteases to become infectious. Here, we identify the proteases needed for influenza D virus entry, and show that proteases in the human airway are more than capable of activating this non-human virus
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A panel of immunohistochemistry images showing infection of a panel of IAV viruses (as 6:2 reassortants on a PR8 backbone) in epithelia from the teat and gland cisterns of Aberdeen Angus, Limousin and Holstein Friesian cattle
🚨New pre-print!🚨
Using a panel of different H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b viruses and human seasonal influenza, and mammary explants from common beef and dairy cattle breeds, we add to the growing data showing that H5N1 spillovers into cattle should be seen as an ongoing risk
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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...
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...
So pleased to contribute to this preprint on H5N1 spillover from birds to dairy cattle from the Moo Flu Crew, led by the excellent @jevp.bsky.social.
We traced both B3.13 in Texas and D1.1 in Nevada and Arizona to look at how the virus evolves and what changed👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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...
A 3x3 grid of coloured images of influenza virus particles in the style of an Andy Warhol screen print. Image credit Naina Nair / Ed Hutchinson (MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research)
🚨New Influenza Tool🚨
Interested in IAV mutations?
Looking for markers of mammalian adaptation?
Frustrated by converting between IAV numbering systems?
The #Flu-MutationExplorer, a new tool from @cvrbioinfo.bsky.social and @royalvetcollege.bsky.social, is here to help:
flu-gdb.cvr.gla.ac.uk
(1/n)
Cryo-EM structure reveals how influenza A virus NEP binds the viral polymerase at a regulatory hotspot, coordinating RNA synthesis and nuclear export. Fantastic collaboration with @loiccarrique.bsky.social and Jon Grimes. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
First evidence in Europe of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 infection in a dairy cow. Antibodies against H5N1 detected in a cow with mastitis and respiratory signs on a Dutch dairy farm at the end of December. A cat on that farm had died from H5N1. www.tweedekamer.nl/downloads/do...
Really excited our paper about how H5N1 rapidly adapted to cattle (and how these adaptations also increased its ability to infect cells from the human respiratory tract) is now published! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Spillover of #influenza A viruses from animals to humans represents a threat to our health. In this Perspective, Silke Stertz @virology.uzh.ch discusses emerging research that suggests some influenza A viruses can enter host cells via MHC-II receptors across species 🧪 #virology
🚨New Paper!🚨
Some like it hot: Matt Turnbull and @samjwilsonphd.bsky.social collaborated with groups from @cvrinfo.bsky.social, @cam.ac.uk and beyond to show that, while our fevers are hot enough to control human flu, they don't protect against avian influenzas adaptd to the hotter bodies of birds
H5N1 in bats - what should we think about this?
@itingtu.bsky.social explains her recent preprint (a collaboration with multiple @cvrinfo.bsky.social groups) in a really nice interview with @science.org
www.science.org/content/arti...
A paper design for cutting out some sort of snowflake
On the first day of Christmas, a virus gave to me...
A diagram depicting a PhD project whereby editing salmon cells or ova leads to viral resistance from ISAV.
If you are looking for a PhD in the UK, please check out the LIDo program - www.lido-dtp.ac.uk/apply.
If you are interested in viruses and making genetically edited salmon, please look up my icase project.
International students are welcome to apply!
Please reach out if you have questions.
Really excited to have been a part of this study, lead by @willharv.bsky.social on how reassortment of H5N1 in birds has lead to a 'specialist' genotype that thrives in seabirds and drives summer/spring (rather than winter) waves of poultry outbreaks www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Want to move to Switzerland? We are looking for a postdoc to study airborne viruses:
careers.epfl.ch/job/Lausanne...
@linseymarr.bsky.social @lakdawalalab.bsky.social @corsiaq.bsky.social @influenzal.bsky.social @chuckhaas.bsky.social
Our lab is looking for a post-doc to investigate the effect of air composition on respiratory virus transmission!
If you're someone with experience in virus inactivation, cryo-EM and fluorescence microscopy, and/or aerosol science, apply here:
careers.epfl.ch/job/Lausanne...
Something a little different.
If you're looking for interesting science to engage with older school children, I would like to plug my students' work on cow flu - where it came from and what risk it might pose.
doi.org/10.1042/bio_...
PS> Not peer reviewed but was fun to help write!
A beautiful figure. Global detections of A(H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b in mammalian species, split by sporadic detections (black) and detections which are associated with an outbreak (orange) alongside key mammalian adaptive mutations. Taken from Capelastegui & Goldhill 2025.
Excited to present the first review from my lab!
Which mutations allow H5 influenza to jump into humans or other mammals? How close is H5 to a pandemic? This review has the answers and explains the molecular mechanism behind the mutations.
Led by @fcapelastegui.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1099/jgv....
🚨🔎 Out now in PLOS Pathogens ! 🔎🚨 This project has taken us @cvrinfo.bsky.social @uofgmvls.bsky.social on a wild and wonderful journey. I am excited to share our story of how influenza A viruses (IAVs) exploit cell death to facilitate its covert spread. N/1 journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
Our analysis of the second incursion of H5N1 viruses (genotype D1.1) into dairy cattle in the US is now posted to virological virological.org/t/timing-and...
🎺 PhD studentship available at @lshtm.bsky.social and RVC! @influenzal.bsky.social and I are advertising for a project to investigate the unexpected phenomenon that mutagenic antiviral drugs can give rise to viruses with hundreds of mutations which are still viable. 🧵
www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
Just out: PhD opportunity with Dr Marie Di Placido, Dr Stephen Dunham, Prof Munir Iqbal, Prof. Janet Daley and myself looking at how different livestock species make antibody responses to H5N1.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
A region of purple cells and a region of green cells, touching but not overlapping
Why can't these viruses be friends?
During her PhD, Anna Sims showed that influenza viruses segregate into genetically-distinct lesion through a process called superinfection exclusion. In a new preprint, she shows that the same process also applies for SARS-CoV-2
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A picture of a Fresian cow whose markings resemble influenza viruses
Our study on pasteurising influenza viruses in milk is now out! It's a nice simple story: influenza viruses (including H5N1) are killed really effectively by pasteurisation, but in raw milk they stay infectious - obvious public health implications of both points... (1/2)
rdcu.be/d73te
Please share widely!
We are recruiting a 3-year postdoc at the RVC to develop new methodology to infer epidemic dynamics from wild animal viromes sampled across changeable environments.
Further details: jobs.rvc.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...
Feel free to reach out with any questions. Deadline Feb 9th
Polymerase mutations underlie adaptation of H5N1 influenza virus to dairy cattle and other mammals. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01....
Really proud to share our preprint describing early adaptation of H5N1 to US dairy cattle, and showing how these mutations enhance the ability of the virus to infect other mammals, such as pigs and humans.
With @influenzal.bsky.social @vidhid.bsky.social @drclairesmith.bsky.social and many more!
