A look back at USask’s 2025 innovative research projects USask is one of Canada’s top research universities, and in 2025 USask researchers pushed the boundaries of research, scholarly and artistic work across numerous disciplines.

Lucky and humbled to have our work featured alongside such phenomenal colleagues across multiple disciplines. #LZCI #USask #VIDO
Read more here.

www.sasktoday.ca/saskatoon-to...

It is a remarkable day for my lab today, #LZCI. Victoria Gonzalez successfully defended her PhD with flying colours.

Congratulations, Dr. Victoria Gonzalez! Bravo!

#ProudNewPI #Bats #ComparativeImmunology

Way to go @sauhards.bsky.social. Super proud of your hard work. #PIIN2025
Congratulations to PhD candidate, Sauhard for winning the best poster at the 2025 PIIN conference. #LZCI #LoveVirology

Excellent talk by Dr. Kaushal Baid from the lab at #PIIN2025. #LZCI #LoveVirology

MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 infection in diverse human lung organoid-derived cultures | Journal of Virology The COVID-19 pandemic heralded the upsurge in human-derived lung organoid-based studies due to their cellular heterogeneity that partly emulates the cellular complexity of the respiratory tract. A maj...

🚨 Latest publication from our group and our exceptional collaborators. Led by postdoctoral fellows Drs. Chiok and Jenik. We attempted to test the permissivity of diverse patient origin airway organoid-derived cultures to MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. #LZCI #LoveVirology

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

And with that, Victoria is off to her next adventure at the University of Toronto. She published several cool studies with us and will be back next month to defend her PhD! Proud of you, Vic! #LZCI #LoveVirology

Victoria’s recent study 👉🏾 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Next week, PhD candidate, Victoria Gonzalez embarks on a new journey and will be moving. She started in 2021 in my newly established lab and published several cool studies. It’s hard to see her leave. She’ll be back to defend her PhD in October. Undoubtedly, we will miss you.. #LZCI #LoveVirology

WOW, What a day! PhD student, Arely defended her PhD with flying colours! Congratulations, Dr. Hernandez! 👏🏾 #LoveVirology #LZCI

This week three trainees from the lab are in Montreal for the Canadian One Health training platform on Emerging Zoonosis workshop. #LZCI @abhuinya.bsky.social @Rita @sauhards.bsky.social #OneHealth

It was such a terrific feeling to host my former PhD supervisor, Prof. Vikram Misra and watch him interact with my trainees. Always a great time with you, Vikram! #LoveVirology #LZCI

It was incredible to meet so many old and new colleagues and friends and watching our PhD student, Sauhard Shrivastava give an excellent talk. Overall, we learnt lots and we are certainly returning with more ideas and inspiration. Thank you, #IBRC2025. #LZCI (2/2) @ibrc2025.bsky.social

Very proud of PhD student, @sauhards.bsky.social for representing our lab at #IBRC2025. 👏🏾
@ibrc2025.bsky.social
#LZCI

VIDO researchers building pandemic preparedness tool kit with the help of bats - News From the tiny bumblebee bat to the giant flying fox, there are more than 1,490 species of bats found across the globe. These diverse creatures can be spotted in the skies of every continent (except An...

Incredibly proud of all the trainees and collaborators who came together to complete these interdisciplinary studies.

This article by Erin Matthews summarizes our three publications. Take a look. #LoveVirology #LZCI @CIHR_III @CIHR_IRSC @NSERC_CRSNG

news.usask.ca/articles/res...

Sauhard from the lab absolutely aced his presentation today at #ASV2025 meeting. His first international meeting. So proud. #LoveVirology #LZCI @sauhards.bsky.social

Both Rita and Victoria (PhD candidates) gave fabulous talks at the #BatID meeting in Chicago. So proud. 👏🏾 #LZCI

The study is led by postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Kaushal Baid, along with support from other trainees in the lab and colleagues from across Canada and the world. Proud of this interdisciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration. #LZCI

Early innate immune response and evolution of a SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site inactive variant in bat cells Baid et al. show that insectivorous E. fuscus bat cells have evolved an advantageous early innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection relative to human cells. Additionally, they extend molecular e...

