Amanda Keener, PhD

Hi Sarah, I'm a journalist working on a story about lung cancer screening. If you think your mom would be interested in talking to me about her experience, please shoot me a message!

Immunological sin: how a person’s earliest flu infections dictate life-long immunity Researchers are striving to understand the impact a phenomenon known as original antigenic sin has on immunity to the virus.

"Immune imprinting," "original antigenic sin (#OAS)"
In my latest work, I attempted to lay out what these terms really mean and what these phenomena mean for our immune responses in the context of #flu. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I just mistyped "immunoglobulins" as "immunoglobulings" and somehow I feel like my whole life may have followed a different trajectory if the latter, more charming term was the correct one.

Scientists Set New World Record for Fastest Human Whole Genome Sequencing Boston researchers sequenced a full human genome in record time, under four hours. The advance could speed life-saving diagnoses for newborns in intensive care. Boston Children’s Hospital, in collabor...

“In the NICU, a few hours could mean the difference between unnecessary procedures and targeted, life-saving treatment..." scitechdaily.com/scientists-s... Whole-genome sequencing takes one more step toward becoming standard-of-care for sick newborns.

Germinal center–mediated broadening of B cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 booster immunization SARS-CoV-2 variant booster vaccination broadens human B cell responses through the germinal center reaction.

Interesting study that looks at dynamics of B cell responses in the lymph nodes to vaccination against SarsCov2 (COVID). This shows that B cell responses are broadened in the node germinal centres enabling wider responses to variants 🧪 #ImmunoSky

Are We Offloading Critical Thinking to Chatbots? Research, much if it by companies with deep investment in AI, suggests that chatbot interactions alter how users think.

Does using generative AI, like ChatGPT, affect our critical thinking? Check out my new piece, where I sift through initial research and figure out what we know and don’t know. undark.org/2025/09/12/c...

How RFK Jr.’s misguided science on mRNA vaccines is shaping policy − a vaccine expert examines the false claims Chaos at the CDC and the sharp move away from mRNA vaccines has public health experts alarmed.

This is an excellent, point-by-point response to the claims being thrown around about mrna tech and covid #vaccines. I've heard some of these innacurate claims come from doctors and nurses! It's vital that
folks with actual understanding of these topics speak up. theconversation.com/how-rfk-jr-s...

Someone needs to make the lab parody song, "While my pipette gently weeps." Seems like it would capture the current moment pretty well.

MIT researchers develop AI tool to improve flu vaccine strain selection MIT's “VaxSeer” AI system predicts dominant flu strains months ahead and identifies the most protective vaccine candidates. It uses deep learning models that were trained on viral sequences and l...

Neat! Imagine if you could incorporate data on immune memory into such a model.
news.mit.edu/2025/vaxseer...

Explaining the mental-health burden of atopic dermatitis People with the inflammatory skin disease are at greater risk of neuropsychiatric conditions. Researchers are trying to find out why.

I fell down a rabbit hole one day following my curiosity about a surprising (to me) link between mental health and #eczema. Then I got a chance to take a deep dive. What I found: It's complicated. But some undaunted researchers are slowly untangling these connections. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Unfortunately vaccine guidance from US health agencies is compromised for the foreseeable future. Expert led organizations are stepping up to fill the gap. ICYMI the vaccine integrity project presented reassuring data for the upcoming respiratory virus season.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSuv...

Allergies seem nearly impossible to avoid — unless you’re Amish One Amish community living in northern Indiana is considered one of the least allergic populations ever measured in the developed world.

“We don’t really talk about the hygiene hypothesis as much anymore because we now understand that it’s not really about how hygienic you’re living..." Love this focus on farm animal interaction. "Hygiene hypothesis" dose not = sharing drinks, getting sick a lot, etc. bit.ly/4mOSkyA

"The papers themselves often contradict the compilation’s framing."

Truly! It's an at-best lazy, at-worst manipulative list.

I am so interested in how some of the authors on the studies in this list feel about their work being used this way.

Kennedy's case against mRNA vaccines collapses under his own evidence “This isn't scientific disagreement. It's either staggering incompetence or willful misrepresentation,” writes infectious disease physician Jake Scott.

The "data" package Secretary Kennedy used to bolster his argument for discontinuing #BARDA funding for #mRNA research doesn't support his argument. @jakescottmd.bsky.social lays it out in a must read for @statnews.com. www.statnews.com/2025/08/13/r...