Josh Mattila

Eh, why should we research Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease? It's not like these issues could ever possibly affect me, personally, because I, like every Republican, have no conception of time, probability, or cause and effect, I exist in a void filled solely by malicious urges.

History and Medicine - Associate Professor or Professor with Tenure - McMaster University This role is designed for an exceptional scholar whose work bridges humanities-based historical inquiry and contemporary infectious diseases scholarship, with particular emphasis on the history of pla...

McMaster university is hiring an Associate Professor or Professor with Tenur of History and Medicine.

They are looking for someone whose work bridges humanities-based historical inquiry and contemporary infectious diseases scholarship.

#histmed #histstm

Ion channels in macrophages: dynamic regulation in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and therapeutic potential
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

While expansion is comparable, activation and differentiation of T cells diverges between CD3/CD28 beads versus soluble antibody complexes
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

we are losing so much talent, progress, and hope for no good reason www.vox.com/future-perfe...

A Suite of Eight Toxoplasma gondii Effectors Cooperates to Activate the Non-canonical NF-κB Pathway https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.12.711255v1

💫 I am recruiting a postdoctoral candidate for a 3-year position starting in summer 2026 to work on the role of extracellular RNA (eRNA) in interspecies interactions.

The value of virological research in wildlife | mBio In a recent article published in mBio (1), Aatresh and Lipsitch consider the utility of research aimed at the discovery of novel viruses in wildlife. They term this activity ‘viral prospecting’ and in...

The value of virological research in wildlife journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Macrophage–glia interactions regulate immune damage to enteric neurons during West Nile virus infection @pnas.org @msdiamondlab.bsky.social @washumedicine.bsky.social @clevelandclinic.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Oropouche virus infects primary human intestinal organoids and is inhibited by type I and III interferon treatment | mBio Oropouche virus (OROV) is an emerging arbovirus with rapidly increasing incidence and recent reports of severe disease outcomes. While gastrointestinal symptoms have been described, the intestinal tropism of OROV has not been experimentally explored. By combining meta-analysis of clinical data with human intestinal organoid infection models, we demonstrate that OROV can replicate in intestinal epithelial cells. We further show that, in a human intestinal organoid model, endogenous interferon responses are insufficient to restrict replication, while treatment with interferons exerts potent antiviral activity. These findings highlight the susceptibility of intestinal epithelial cells to OROV infection and the therapeutic potential of interferons.

Oropouche virus infects primary human intestinal organoids and is inhibited by type I and III interferon treatment journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A single course of antibiotics can have lasting effects on your gut microbiome, with changes that last well beyond 4 years. Three types of antibiotics stood out for their long term disruptive impact (3 at left, Figure)
nature.com/articles/s41...

Respiratory viral infections prime accelerated lung cancer growth @cellcellpress.bsky.social @jie-immunology.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Respiratory viral infections prime accelerated lung cancer growth Severe COVID-19 is associated with an increased subsequent risk of lung cancer. Viral pneumonia induces durable lung epigenetic imprinting that promotes tumor-supportive neutrophils and impairs T cell...

We are happy to share our new paper @cellpress.bsky.social We find that patients previously hospitalized with severe COVID-19 have a higher risk of developing lung cancer later.
www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

For reference, the DoD cut $15M in pancreatic cancer research funding last year.

Our new study is out in Nature Communications.
Using TNBC organoid mouse models, we show that necroptosis in both tumour and stromal compartments cooperatively drives effective responses to immunogenic cell death–based immunotherapy.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A Lab-stage mRNA Vaccine Targeting Ticks May Offer Protection Against Lyme and Other Tick-borne Diseases A new laboratory-stage mRNA vaccine that teaches the immune system to recognize the saliva from tick bites could prevent these bugs from feeding on and transmitting tick-borne diseases to people, acco...

There are no vaccines to prevent alpha-gal syndrome currently.
Researchers are also exploring broader strategies i.e
vaccines targeting tick saliva proteins that could potentially block transmission of multiple tick-borne pathogens at once.
www.globallymealliance.org/news/a-lab-s...

Here is the "effective payline" for each institute, estimated (by Claude) as the percentile where one can expect 80% probability of funding from a logistic regression fit. The effective payline has gone from a historic ~12% to 6% in 2025.

Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.

What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.

Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

It's hard to imagine having him as a colleague, even before his stint in the Trump administration.

Definitely a spring peeper and right on time, especially with the recent warm weather. They are among the earliest to be out calling.

Maybe Sheehy should go back to war, he seems to enjoy harming people.

Job opening: Professorship for Molecular Pharmacology at Marburg University, Germany.

We seek a scientifically outstanding researcher in the field of epithelial biology in inflammation, regeneration, and/or cancer.

stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/0...

The wonderful historic city of Marburg

🚨 University Marburg (Germany) is recruiting a W2 Professor of Mol. Pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine.

Focus areas: Epithelial adaptation in #inflammation, #regeneration, and/or #cancer

stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/0...

#AcademicJobs #Pharmacology #FacultyPosition #cellbio

Vγ1 γδ T cells steer airway macrophages toward a profibrotic response in an autochthonous lung cancer mouse model In lung cancer, airway macrophages are modulated by an unconventional T cell subset, relevant to care for pulmonary comorbidities.

Vγ1 γδ T cells steer airway macrophages toward a profibrotic response in an autochthonous lung cancer mouse model

#gdTcells @coffeltlab.bsky.social

Excited to collaborate with @hassansalem.bsky.social and @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social on this new Postdoc opportunity!

If you're interested in the developmental biology of symbiosis, apply and join us @johninnescentre.bsky.social and @thesainsburylab.bsky.social 🪲🦠🔬

Single-cell and spatial profiling highlights TB-induced myofibroblasts as drivers of lung pathology Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics of human TB lung tissues from individuals in South Africa revealed that MMP1+CXCL5+ fibroblasts and SPP1+ macrophag

Played a small part in this cool study @jem.org.

Identifies myofibroblasts as sources of tissue damaging enzymes (MMP1) in TB granuloma, probably responding to cytokine cues from nearby macrophages.

Question now is: can we target therapeutically to prevent post-TB lung damage?

#TBSky #IDSky

Excited to announce the opening of the applications for the Master in Biomedical Research.

An international, hands-on programme for students to think like scientists, work in real labs, and prepare for PhD training or R&D careers, in Lisbon. GIMM Institute
1/3

With this war on Iran costing $1B per day, we are now at 4$B, an amount that would fund 3,200 five year NIH biomedical research grants.

Activin A secretion by muscle-repairing macrophages induces heterotopic ossification in mice @jci.org
www.jci.org/articles/vie...