Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease - Nature Reviews Disease Primers This PrimeView highlights the epidemiology, pathophysiology, mechanisms, diagnosis and managment of acute rheumatic fever, an autoimmune sequel of group A Streptococus infections.

Get Primed on Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease with our NEW PrimeView! FREE to download this week! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Behind the paper: Māori and Pacific People’s perspectives on Group A Streptococcus vaccine development and delivery in Aotearoa, New Zealand In this post, we speak to the authors of a recent PLOS Global Public Health article, Māori and Pacific People’s perspectives on Group A Streptococcus vaccine development and delivery in Aotearoa, New ...

NEW on our blog:

Behind the paper: Māori and Pacific People’s perspectives on Group A Streptococcus vaccine development and delivery in Aotearoa, New Zealand

speakingofmedicine.plos.org/2026/02/04/b...

Acute rheumatic fever is an autoinflammatory disease

@njmoreland.bsky.social, @rhcmcg.bsky.social report widespread antibody heterogeneity, yet identify a protein expressed in cardiac muscle as an immunodominant autoantigen: doi.org/10.1172/jci....

Our latest work used Phip-Seq to explore the autoantibody repertoire in rheumatic fever ➡️ saw evidence of epitope spreading and identified a new disease associated antigen with biomarker potential 🧪
Great collaboration with MSSM and led by @rhcmcg.bsky.social and @laurencarlton.bsky.social at UoA

Research shows Auckland is an ideal place for Strep A vaccine innovation At UniServices, we partner with the University of Auckland to transform ideas into real-world solutions that impact globally.

A recent update on Rapua, the initiate focused on accelerating Strep A vaccine development in Aotearoa New Zealand www.uniservices.co.nz/news/researc...

So many important insights on #StrepA immunity in this huge piece work by @alexjkeeley.bsky.social @thushan-desilva.bsky.social and the team in #TheGambia. A real privilege to have played a small role from down-under

Pandemic mitigations reveal an association between superficial group A streptococcal infections and acute rheumatic fever incidence in Auckland New Zealand Published in Emerging Microbes & Infections (Vol. 14, No. 1, 2025)

There are multiple reports of dramatic reductions followed by surges in invasive Strep A disease post-pandemic, and now here is one on rheumatic fever, with incidence mirroring superficial infections in the community in Auckland New Zealand - led by Julie Bennett
www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/...

This deep dive into the clinical phenotype of rheumatic fever highlights extreme diversity in presenting symptoms. An important observation from the START study, and highlights why better diagnostic tests are needed 🧪 @annapralph.bsky.social @rhcmcg.bsky.social

bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/7...

Capturing the complete clinical spectrum and incidence of severe acute Group A Streptococcus (GAS) disease: a population-based study in Auckland, New Zealand This study demonstrates that the complete clinical spectrum of severe acute GAS disease occurs in Auckland and is associated with a substantial health and economic burden. The high incidence and entir...

The complete spectrum of serious #StrepA disease was observed in Auckland in 2023 - a mighty lab-based enhanced surveillance effort led by Andrew Fox-Lewis and Rachel Webb www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

New preprint alert 🚨

My team and I are pleased to share our most recent story about how bacterial pathogen (Streptococcus pyogenes, Strep A) exposure induces antibody responses against glycan and protein antigens.

For paper: SSRN ssrn.com/abstract=519...
biorxiv : doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Photo of child having a swab taken of their throat.

Super excited announce funded @wellcometrust.bsky.social extend #StrepA Human challenge inc. transfer to Gambia & identify correlates of protection. Great team @joshosowicki.bsky.social @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social @njmoreland.bsky.social @thushan-desilva.bsky.social y.social & others not on Bluesky

Description Please note that job descriptions are not exhaustive, and you may be asked to take on additional duties that align with the key responsibilities ment...

📣Research Technician job alert! Needed to support our #iSpyLIFE field work and #strep biobanking. www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

Huge effort from the lab team to develop a new assay and analyse the samples and data including @rhcmcg.bsky.social and many not on 🦋. Great to collaborate with folk we worked through the pandemic with especially Alex James on modelling, and the NZ Blood Service. Big thanks to the MWC for funding.

This type of data can provide insight into immunity to respiratory pathogens, but there is still lots to learn - including the time-frame in which antibodies return to pre-pandemic levels and conducting similar studies in those most affected during the surges such as children

We found that antibodies to RSV and Strep A declined by 6-16% in 150 healthy adults during the 3-year period of pandemic restrictions. This suggests reduced pathogen exposure was associated with a decline in antibodies in the population and may have contributed to infection surges

Decline of antibodies to major viral and bacterial respiratory pathogens during the COVID-19 pandemic Antibodies to respiratory syncytial virus and Group A Streptococcus waned significantly in a longitudinal cohort throughout the pandemic. This waning may h

Following relaxation of #COVID19 restrictions surges in infections from respiratory pathogens like RSV and #StrepA have been seen in many countries including Aotearoa New Zealand.
Did waning immunity contribute? We explored this concept in our latest work, see 🧵 academic.oup.com/jid/advance-...

Streptococcus pyogenes pharyngitis elicits diverse antibody responses to key vaccine antigens influenced by the imprint of past infections Nature Communications - Streptococcus pyogenes is a deadly bacteria without a vaccine. Here, researchers measured antibodies in serum and saliva from a strep throat human challenge trial. Baseline...

This #StrepA paper was a LONG labour of love from a great team 😊 Equal first & senior author credits buried at the very end, so I want to highlight the critical contributions of Dr Hannah Frost & @njmoreland.bsky.social & Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social rdcu.be/d2gBV

Finally jumping into 🦋 - and what better way to do than highlighting this super thread. Wonderful to have been involved in this study with our Strep A friends across the Tasman