Sebastian Wrighton

Plant-Based Defaults are the Most Powerful Nudge We Have Making vegan foods the default option consistently boosts sales without significant backlash. Here's the evidence why it's so effective.

New from me: why plant-based defaults are the meat reduction intervention that excites me most!

Frontiers | Revisiting the streptococcal M protein: modern perspectives on antibody function, host interactions, and therapeutic targeting Group A Streptococcus (GAS) causes extensive global morbidity and rising rates of invasive disease, for which clinical outcomes remain poor despite antibioti...

Can we use antibodies to treat sepsis? 🦠

Group A Streptococcus is one of our most common pathogens. While often manageable, it can turn deadly. In a new review, Sebastian Wrighton and I argue for a fresh look at antibody-based therapies targeting the M protein.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/imm...

The source of dietary fat influences anti-tumour immunity in obese mice - Nature Metabolism This study shows that animal-based high-fat diets accelerate tumour growth and impair anti-tumour response to melanoma in obese mice, whereas plant-based high-fat diets do not.

This was a labor of love requiring lots of teamwork over years, repeating in 3 locations! Thanks to all the lab over the years, giving their time generously to this team project, & our wonderful collaborators. The source of fat matters for anti-tumor immunity 🐄🐖🧈🌴🫒🥥
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit.

This cannot be allowed to happen.

IgE plasma cells are transcriptionally and functionally distinct from other isotypes IgE plasma cells are unique.

Very nice paper by Jamie Orengo and colleagues defining the unique features of IgE plasma cells in mice and humans with allergic disease. #ImmunoSky 🧪

1/ In two back-to-back papers, we present our de novo TRACeR platform for targeting MHC-I and MHC-II antigens

TRACeR for MHC-I: go.nature.com/4gcLzn5
TRACeR for MHC-II: go.nature.com/4gj5OQk

Today we report that an engineered skin bacterium, swabbed gently on the head of a mouse, can unleash a potent antibody response against a pathogen. Could lead to topical vaccines that are applied in a cream. @djenetbousbaine.bsky.social led the charge... @natureportfolio.bsky.social 1/55

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...

A paper of Firsts for me: rdcu.be/d2gBV
- 1st #StrepA paper
- 1st for my lab (started in 2023).
- 1st senior authorship

📣 Shout out to my amazing co-1st authors @joshosowicki.bsky.social & Hannah Frost.
📣 Andrew Steer & Nikki Moreland for leading this work with me + all other co-authors not on 🦋

Diese Woche im Sentinelsystem Österreich noch immer viele Rhinovirusinfektionen
- Rückgang der SARS-CoV2
Nachweise: Positivrate 9%
- Einige Parainfluenzafälle
- Saisonale Coronaviren (NL63)
- 2 Metapneumovirusfälle…
#DINÖ #MonikaRedlberger #ZentrumVirologie #MedUniWien

I’d love to be added too! Thanks :)

🧪🦠🌍🖥️🧬Great opportunity for a postdoc AND a PhD on functional ecology Ncycle/denitrification/N2Oreduction, in the group of Sara Hallin at the Swedish Agricultural University.

PhD: www.slu.se/en/about-slu...
Postdoc: www.slu.se/en/about-slu...

🧵1/2

Column | ‘AI’ crowds and unskewed polls: Trump prepares to reject another loss The former president’s recent rejection of obvious realities indicates that he is not planning to treat a negative 2024 outcome as legitimate.

Why did Trump claim Harris’s crowd was AI? Why did his team claim that the Times was fudging her lead in swing states?

Because, just as in 2020, he’s planting seeds to claim that Harris’s support is fake and the election was stolen. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Determinants of immune responses predictive of protection against shigellosis in an endemic zone: a systems analysis of antibody profiles and function Our findings suggest that OSP-specific functional IgA responses contribute to protective immunity against Shigella infection in a high-burden setting. These findings will assist in the development and...

What we're aiming for in a Shigella vaccine: O-specific polysaccharide (OSP)-specific functional IgA responses #immunosky #IDsky

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Come here, y'all.

The idea that one must be "half" something and "half" something else rather than a consummation of both is not just a white supremacist ideal, it's something that is baked into a lot of fundamental philosophy. Like logic.

Issue an executive order protecting religious employers and employees. The President should make clear via executive order that religious employers are free to run their businesses according to their religious beliefs, general nondiscrimination laws notwithstanding, and support participation of religious employees and employers as federal contractors and in federal activities and programs. Clarify Title VII’s religious organization exemptions. Congress should clarify Title VII’s religious organization exemptions to make it more explicit that those employers may make employment decisions based on religion regardless of nondiscrimination laws.

A thread on Project 2025 and work law...

1. Project 2025 calls for religious employers to be allowed to discriminate on any basis, including sex or race.

At a Dinner, Trump Assailed Climate Rules and Asked $1 Billion From Big Oil At a private meeting at Mar-a-Lago, the former president said fossil fuel companies should donate to help him beat President Biden.

I don’t care that Trump forgot Barron’s age. I don’t care about Trump’s ravings outside the courtroom.

Media outlets covering Trump should prioritize this story. B/c this is about the sale of our country, our planet, & our children’s future to the highest bidder.

www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/c...

"no choice" is one of the evergreenest of red flags

imagine being in the nypd and putting on all your fancy little riot gears and getting armed to the teeth to go intimidate a 20 year old kid for saying we should stop a genocide

if a computer told you how fucking stupid this is would you believe it
twitter.com/emollick/sta...

Sexual dimorphism in skin immunity is mediated by an androgen-ILC2-dendritic cell axis Males and females exhibit profound differences in immune responses and disease susceptibility. However, the factors responsible for sex differences in tissue immunity remain poorly understood. Here, w...

"Negative regulation of ILC2s within the skin in response to androgens could thus restrict the number and activation status of dendritic cells in the skin of male mice, contributing to differences in local immune responses between the sexes."
#Immunology
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A comic with two panels. In panel 1, labeled "when you remember to bring your camera," there's a quiet scene looking across a marsh, with a single osprey on a branch, largely obscured by branches. In panel 2, labeled "when you forget to bring your camera," the marsh scene is full of critters, including a whooping crane, vermilion flycatcher, American flamingo, Atlantic puffin, painted bunting, resplendent quetzal, Steller's sea eagle, two moose, king eider, Kirtland's warbler, Brewster's warbler, a few rare butterflies, flocks of flying birds, many beautiful flowers, and the osprey now unobstructed by twigs.

Camera.
Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/birdandmoon

‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza IDF says it ‘completely rejects’ charge that its soldiers deliberately fired on any of the thousands of civilians killed in Israeli offensive

“This is not a normal war. The war in Ukraine has killed 500 kids in two years and the war in Gaza has killed over 10,000 in less than five months. We have seen wars before but this is something that is a dark stain on our shared humanity.”

Wholly in agreement with this. I particularly wish people would stop spouting apathetic doomer nonsense like “whether you like it or not, it’s here to stay” or “you can’t stop it.” We do have choices. We can have agency over technology. You don’t need to go passive just because these jerks are rich

Remember friends, a rich person who intends to influence politics and law is an oligarch. We should use that word more for these two.

The Paradise France Poisoned | Atmos France is facing an EU human rights complaint for its role in Guadeloupe and Martinique's chlordecone crises.

nearly every resident of Guadeloupe has detectable levels of carcinogenic pesticides in their blood. France now faces an international human rights case for fueling the crisis.

out today in Atmos 🧪🌎