For the first time, scientists watched the flu virus live as it infected human airway cells. The group from @marvintanenbaum.bsky.social developed a new imaging technique, VISUN, and observed a large variation in infection success. See www.hubrecht.eu/flu-virus/. Video by @janinschoko.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/mich...
Our paper on visualising influenza A virus in live cells with single viral RNA resolution is now out in Cell Systems 🥳
For more details about what we did, see the thread about the preprint below ⬇️
Now out in Nature! We visualize infection of the RNA virus RSV in real-time with single-vRNP resolution to understand how RSV establishes viral factories, biomolecular condensates that act as sites of viral replication. A huge collaborative effort led by Dhanushika Ratnayake!
rdcu.be/e1bBW
Excited to share our new paper! We developed a method to visualize proteasomal degradation at the single–molecule level in live cells, enabling us to dissect distinct modes of substrate engagement, probe co-factor dependence, and study proteasome–ribosome collisions.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
So awesome to have this great paper from Sam Reffsin and Sara Cherry out! In it, we use retrospective clone tracing to show that there are particular single cell states that are more susceptible to viral infection (both SARS-CoV-2 and flu)!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
I am very excited to share our latest work where we describe a new method to profile genome-wide chromatin transitions over time in single cells. Great collaborative effort with the van Oudenaarden group @hubrechtinstitute.bsky.social @oncodeinstitute.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41....
It's possible to apply for the Hubrecht Talent Program again!
The HTP aims to promote scientific excellence in the Netherlands by supporting talented minority students in pursuing a career in scientific research.
Read more in the flyer and on www.hubrecht.eu/about-us/hub...
How do embryos ensure precise tissue patterning? It’s all about timing cell divisions! Our new preprint reveals how cell proliferation syncs with signaling oscillations to regulate precision of somite formation and growth. Check the full story: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Our paper is out! We delevoped a method to follow individual translating ribosomes for hours in living cells, and discovered that ribosomes are great friends and help each other in problematic situations:
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Our paper on Stopless-ORF Circular RNAs (socRNAs) is now out in Cell. By high-res tracking and comparing translation by either single or multiple ribosomes, we find that ribosomes cooperate to overcome pausing to ensure fast and efficient translation
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Our new paper is out: "Mapping the complete influenza A virus infection cycle through single vRNP imaging". Combining newly-developed single-molecule imaging approaches with in situ viral transcriptomics, we identify numerous non-canonical infection pathways.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
This was a big team effort by the bsky-less @Huib, @janinschoko.bsky.social, @baarsmatthijs.bsky.social and Jakob in @marvintanenbaum.bsky.social lab. Also, a great collaboration with @RonFouchier and @antonelladost.bsky.social & @hansclevers.bsky.social on the patient samples and airway organoids!
We envision that the tools described in this manuscript open up new avenues to study IAV biology in unprecedented detail. Conceptually, with virus-specific modifications our imaging systems are even broadly applicable to many different (-)RNA viruses.
(3) Finally, we found that even when vRNPs are present, they often lack transcriptional activity. As a result, most infected cells only transcribe very few vRNPs. We conclude that viral transcription itself is a highly limiting factor in determining the successful outcome of IAV infections.
(2) Mitosis causes vRNPs to be distributed over two separate sister cells. Therefore, these sister-cells often end up having incomplete sets of genome segments. We termed this “viral aneuploidy”, akin to chromosome segregation errors occurring during host cell division.
(1) As previously reported, due to the segmented nature of the IAV genome, virions can lack one or multiple genome segments. We confirmed this both by using live-cell imaging of incoming vRNPs and by performing smFISH on viral particles.
Finally, we wondered what the underlying reason for the observed defects in viral gene expression could be and found three mechanisms:
We analyzed naturally occurring single-gene KOs (cells expressing all but one viral gene) - which are otherwise hard to generate because most viral genes are essential - to study viral protein function and gained insights into which proteins are important for viral replication and nuclear export.
We wondered why so many infections fail to progress through all life-cycle stages. We combined our live-cell imaging technologies with multiplexed smFISH and found that many viruses fail to transcribe one or multiple genes.
Using single-cell traces of many hundreds of cells, we constructed a kinetic map of IAV infections, revealing large heterogeneity in the timing and success rates of the individual steps in the viral life cycle. Infections are very unsuccessful, with only ~4% of them resulting in progeny production.
To capture the late-stage event of new virions budding off, we developed a second, orthogonal technique that visualizes the build-up of HA-protein on the cell surface of infected cells and even labels budding virions.
Further we can follow IAV over time and observed vRNPs replicating and later getting exported from the nucleus to allow assembly of new virions.
Using this technology we show for the first time the moment that virions fuse with the endosomal membrane and release vRNPs step-by-step into the host cell
The NP nanobody recognizes a broad range of IAV strains, including swine, avian, and human strains, and even viruses directly isolated from patient samples! Since there is no need to genetically modify the viruses, it is very easy to do experiments with new strains and isolates.
Influenza viruses are segmented, negative-sense RNA viruses that, like other (-)RNA viruses, have their genomes encapsidated by nucleoproteins (NP). We exploited this characteristic to visualize single, unmodified IAV genomes by expressing a fluorescently labelled nanobody that binds to NP.
Very happy to share our preprint on visualizing the life cycle of Influenza viruses using single-molecule imaging! 🥳 We developed two techniques to visualize infections of unmodified influenza viruses in live cells from endosomal release to budding of new viruses. For more details&videos see below ⬇️
I am really happy to announce the first Hubrecht Symposium on March 13th 2025! We will organize these yearly events on a specific topic in molecular and developmental biology to emphasize the importance of fundamental research for Dutch science. Free of charge! www.hubrecht.eu/hubrecht-sym...
Congrats! 🥳
