The Social Lives of Viruses is coming to Vancouver, Canada, from 4th-8th August 2026!

This is a free meeting dedicated to all aspects of virus-virus interactions & evolution.

To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca

@sociovirology.bsky.social #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky

The Earth, just before it disappeared behind the lunar horizon as seen from the Integrity spacecraft 📸 NASA⁠

The four Artemis II astronauts inside of the Orion capsule before they spoke to US President Donald Trump, after the Moon fly-by 📸 NASA⁠

Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch 📸 NASA⁠

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman peered out of one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, on 4 April 📸 NASA⁠

We're still not over Monday's Artemis II Moon fly-by 🌑 The crew should splash down tomorrow. Here are some of our favourites of the breath-taking images from the mission so far⁠
⁠
You can check out our live blog from the history fly-by, as it happened: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

📸 NASA

Here is it! Super new science from us on horizontal gene transfer & bact defense systems! Liyana OW YONG discovered the first-of-its-kind defense factor AbjA that triggers 'abortive conjugation' as a defense mechanism, by targeting the T4SS! How neat?! #MicroSky 1/7

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

Polymerase trapping as the mechanism of H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus genesis Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) derive from H5 and H7 low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIVs). Although insertion of a furin-cleavable multibasic cleavage site (MBCS) in the...

Transient RNA structures play a key role in the emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses! Great to see this collaboration with Mathis Funk, Mathilde Richard, Stephen Cusack, and others in @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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)

Also extremely happy to see work finally published! Kudos to @yushuchen.bsky.social's tenacity and hard work! Read our previous thread and the paper itself for details/updates! Happy to chat if you find our findings interesting! #MicroSky

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Finally had the time to look through and process more photos I’ve taken in Senegal. Here’s some of my favourites!

Top: A representative modeling example from Chimpanzee CPEB3 HDV-like ribozyme (PDB ID: 7QR3), with models predicted by four better-performing methods (blue cartoons) overlaid on experimental structure (gray cartoons). Left to right: DRFold2, DeepFoldRNA, AlphaFold3, RhoFold. Bottom: Structural visualization of the example from coxsackievirus B3 cloverleaf RNA (PDBID: 8DP3), showing experimental structure (left), AlphaFold3’s best prediction from 100 models (middle), and 5th model of DRfold2 (right), respectively. Structures are rainbow-colored from 5′ (blue) to 3′ (red) end.

Accurate RNA structure prediction remains a challenge, despite recent computational advances. This study presents DRFold2, a #DeepLearning framework that significantly enhances accuracy of de novo #RNAstructure prediction by increasing contact prediction precision @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4aoOQiX

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life Giant DNA viruses encode a cap-binding complex homologous to eIF4F, the defining translation-initiation complex of eukaryotes. The viral cap-binding complex is required for viral protein synthesis and enables an unusual degree of replication plasticity under altered host conditions.

Now online! Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller?

Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase.
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From sequence to function: Bridging single-molecule kinetics and molecular diversity Biological function is fundamentally determined by nucleic acid and protein sequence. Beyond encoding genetic information, nucleic acids also display complex physicochemical parameters that shape stru...

Great to see our Science Review on emerging multiplexed single-molecule methods that use libraries to link sequence to dynamics. A fun collaborative writing project! From sequence to function: Bridging single-molecule kinetics and molecular diversity | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Decoding influenza virus: From polymerase mechanisms to translational therapeutics
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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/...

Regulatory hotspot on the influenza A virus polymerase revealed through the structure of the NEP-polymerase complex Structural studies reveal how influenza virus switches between making new RNA genomes and exporting them from the host nucleus.

Beautiful work from @efodor.bsky.social and Jonathan Grimes' labs - the first full structure of the influenza A virus NEP protein, and a clear indication that its role in viral replication is more nuanced that first thought
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Decided to head to Senegal for a photography trip! Here’s some photos I’ve taken 📸!

Shots I took in Portugal! Decided to use pastel style edits since the city is filled with colours 📸

Giving Oxmas formal speech two
months into arriving to Oxford is not in my bingo card 🎄. (Because the MCR President has fallen to the seasonal plague.) What a term.

Amazing example of influenza cheat/cooperator cycles in this recent paper - the repeatability of the oscillatory cycles is so striking

Congrats to @alnajifg.bsky.social , @christopherbrooke.bsky.social , @vignuzzilab.bsky.social & friends

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

🧪 #socialviruses

Published version up at @natcomms.nature.com

New data with Aspergillus getting into tuberculous granulomas and growing like it's a member of the extended Myco family

doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Got tattooed! Spot the scientific elements! 🧬🪐

Finally, it's up on bioRxiv! It's been a rewarding journey shaping this story. My deepest gratitude to @vignuzzilab.bsky.social and @christopherbrooke.bsky.social for their incredible support, and to the @mcbillinois.bsky.social & @astar-idlabs.bsky.social for enabling this research

High-throughput single-virion DNA-PAINT reveals structural diversity, cooperativity, and flexibility during selective packaging in influenza Abstract. Influenza A, a negative-sense RNA virus, has a genome that consists of eight single-stranded RNA segments. Influenza co-infections can result in

Our work on influenza genome packaging using high-throughput single-virion DNA-PAINT is out in NAR! Packaging appears structurally diverse and flexible. Big thanks to Christoff & Qing (amazing effort)! A collab with @efodor.bsky.social, @nicolerobb.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Officially starting my DPhil in Condensed Matter Physics with @achilleskap.bsky.social (@kavlioxford.bsky.social) and @efodor.bsky.social (@dunnschool.bsky.social)! A collaborative project to understand influenza dynamics. Excited to see where this project goes!

Hello Oxford!!

The displacement of the σ70 finger in initial transcription is highly heterogeneous and promoter-dependent Abstract. Most bacterial sigma factors (σ) contain a highly conserved structural module, the ‘σ-finger’, which forms a loop that protrudes towards the RNA

What controls how/when growing RNA unblocks the "door" to exit RNA polymerase? Brilliant duo Anna Wang and Abhishek Majumder led a study in my lab - now out in NAR - on this. *Sequence* matters a lot! Read on... Super smFRET/dynamics work as well. Excited! academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Why does the m6A writer complex require so many proteins? Post-transcriptional gene regulation through m6A deposition is dysregulated in many diseases and is catalyzed by a multi-protein writer complex. This Unsolved Mystery investigates why the writer compl...

Post-transcriptional #GeneRegulation through #m6A deposition is dysregulated in many diseases. Samie Jaffrey &co investigate why the m6A writer complex requires multiple subunits and what roles its individual proteins might have in m6A regulation. 🧪
plos.io/3VjfjWI

Amused by cardiac muscle contraction differentiated from IPSCs ❤️ Super cool isn’t it?

Legend David Baltimore died yesterday. He understood the way things should work: "the real contribution of MIT is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It takes ideas seriously, but the people are relatively informal. They are not self-aggrandizing the way academics can be."