Jacob Yount

They just announced who the Ann Palmenberg investigator winners are for this year. It's usually a fun surprise at the annual meeting. 🤷‍♂️

Congratulations Fellows!

The American Academy of Microbiology proudly announces the election of 63 fellows to the Class of 2026. Over the past 50 years, the Academy has elected +2,700 distinguished scientists. This year, the new fellows hail from 14 countries. Read press release: asm.social/2OC

Our latest paper shows that IFITM3 deficiency allows SARS-CoV-2 to adapt more easily to a new host species. Mouse-adapted beta and omicron variants from this work maintained their unique tropisms and pathogenic characteristics allowing exciting comparative studies.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Yount Lab!

We are currently in the process of recruiting a technician. 🥼🐭🔬

If you know anyone with enthusiasm to learn new skills and stamina to hear me go on and on about IFNs, please have them reach out to me for more details!

group picture of virology researchers from Ohio (Cleveland Clinic and Ohio State) who attended the Midwest Virology Meeting in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Midwest Virology Symposium this weekend at U Kentucky was one of the best conferences I've been to in years. The science and energy were awesome and we had a great group there from Ohio!

Cardioprotective effects of AMPK activation in H1N1 influenza virus infection Cardiac complications are among the most common and severe extrapulmonary manifestations of influenza virus infection, yet they are rarely recapitulated in mouse models without immunodeficiency. We fo...

🚨🚨Our new preprint establishes the first robust model of severe influenza cardiac complications in WT immunocompetent mice. Heart transcriptomics implicated a potential therapeutic metabolic intervention that indeed shows beneficial heart/survival effects. 🦠🧫🧬🫁🫀🐀
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

O-GlcNAc transferase plays dual antiviral roles by integrating innate immunity and lipid metabolism - Nature Communications O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) mediates antiviral host immune response. Here, the authors identify a catalytic activity-independent function of OGT in restraining influenza A virus replication by transloc...

A tour de force paper from my OSU colleague Haitao Wen's lab showing that O-GlcNAc transferase plays enzymatic and non-enzymatic roles in flu infection, regulating interferon and lipid droplets. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

With @adforu.bsky.social

🧬 Our new preprint showing gasdermin E is dispensable for inflammatory responses and pathogenesis in H1N1 influenza. Unlike our prior work on GSDMD. 🫁🦠🐁 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

FDA-NIH Workshop: Reducing Animal Testing The FDA is hosting a workshop on reducing animal testing. The workshop is open to current FDA and NIH employees.

www.fda.gov/news-events/...

I'm not seeing where we can comment. Who do we send our comments to?

IFITM3-deficient mice as a model for testing influenza virus vaccines via the intramuscular route Influenza virus infections remain a significant global health concern. Development of a universal influenza vaccine has been met with challenges, in p…

Our new paper in collab with @hemannlab.bsky.social.
Shows IFITM3 KO mice that are more easily infected with most, if not all, influenza strains can be used for preclinical challenge studies to test vaccine candidates. 🫁🦠🥼💉https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X25007558

so sad. it was getting better with each season.

Congrats to @adforu.bsky.social and @novaislab.bsky.social !!! First ever to be selected for this honor at Ohio State!

Unfortunately, the people I see doing this most often are the job candidates or new professors who need to be promoting themselves, not obscuring their accomplishments.

📢 Reminder: mBio publishes Minireviews & mGems on microbiology/immunology topics. Got an idea? 💡 Email me! These submissions support ASM's conferences, fellowships, & advocacy. 🧪👩‍🔬🦠🧬🧫

Public antibodies: convergent signatures in human humoral immunity against pathogens | mBio The human humoral immune response is mediated by antibodies, which are secreted in response to antigen exposure and are critical to protect against infection (1–3). Antibodies display enormous diversi...

