An epithelial-immune circuit amplifies inflammasome and IL-6 responses to SARS-CoV-2 IL-1β and IL-6 are increased in severe COVID-19. Examining the underlying mechanisms, Barnett et al. show that SARS-CoV-2 E protein primes, and DNA from infected epithelial cells activates, inflammaso...

I established these systems during my postdoc at UNC, which are described in this article. www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Shout out to my co-author, Scott Randell, who helped me optimize media to co-culture primary human airway epithelia with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (and for not thinking I was completely bonkers for doing this!)

Co‐Culture Systems to Study Epithelial‐Immune Interactions During SARS‐CoV‐2 Infection Robust inflammatory responses to viral infection are mediated by immune cell populations, including monocytes and dendritic cells. However, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2...

I've gotten lots of questions about our co-culture systems to study epithelial-immune interactions in viral infections, so wrote a step-by-step guide! I hope this will help anyone looking to adapt these protocols for their research.
currentprotocols.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Really enjoyed meeting you and everyone else, too! Here’s to seeing y’all again soon!

A fantastic session! So happy to be a part of this group of scientists and learn more about their exciting work at #ASBMB2026

On the balance of knowledge - Nature Reviews Immunology Ruslan Medzhitov shares his thoughts on the balance between generating data and developing theories in immunology, with a focus on exploring the rules that govern complex systems.

Too much data, too little thinking.
A important essay from Ruslan Medzhitov on the importance of understanding data, not just generating it. A must read.
@Yale
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats, Margaret! Happy to see this out!

Rhinovirus triggers distinct host responses through differential engagement of epithelial innate immune signaling Rhinoviruses are the most frequent cause of common colds and also a major cause of respiratory distress in high-risk groups. Using single-cell sequencing of rhinovirus-infected nasal epithelial organo...

Rhinoviruses cause common cold & asthma attacks but are also often benign. Using nasal organoids, we learned how the community of cells in the lining the nasal passages coordinates to respond to rhinovirus and which responses lead to excess mucus & inflammation. www.cell.com/cell-press-b...

Thrilled to share our new preprint showing that dietary amino acids license the NLRP3 inflammasome via mTOR-dependent mRNA translation! Congrats to co-1st authors @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social, Brian Goldspiel, co-senior author @metabailism.bsky.social & collaborators! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Molecular, Cellular, Tissue, and Organismal Functions of Type III Interferons Type III interferons are essential immune mediators playing pleiotropic roles during health and disease. In this review, we highlight the molecular and cellular pathways that lead to the production of...

💥New paper alert!💥 What’s better than starting 2026 with an @annualreviews.bsky.social #Immunology, often a once-in-a-life honor ❤️?! Check it out if you want to know everything about type III interferons #IFN! Thanks to my wonderful team for their amazing work 🤗 doi.org/10.1146/annu...

Congratulations, Megan!!! 🥳

Oxidized phosphatidylcholines deposition drives chronic neurodegeneration in a mouse model of progressive multiple sclerosis via IL-1β signaling - Nature Neuroscience In this study, Yu et al. found that a positive feedback loop between oxidized phosphatidylcholine and IL-1β promotes chronic neurodegeneration in the central nervous system and could be a contributing...

Evidence continues building that oxidized lipids drive inflammasome activities in health and disease.  A beautiful study shows a link to multiple sclerosis, with a role for inflammasomes and IL-1 in pathology.  Kudos to the authors on this exciting discovery.

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

Chronic sensing of host-derived lipids is an all-in-one signal that primes and activates NLRP3. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome leads to the production of bioactive interleukin (IL)-1β fostering atherosclerosis. The current dogma is that NLRP3 must be first primed by microbial stimuli, know...

#InflammasomePower! 💥New paper alert💥 How is NLPR3 primed & activated in chronic non-communicable inflammatory diseases? With @oceanedufies.bsky.social &co we show that chronic exposure to oxPAPC drives NRF2 activation that primes & activates NLRP3 sustaining #atherosclerosis in mice & humans! 👇👇👇

Enteropathogenic bacteria evade ROCK-driven epithelial cell extrusion - Nature The bacterial ubiquitin ligase NleL evades host defence mechanisms both by inhibiting pyroptosis and by preventing infected intestinal epithelial cells from being extruded into the lumen and expelled ...

Check out our new publication, a collaboration with Giovanni Luchetti and Vishva Dixit @ Genentech.
We show that the E.coli effector NleL inhibits intestinal epithelial cell extrusion after #inflammasome activation via degrading the kinases ROCK1 and 2!!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Explainer 1/8

It’s #BlackInMicro week! This year’s theme is HARMONY and we have a great program scheduled. You can find more info on our website: blackinmicrobiology.org.

Register for free to check it out. Everyone is welcome! 🦠

#DAMPsPower! Balachandran, Yin &co show @nature.com that upon influenza #IAV or herpes #HSV1 virus infection, ZBP1 induces cell death by sensing #host-derived endogenous retroelement Z-RNAs produced in response to virulence factors! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A cGAS-mediated mechanism in naked mole-rats potentiates DNA repair and delays aging Efficient DNA repair might make possible the longevity of naked mole-rats. However, whether they have distinctive mechanisms to optimize functions of DNA repair suppressors is unclear. We find that na...

