Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech

In memory of the exemplary scientist David Baltimore, who passed on September 6th, TWiV has re-issued its 100th episode featuring a discussion with him on viruses. Our lab was incredibly fortunate to work with and learn from him since he joined @caltech.edu almost 28 years ago. tinyurl.com/2md4kknj

Caltech Mourns the Passing of President Emeritus and Nobel Laureate David Baltimore David Baltimore, President Emeritus and the Judge Shirley Hufstedler Professor of Biology, Emeritus at Caltech and a co-recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, passed away on Sept...

Mourning the loss of David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate and President Emeritus of Caltech. His groundbreaking work on reverse transcriptase reshaped our understanding of genetics and paved the way for advances in cancer and HIV research. A true giant in science. www.caltech.edu/about/news/c...

Stand up for Cures, Not Cuts Medical Research Saves Lives – But Progress Is At Risk. Congress is considering a 40% cut to life-saving cures, which would shut...

Science saves countless lives. But proposed cuts to NIH & NSF threaten to shut down labs & stall progress millions of families are counting on.

Urge Congress to protect and restore funding for medical research. Act now: tinyurl.com/24p2n4fc #ScienceSaves #FundNIH

Exciting news! A few weeks ago, the TWiV podcast reviewed a paper from Michael Letko's lab (@fviromics.bsky.social) featuring one of our graduate students as a co-first author. Give it a listen!

www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-12...

in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social : Mapping essential somatic hypermutations in a CD4-binding site bNAb informs HIV-1 vaccine design doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... "Here, we created a library of IOMA variants in which each SHM was individually reverted to the inferred germline counterpart [...]"

Cross-reactive sarbecovirus antibodies induced by mosaic RBD nanoparticles: doi.org/10.1073/pnas... "We present approaches to elicit and identify cross-reactive mAbs that recognize conserved receptor-binding domain (RBD) epitopes using mosaic RBD nanoparticle immunizations in animals." @pnas.org

Analysis of Terminated NIH Grants with Word Clouds

First, using the titles of grants not to Columbia...

Gender and DEI predominate

Cuts to science research funding cut American lives short • Ohio Capital Journal Nearly every modern medical treatment can be traced to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. Cuts from President Trump and Elon Musk will critically harm research on cancer treatment, ...

from Deborah Fuller and @psmitchej.bsky.social at University of Washington: "Cuts to science research funding cut American lives short" ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/03/31/c...

Pamela J. Bjorkman Wolf Prize Laureate in Medicine 2025

The 2025 Wolf Prize Laureate in Medicine, Professor Pamela J. Bjorkman “For pioneering innovative strategies to overcome viral defenses through novel antibody-focused approaches” @caltech.edu wolffund.org.il/pamela-j-bjo... @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social

A Texas child who was not vaccinated has died of measles, a first for the US in a decade A child who was not vaccinated has died from measles in West Texas. It's the first death in an outbreak that began late last month and the first from measles in the U.S. since 2015.

An unvaccinated child died during a measles outbreak in rural West Texas, marking it the first U.S. death from the highly contagious respiratory disease since 2015. Vaccines against the disease are safe & effective, and measles was once considered eliminated. @apnews.com

apnews.com/article/meas...

Contextual computation by competitive protein dimerization networks Competitive dimerization networks, in which protein monomers dimerize in various combinations, can perform diverse biochemical computations and can adapt those computations for different cell contexts...

Congratulation to @jacobparresau.bsky.social and @elowitzlab.bsky.social for their new publication in @cellpress.bsky.social on competitive protein dimerization networks!

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Revealed: NIH research grants still frozen despite lawsuits challenging Trump order The Trump administration is exploiting a loophole to keep a funding freeze in place, leaving researchers in limbo.

from @nature.com "almost all grant-review meetings remain suspended at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), preventing the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research from spending much of its US$47 billion annual budget."
go.nature.com/4k8Njjx

The answer lies in the differences between vaccines and antibiotics-and between the viruses and bacteria they fight. Vaccines stimulate the immune system to create a response without causing disease, while antibiotics kill bacteria during infections. 2/2 🧵

@caltech.edu asked Dr. Pamela Bjorkman "if overusing antibiotics can be harmful. Should we worry about overusing vaccines too?" The short answer is no.
Swipe to learn more from Caltech's Pamela Bjorkman.
#AskCaltech at caltech.edu/AskCaltech. 1/2

Designed mosaic nanoparticles enhance cross-reactive immune responses in mice Computational methods were used to design mosaic nanoparticle vaccines displaying receptor-binding domains of SARS-CoV-2 variants and sarbecoviruses. Immunization of naive and pre-vaccinated mice elic...

Designed mosaic nanoparticles enhance cross-reactive immune responses in mice @cellcellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
@bjorkman-lab.bsky.social
@anamnestic21.bsky.social

Update on Campus Operations: Caltech’s campus will remain closed on Thursday, January 9. The Institute intends to resume operations on Friday, January 10, pending continued assessments of the situation. Individuals who do come to campus for essential positions are advised to wear a K/N95 mask.

Please join us in welcoming our newest Professor of Chemistry, Sandeep Sharma! 👋

His group's research efforts are directed towards developing algorithms that solve the problem of electronic structure theory. He loves to spend time with his family and enjoys playing racket sports.

Welcome, Sandeep!

Infamous paper that popularized unproven COVID-19 treatment finally retracted Study on hydroxychloroquine by Didier Raoult and colleagues gets pulled on ethical and scientific grounds

After more than 4 years, the infamous and dangerous hydroxychloroquine paper has finally been officially retracted! 🎉

Many criticized this unfounded publication, but a huge thank you to @elisabethbik.bsky.social for leading the charge!

#Immunology #Virology #Science #COVID19

Here's the visual proof of why vaccines do more good than harm See year by year how vaccines beat back nine dangerous infectious diseases

A bit old but here is a great visual representation from @science.org of the fact that vaccines do work and help keep infectious diseases at bay.

www.science.org/content/arti...

It’s easy and quick, find who your representatives are and let them know you support fact-based healthcare! -> www.safecommunitiescoalition.org/rfk

5️⃣4️⃣ Elisabeth Bik (1966- ) 🇳🇱 #womeninSTEM @elisabethbik.bsky.social Microbiologist, she worked on cholera epidemics in India & Bangladesh. Internationally recognised for her work in detecting image manipulation. 2021 Maddox Prize & 2024 Einstein Foundation award.

www.statnews.com/2024/02/28/e...

PLEASE do not feed raw milk to your cats. Or your kids. Or yourself. #H5N1

Stanford alums have written the university president and provost to protest their handling of a student journalist, who is facing 3 felony accusations after covering a protest:

"It was wrongful for the University to direct his arrest and encourage his prosecution" drive.google.com/file/d/1jIx1...

Could our lab be added to the pack? 🙋

Excited to host @cwolberger.bsky.social today at @caltech.edu for our Biology and Biological Engineering Seminar!

TWiV 1173 is out! "TWiV reviews nominees to head NIH, FDA, and CDC, cervical cancer decline following HPV vaccination, local dengue in Texas, human isolate of H5N1 virus is transmissible and virulent in animal models, and [...]." www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-11...

Could we get added to the starter pack #2? 👀