Nice work from Christina Sanders and co. confirming that influenza D viruses from cows & pigs grow really well in human airway cells. And farm workers are clearly exposed to them.
Quite why these viruses haven't started spreading in humans (yet) is a bit of a mystery...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
"The bird with four (mating) sexes."
In Zonotrichia albicollis, tan-striped males seek out white-striped females, while white-striped males court tan-striped females.
Morphs are behaviorally "masculine" & "feminine", separate from gonadal sex.
(🧑🎨: Rebecca Gelernter, @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social )
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...
In collaboration with Nicola Muller, and led by @lambod50.bsky.social, we have a new preprint out that's all about reassortment! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Using TargetedBeast, we built massive (9000 tips!) Bayesian phylogenies of North American H5Nx viruses, and inferred the host...
🚨 New publication 🚨
Our collaboration with the Overall lab at UBC has yielded new insights from our latest study on SARS-CoV-2 and its impact on the human immune system. Incredible work by all the trainees. #LoveVirology
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
@cp-cellreports.bsky.social
(1/3)
SUPER COOL to have my recent paper highlighted by CoV transcription legends, Drs Isabel Sola & Sonia Zuñiga in a PLoS Bio Primer.
A much better read than the AI summary of the paper 💥
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
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...
Peer-reviewed version of Hui Min's paper on NA-mediated PLG recruitment as a virulence mechanism for LPAIVs is out in @mbio.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
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...
Can a single viral protein change how you think 🧠🧐? We think so! Our new preprint shows how herpes simplex virus protein pUL56 turns off neuronal electrical activity.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
🟦🧵👇
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...
Nice coverage by @kakape.bsky.social in @science.org of our preprint, where we present data showing orthopoxviruses, including MPXV, infect duikers, which are popular bushmeat in many mpox endemic regions. Highlights lots more about orthopoxvirus ecology to explore:
www.science.org/content/arti...
Host cell remodeling via cyclin dependent kinases drives Ebola virus replication and transcription.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Check out our latest preprint.
Great work by @tshamorkina.bsky.social. Thanks to co-authors Danni Snikkers and @hecklab.bsky.social
We are excited to share our new paper in Molecular Cell uncovering how the viral lncRNA RNA2.7 reshapes host cell biology!
sciencedirect.com/science/authShare/S1097276526001565/20260324T143400Z/1?md5=16c84051c2f253c4665427f837a529d3&dgcid=author
A thread 🧵
Well done!! Interesting stuff!
Our latest work out of the @thegreylab.bsky.social (also my first first-author paper) identifying exogenous DNA as the main agonist triggering cGAS during HCMV infection is now available as a pre-print.
cGAS activation during human cytomegalovirus infection is driven by exogenous DNA www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
🚨 Just released! Take a look. We discuss lessons learned from rodents and bats where some species harbour zoonotic viruses.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Title + abstract of the preprint
Excited to present a new preprint with @nkgarg.bsky.social: presenting usage statistics and observational findings from Paper Skygest in the first six months of deployment! 🎉📜
arxiv.org/abs/2601.04253
📢 New research by #CiViA members M Møhlenberg, T Mogensen et al. published in @pnas.org: "Defective RNA Polymerase III sensing of mitochondrial DNA in pulmonary epithelial cells impairs type I IFN immunity to SARS-CoV-2"
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#Biomedicine #COVID19 #Immunology #InnateImmunity
New preprint! Current T7-based MNV reverse genetics can be performed by co-transfecting plasmids encoding T7 RNA polymerase and vaccinia capping enzymes. We see a further 100-1000-fold boost in titres by incorporating CD300lf-expressing BSR-T7 cells into this system. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Conceptual framework for relating spillover rate and the past spillover window to host jump risk. In order to successfully host jump, a pathogen must overcome barriers to spillover and barriers to sustained transmission in the novel host. Pathogens may or may not be limited at either step in this process, leading conceptually to four classes of nonnative pathogens (A–D). In practice, and in the authors' model, spillover limitation and transmission limitation are continuous traits meaning that there is no discrete separation between the “types” of pathogens shown in A–D but thy discuss pathogens in this framework because it is useful for illustration.
Pathogen host-jumps pose major risks to health, but how can we predict them? This study shows that #pathogen novelty, rather than #spillover rate, is a stronger predictor of host-jump risk, so we should monitor emerging pathogens with limited spillover histories @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4ss5WCY
Species phylogeny, genomic and transcriptomic data, and Ne proxies used in the present study. Left: Phylogenetic tree of the 100 metazoan species considered. Middle: Available genome and transcriptome datasets of each species concerned, including CAGE-seq, 3′-end-seq, RNA-seq, coding genes, and BUSCO genes. Right: Ne and proxies.
What is the evolutionary significance of alternative #transcription initiation, #splicing & #polyadenylation? This study of 75 metazoan species suggests that most transcript diversity reflects deleterious RNA processing errors rather than adaptive function @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3Pcs2e6
Influenza A virus polymerase co-opts distinct sets of host proteins for RNA transcription or replication
Have you ever wondered why children starting nursery/daycare pick up so many germs? I certainly did, and with a crack team of parent-scientists/clinicians, we set out to answer that question. Is childcare a germ factory or an immune bootcamp? journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Host innate immune response profiling reveals hidden viral infections across diverse animal species www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
ZAP targets aberrant mRNA transcripts encoding proteins with defective signal peptides for degradation
@colinwu.bsky.social and coworkers
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#NatMicroPicks
A chink in astrovirus armour 🦠💉
Human astrovirus serotypes 1–8 interact with cells all bind the FcRn receptor through a conserved spike‑protein surface depression revealing a potential antiviral treatment strategy.
#MicroSky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