#LiveForever! Chen, Mao &co show @science.org that not all #cGAS are equals & that naked mole-rats one bears a 4 amino acid mutation which enhances DNA repair & when transferred in aged mice dampens frailty, hair graying, inflammatory & senescence markers! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Support Discovery Research Week at Michigan Medicine! From September 29 to October 5, 2025, we invite you to join us for Discovery Research Week to celebrate and support our scientists and learners who lay the groundwork for the medical breakthroughs of ...

It’s Discovery Research Week! Every day, the bold work of our U-M researchers and scientists points the way to life-changing treatments and cures patients and families need. Visit victors.us/researchsep25 Please consider supporting the work of departments like M&I.

Wall teichoic acid is required for DNA-triggered innate immune receptor activation by Staphylococcus aureus Receptors that stimulate inflammation are commonly activated by ligands that are buried within microbial cells. The mechanisms that facilitate immunostimulatory ligand release from microbes during inf...

Thrilled to share my work from the @jkagan1.bsky.social lab!

TLDR: O-acetylation and wall teichoic acid compete for space on S. aureus peptidoglycan. This competition regulates DNA release, and thus immune receptor activation, during infection!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#microsky #immunosky

The mechanism of STING NF-κB signaling has remained a mystery. An exciting new study from the Paludan lab now uses data throughout animal STING evolution to provide new answers – including isolating white blood cells from turtles and carp!

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

An NLRP3-stimulatory adjuvant improves the immunogenicity of influenza virus vaccines in mice and non-human primates | mBio The generation of vaccines that stimulate T cell activities is an unmet need for the scientific community, as T cells are the primary mediators of immune memory. In this study, we report a new vaccine...

An NLRP3 stimulatory universal influenza vaccine.
We report an NLRP3 stimulus that generates hyperactive dendritic cells (hDCs).
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Epigenetic silencing of interleukin-10 by host-derived oxidized phospholipids supports a lethal inflammatory response to infections Phagocytes initiate immunity to invading microorganisms by detecting pathogen-associated molecular patterns via pattern recognition receptors. Pathoge…

💥 #ImmunometabolismPower! Excited to have this officially out @cp-immunity.bsky.social 💥 We show that pathogens induce the host to produce oxidized lipids which rewire the #metabolism of #macrophages, causing #epigenetic modifications which dampen anti-inflammatory IL-10, exacerbating #inflammation!

So cool!!! Congratulations, Ivan and co!!

Opinion: Antagonism to mRNA Technology Is Killing Our Best Shot At a Cure For Cancer The recent announcement of RFK Jr.’s termination of mRNA vaccine contracts is the latest effort to undermine this promising technology at the federal level. Pharmaceutical companies and private invest...

The recent cuts to federal mRNA research funding are killing our best chance to cure cancer.

Read my OP-ED on this topic in BioSpace, linked below.
www.biospace.com/drug-develop...

Why does RNA undergo glycosylation? Excited to have our paper out. We in collab w/ Ryan Flynn @raflynn5.bsky.social show N-glycans on glycoRNA hide self-RNA from endosomal TLRs promoting silent removal of dead cells. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @uconnresearch.bsky.social @uconnhealth.bsky.social

Senate panel rejects Trump cuts to NIH, other health agencies (The Hill) The Senate Appropriations Committee rejected the Trump administration’s massive proposed funding cut to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), advancing a ...

Sometimes the news is actually worth reading.
"Senate panel rejects Trump cuts to NIH, other health agencies" l.smartnews.com/p-5Vc5EAFi/f...

Extra kudos and thanks to all the staff at NIH and NSF and other federal funding agencies for working extra hard in very small windows of opportunity to get grants reviewed and funds released before the attention-addled federal policies change again (on an hourly basis).

Oxidized phospholipid damage signals as modulators of immunity | Open Biology Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are self-derived molecules released during tissue damage that influence immune responses. Phospholipids, essential to cell membranes and lung surfactants, ...

Everything you wanted to know about oxidized lipids & immunity, in one review. We explain how oxidized lipids impact inflammation, dendritic cells, anti-tumor immunity and more.
Kudos to Joon Choi for his exceptional work.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

MyD88 polymerization and association to cellular membranes in a yeast heterologous model - Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences MyD88 is a key mediator of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling, orchestrating the innate immune response upon stimulation by pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Structurally, MyD88 consists...

MyD88 cell biology explored in yeast. The fantastic @VictorJCid
and colleagues reveal an unexpected variety of organelles MyD88 can bind in budding yeast.
Kudos to all authors on this exciting finding.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

No better time to call or email your members of Congress. Next year’s NIH budget is being debated in the Senate. A new nonpartisan campaign is making it easy to defend science and protect America’s innovation. Just follow this link to contact your representatives: www.protectscienceandinnovation.org