🚨Second study from the lab. @CellReports
SARS-CoV- and SARS-CoV-2-like viruses are found in insectivorous bats, but the antiviral responses in these bats remain less studied. Here we show how bat cells respond to SARS-CoV-2 and shed light on virus entry.
www.cell.com/cell-reports... #LZCI

Study led by PhD candidate and @NSERC_CRSNG doctoral fellow, Victoria Gonzalez in my lab who is gearing up for her defence this summer. #LZCI #LoveVirology
Incredible collaboration with colleagues across Canada, UK, and Singapore.

Bat-specific adaptations in interferon signaling and GBP1 contribute to enhanced antiviral capacity - Nature Communications Bats harbor diverse viruses but it’s less clear how they tolerate infection. Here, by characterizing innate immune responses in bat cells the authors show that IFN-beta signaling resists antagonistic ...

🚨Our new study out today in Nature Communications. Bats can asymptomatically host multiple viruses while remaining apparently healthy. Here we identify how interferon-mediated responses protect bats and identify molecular adaptations in GBP1. #LZCI
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Laboratory of Zoonotic Viruses and Comparative Immunology

🚨 #PhD #Opportunity

We will be hiring a PhD student. #LZCI

More information about our work here: banerjeelab.ca

Interested candidates: apply using the email information on our webpage. Send:
(1) resume
(2) a one page letter of motivation to join the Banerjee Lab

Please repost. #LoveVirology

A One Health approach to understanding and managing Nipah virus outbreaks - Nature Microbiology In this Perspective, Yadav et al. discuss NiV outbreaks, transmission cycles and the role of reservoir and bridging hosts. They also discuss a One Health approach to mitigate the risks of NiV epidemic...

🚨 Nipah virus poses a future #pandemic risk. New cases in Kerala, India further highlight the need for a One Health approach. Read more in our recent interdisciplinary and multi-institutional collaborative article now published in @NatureMicrobiology #LZCI : www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Looking forward to connecting with new and old colleagues, and presenting our most recent work at the World Society for Virology meeting. Fabulous crowd and brilliant talks. Kick off by Dr. Andrea Marzi! #LoveVirology

Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Hurtado will be presenting her work too. #LZCI

I’m thrilled to share that I won First Place in the Poster Presentation at the Life & Health Sciences Research Expo at USASK!

Also, a heartfelt congratulations to my colleague Rita María Quintela Tizón
for winning in the poster event as well.
🦇🦠

#LZCI
#Virology

Proud of PhD students, Rita and Arkadeb for winning top poster prizes at the Life & Health sciences research expo. We are proud of you! 🦇 #LZCI @abhuinya.bsky.social

Incredibly proud of our trainees. Emerging leaders in the fields of virology and infectious diseases. Link to story below #LZCI #OneHealth

Victoria Gonzalez, Dr. Arianna Mahely Hurtado Monzón, and Dr. Benedicte Moni Vanza, PhD

www.vido.org/news/2025/vi...

Protocol for mpox virus inactivation in containment level 3 for safe handling of animal samples High biocontainment is required to handle infectious mpox virus (MPXV) specimens, which can hinder research and diagnostic efforts during outbreaks. H…

🚨 Another publication this week with amazing colleagues. This time, mpox virus. #LZCI

Postdoctoral fellows, Drs. Moni and Hurtado developed these protocols over several weeks. They wanted to make it available to the research community. So here it is:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🚨Latest BAT publication now out in @plosbiology.org with @fviromics.bsky.social @stephseifertphd.bsky.social and others. #PLOSBiology 🦇

Proud of our PhD candidate, Victoria Gonzalez! #LZCI

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

More detailed post from my colleague, Dr. Letko: bsky.app/profile/fvir...

On the cover of the Journal of Virology this month with all our bat colleagues! #Bats #LZCI @stephseifertphd.bsky.social

Associated article: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Looking forward to a deep dive into cutting-edge science over the next 4 days, while I battle insomnia and jet lag. #MicroBio25
Come listen to my talk on Wednesday morning. #LoveVirology #LZCI

It was wonderful to share the lab’s work with colleagues at McMaster University and their Immunology Research Center. Thanks, Amy and Josh, and lovely to meet colleagues at my Alma mater. #LZCI