Brian Ferguson

Nice to be a part of this excellent study from the Walczak lab where K11 ubiquitin chains added by ANKIB1 are identified as being essential for TBK1-IRF3-driven interferon production downstream of pattern recognition receptors including TLR3 and cGAS. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Critical role for ANKIB1-generated K11-linked ubiquitination in the immune response activated by cGAS–STING, TLR3 and TLR4
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@natcellbio.nature.com @walczaklab.bsky.social

Phylogenetic-based selection analysis of viral evolution before+after spillover reveals that viral adaptation in host reservoirs is not a necessary precursor of novel zoonotic virus epidemics, including SARS-CoV-2 @cellcellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

We are hiring a computational biology postdoc for a new project on zoonotic diseases, host pathogen interactions and pandemic risk. Please take a look and get in touch for more details www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...

Avian flu has decimated world's largest breeding colony of southern elephant seals

Avian flu has decimated world's largest breeding colony of southern elephant seals www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influe...

Anti-vax in the tweets, fully-vaxed between the sheets

Philanthropies Strike a Promising Deal to Turn Back H.I.V.

This is huge: “A drug that provides near-perfect protection against H.I.V. with shots just twice a year will be made available at $40 per patient annually in low- and middle-income countries, offering new hope… making lenacapavir a realistic choice in countries with constrained resources.”

Computational design of sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 12 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01669-4The authors develop a computational method to design small DNA-binding proteins (DBPs) that target specific sequences. Designed DBPs show structural accuracy and function in both bacterial and mammalian cells for transcriptional regulation.

New online: Computational design of sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins

Understanding the future risk of bat coronavirus spillover into humans: correlating sarbecovirus receptor usage, host range, and antigenicity. Sarbecoviruses interact with their receptor, angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), via the receptor binding domain (RBD) of Spike, the immunodominant target for neutralising antibodies. Understandin...

Our first post on here and it's a doozy 😍🤩. Our epic piece on #sarbecovirus host range. #virology #sars2 #covid #vaccines. Enjoy and please repost. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

RNA N-glycosylation enables immune evasion and homeostatic efferocytosis - Nature N-glycans on glycoRNAs prevent innate immune sensing of endogenous small RNAs, and the natural mechanism they use demonstrates how glycoRNAs exist on the cell surface and in the endosomal network with...

Hi everybody! I am super excited to share the work done during my PhD published in @nature today! We describe a new mechanism of self- vs. non-self RNA discrimination by showing how N-glycans shield glycoRNAs from stimulating endosomal RNA sensors www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excised DNA circles from V(D)J recombination promote relapsed leukaemia Nature - Excised signal circles are circular DNA by-products of V(D)J recombination that form a complex with the V(D)J recombinase, and when increased in abundance, result in increased mutagenesis,...

Excised DNA circles from V(D)J recombination promote relapsed leukaemia

Cutting your own DNA has a risk of leukaemia.

www.nature.com/artic...
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There isn’t a ‘normal’ dose but this is too high. One big problem for gene therapy is targeting and modifying enough of the correct cells to make a physiological impact on disease. Hence the trials of large doses.

to early to say what the future holds, but will certainly be much harder to get past the regulatory agencies

‘The doses of rAAV used in clinical trials for DMD have ranged from 5×10^13 to 2×10^14 vector genomes (vg) per kilogram of body weight. After treatment with doses within this range, a number of toxic syndromes have been observed’ www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

research job opportunity

Research Associate in Viral #Immunology ✨ University of Bristol -School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
#Applynow
www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

* #Hiring* ! Research Jobs: Golden Opportunity!
#PhD & #Postdoc Latest Updates: jobnewstimes.com/phd-postdoc/
#UKJOBS #BiologicalSciences

**JOBS ALERT**

The Virology Unit at @PasteurCambodia
hiring 1 Scientist and 2 Postdocs to join our fast-moving, field-connected, research-driven team on emerging viruses and zoonoses.