Thrilled to share our new mini review article on public antibodies against human pathogens, now out in #mBio.
@camilahcoelho.bsky.social

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

Shouldn't be a total cost award though. Awardees can end up getting very different amounts for their lab depending on their indirect cost rate. Requiring 75% effort is also not ideal as some institutions require that amount of salary coverage on the grant.

IFITM3 variants point to a critical role in emergent virus infections | mBio The interferon-induced transmembrane protein (IFITM) family includes five IFITMs in humans (IFITM1, 2, 3, 5, and 10). Each of these displays antiviral activity when overexpressed, but only IFITMs 1, 2...

A minireview from @parkerjdenz.bsky.social just out in @mbio.bsky.social! We explore why studies on IFITM3 SNPs and viral disease severity often conflict. Summary: IFITM3 matters most during infections with emergent viruses, when adaptive immunity is lacking. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger | CNN Dr. Ardem Patapoutian says he watches “with deep sadness as the United States’ remarkable scientific enterprise, which took generations of hard work and national investment to build, faces a concerted...

Published an op-ed for @cnn.com: “Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger.”
A personal reflection on what’s at stake as science funding gets slashed. I’d be grateful if you could amplify both in and beyond the science world.
www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...

Congrats! Nice to see some good news!

Does anybody know if the latest iterations of 23 and Me provide data on IFITM3 SNPs?

Comment: Pending cuts to medical research would harm all in state | HeraldNet.com As UW medical scientists, we urge Washingtonians to defend the NIH’s life-saving research funding.

Patrick Mitchell (@psmitchej.bsky.social), Thornton Thompson and I wrote an OpEd, with support from 650+ biomedical researchers across Washington State (450+ at time of submission).

www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comm...

List: www.moltkelab.com/s/NIH-OpEd-S...

mGem: Transmission and exposure risks of dairy cow H5N1 influenza virus | mBio Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus of the 2.3.4.4b clade has been circulating in North America since 2022 (1–3). On 25 March 2024, a strain in this clade, genotype B3.13, was confirmed to be infecting dairy cows in Texas and Kansas (Fig. 1A). Since then, dairy herds in several other states tested positive for this strain and spillover into dairy workers has followed (4–7). Infections of other domestic and peridomestic animals, such as cats and raccoons, have also occurred on the same premises containing infected cows (7, 8). Notably, the spread of cow H5N1 to poultry flocks has resulted in the culling of millions of birds and the infection of workers involved in culling operations on multiple occasions (9). As of 12 December 2024, over 800 dairy herds in 16 states have had confirmed infections, including three of the five biggest dairy-producing states (Fig. 1B) (10, 11). At least 58 known human cases of H5N1 including those exposed to dairy cows, poultry, or unknown exposure source have been reported by the CDC as of 12 December 2024 (12). Disturbingly, in September, cow H5N1 infections were confirmed in two housemates in Missouri without livestock contact (13, 14). Understanding how cow H5N1 transmits within and between farms is critical for curtailing the outbreak. Below, we discuss knowledge regarding the spread of cow H5N1 between farms, between cows, and the risk to humans.

A great new mBio mGem from @lakdawalalab.bsky.social on transmission and exposure risks of dairy cow H5N1 influenza virus journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

What did they tell you? We seem to just be in a holding pattern.

I’m on a fellowship study section next month. We just got an email saying previously withdrawn diversity applications will be back in play and distributed amongst us for review.

Lung sections from mice infected with mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 variants stained for viral nucleoprotein. MA10 and beta variants show diffuse staining patterns throughout the lung while omicron infection results in infection that is mostly restrained to the large airways.

🚨Our new preprint! IFITM3 KO mice accelerated SARS-CoV-2 Beta & Omicron adaptation, preserving human-relevant traits & enabling comparative pathology/transcriptomics in mice. 🫁🦠🧬🥼 With @parkerjdenz.bsky.social, @adforu.bsky.social & team. 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Isn’t this true of any bsl2 virus? Not following why this is different.

Yeah, our IBC will discuss and vote in January. But I don’t see any reason to go against the RG2 guidance.