🧪🧬🥼🦠🔬🐓💉🦇😷

Limited time to apply — and we need people to start ASAP.**👇

***JOB OFFER***
The Protein Design and Modeling lab at IBMB offers a postdoc position at the intersection of computational protein design, biophysics and structural biology. Please share with colleagues and anyone you know that might be interested.

ibmb.csic.es/en/jobs/post...

The "reproducibility crisis" in science constantly makes headlines. Repro efforts are often limited. What if you could assess reproducibility of an entire field?

That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience

A 🧵 1/n

Microglial cGAS-STING-TBK1 activation in paraventricular thalamus mediates sleep and emotional disturbances in lupus mice www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

ICYMI: Junior PI positions in Kyoto at @ccii-kyoto.bsky.social, a new center led by Tasuku Honjo (DIrector) & Sidonia Fagarasan (Vice Director)
#Immunology #Immunotherapy #ScienceJobs

Cidara's CD388 flu drug outperforms vaccines, shows 76% prevention rate Cidaras CD388 flu drug outperforms vaccines, shows 76% prevention rate Cidaras new flu treatment shows promise as a single-dose alternative to vaccines with strong results.

Super cool long lasting ADC-based anti-flu drug with great new trial data: 'CD388 is an antibody that targets neuraminidase (NA). Zanamivir, a neuraminidase inhibitor, is conjugated to the Fc fragment to create CD388' biz.chosun.com/en/en-scienc...

Honoured to receive this prize alongside an inspiring group of scientists. This will support our work to improve mRNA therapies for precision medicine. #mRNA #immunoSky #Science

Weizmann Institute rn

Drosophila Genetic Database The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...

#drosophila @flybase.bsky.social request emergency funding:
"As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost" => please donate!

www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

Molecular basis of autoimmune disease protection by MDA5 variants Loss-of-function MDA5 variants increase the risk of chronic inflammation but protect against autoimmune disease. Singh et al. show that autoimmune-protective variants impair MDA5 signaling via differe...

Good fun to contribute to this super paper from Yorgo Modis' lab where we looked at the impact of disease-associated MDA5 mutations on its structure, biochemistry and antiviral functions #immunosky www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is cool! #Immunology 🧪

Intrinsic immunogenicity is a major determinant of type-specific responses in SARS-CoV-2 infections - Nature Immunology Bhattacharya and colleagues assess the impact of antigenic imprinting using samples from mRNA vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals primarily infected with the SARS-CoV-2 variants Delta and Omicron B...

I've been yelling for a while about how imprinting is not the problem with our immune responses to Omicron, and the issue is much more about the intrinsic immunogenicity of Omicron's spike protein (which is poor). This freshly published study provides pretty definitive proof of that 🧵

Functional Characterization of Paillotin: An Immune Peptide Regulated by the Imd Pathway with Pathogen-Specific Roles in Drosophila Immunity Insects, such as Drosophila melanogaster, rely on innate immune defenses to combat microbial threats. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play an important role in limiting pathogen entry and colonization. ...

The final piece in a 27-year fly immunity puzzle.

Yao describes "Paillotin" (Pai), the name given to #Drosophila "IM18." With this paper, all 24 Immune-induced Molecules (IMs) from Uttenweiler-Joseph et al. (1998) have been named & characterized. 🎊

Pai is an HDP conserved across fly 🪰 species

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‘The results from this study suggest that many, if not all, of the reported associations between HLA alleles and SARS-CoV-2 infection may be spurious, owing to confounding factors.’

Base-modified nucleotides mediate immune signaling in bacteria Signaling from pathogen sensing to effector activation is a fundamental principle of cellular immunity. Whereas cyclic (oligo)nucleotides have emerged as key signaling molecules, the existence of othe...

"Immune signaling through nucleotide-based second messengers is a widespread defense mechanism observed across organisms, from bacteria to animals. Zeng et al. discovered a base-modified nucleotide, deoxyinosine 5′-triphosphate (dITP), that acts as an antiviral immune signal in bacteria"
#Immunology