www.nature.com/articles/s41... Stunning work from the Chandran lab!

Excited to share our study reporting the first Sin Nombre virus (SNV) genome sequences from the Northwestern U.S., and the first ever from a vole host. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

If you haven’t already, you should check out our latest study identifying the host receptor used by merbecoviruses that circulate European and Asian hedgehogs. It’s a surprising finding that unlocks the entire group of viruses for researchers to study further!

This was a large team effort. Big thank you to our structural collaborator, James Rini at University of Toronto, Craig Wilen at Yale, the Baric lab at UNC, our Italian collaborators for discovering these viruses and sharing cool sequence data, and of course, Vic, the talented postdoc in my lab.(6/6)

🧐 if you know, then you know www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧐 if you know, then you know www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

To expand on the RBD clade classifications from our last paper: CLADE 1 = MERS-CoV, HKU4 = DPP4 users CLADE 2 = HKU5 complex, HKU25, H.Savii = ACE2 users CLADE 3 = PDF2180, NeoCoV = ACE2 users CLADE 4 = ErinCoVs (all of them) = APN users Such receptor diversity for one subgenus! 🤩 (5/6)

We also provide not one, but TWO cryo-EM co-structures of ErinCoV RBDs bound to hedgehog APN. Both German and Italian hedgehog coronaviruses interact with hedgehog APN identically. Binding assays show that ErinCoVs have a lower affinity for APN than other CoVs have for their receptors. (4/6)

Aminopeptidase N- the classic alpha-CoV receptor - facilitates ErinCoV entry. And we don't show this for just one virus, we show it for all of them. Every merbecovirus in hedgehogs across Europe and Asia- from ErinCoV-12-19 to HKU31 - all use APN. This is a first for beta-CoVs! (2/6)

New preprint! If some merbecoviruses use DPP4 and others use ACE2, what do those hedgehog merbecoviruses use?! As it turns out, neither! In our latest study, we uncover the "missing" receptor for the MERS-related viruses in hedgehogs. [These findings were first shared at ASV this year] (1/6)

New preprint! If some merbecoviruses use DPP4 and others use ACE2, what do those hedgehog merbecoviruses use?! As it turns out, neither! In our latest study, we uncover the "missing" receptor for the MERS-related viruses in hedgehogs. [These findings were first shared at ASV this year] (1/6)

Breakthroughs happen when diverse expertise is woven together. Collaboration can be messy—different vocabularies, different tools—but it’s worth it. We made a video with @MinuteEarth about it. 🎥 @fviromics.bsky.social @payeldas.bsky.social & Drew Kramer #EEID

Always great to see Simon Lab Alumni go on to achieve great things! Dr. Michael Letko gave an excellent keynote at #ASV2025 on "Uncovering novel receptor use in beta-coronaviruses with functional viromics" check out his lab's work here: labs.wsu.edu/lofv/ @amersocvirology.bsky.social

🚨 Our team just released a reproducible Docker pipeline for RNAseq assembly and annotation designed for nonmodel organisms! We're using it to explore how bats manage viral infections, but it's built for broad utility in wildlife transcriptomics. @viralemergence.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

LoFV will be all over ASV in Montreal this year! I am giving a plenary talk Monday evening and will share an all new study that hasn’t been pre-printed. Also, look out for our talented post-doc, Victoria Jefferson, on Wednesday (P26-15) and skilled collaborator, Nick Catanzaro, on Tuesday (W13-6).

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...

🚨Our new study out today in Nature Communications. Bats can asymptomatically host multiple viruses while remaining apparently healthy. Here we identify how interferon-mediated responses protect bats and identify molecular adaptations in GBP1. #LZCI Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our study assessing global merbecovirus entry and showing the receptor for HKU5 viruses was featured by the editors on the Nature Communications highlights page. Give it a read if you haven’t already! www.nature.com/collections/...

Here’s a great write up of our latest work with HKU5 coronaviruses from the WSU press office! news.wsu.edu/press-releas...

Our study screening merbecoviruses for receptor tropism and identifying the receptor for HKU5 coronaviruses was highlighted in This Week in Virology with Vincent Racaniello!What great discussion of the study! www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-12...

very nice work from the @fviromics.bsky.social and Baric labs uncovering some of the ways these merbecoviruses can use ACE2 as their entry receptor! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper about ACE2 using Merbecovirus. Hot stuff. So hot but you can't Letko. @fviromics.bsky.social and Nick Catanzaro. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #ACE2 #emergingviruses #bats #batman #MERS #HKU5

In our latest study we used alphafold 3 to predict the interaction between HKU5 virus spike protein and its receptor, ACE2. Using a 2021-based dataset, AF3 produced a new interface that has now been validated by other groups with cryoEM. What other new interactions can AF3 show us? rdcu.be/en7Dy

Our study screening the majority of all published Merbecovirus RBD’s for cell entry phenotypes is now published in Nature Communications! (1/5) shorturl.at/gYz4E

Bat cells for virology and innate immunology. Sneha Khedkar highlights our study in The Scientist: www.the-scientist.com/bat-cells-in... Link to original paper: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... @fviromics.bsky.social @stephseifertphd.bsky.social

Choose Science. Choose Europe. A new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 call is now open. With a budget of €404.3 million, it will support around 1,650 researchers from Europe and beyond. Apply by 10 September → europa.eu/!fBTMgF

Research on the #bat innate #ImmuneResponse to pathogens is hindered by a lack of lab reagents. @fviromics.bsky.social @stephseifertphd.bsky.social @virology.bsky.social &co generate new bat #CellLines, enabling studies on viral susceptibility & immune responses @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4jkXukf

Research on the #bat innate #ImmuneResponse to pathogens is hindered by a lack of lab reagents. @fviromics.bsky.social @stephseifertphd.bsky.social @virology.bsky.social &co generate new bat #CellLines, enabling studies on viral susceptibility & immune responses @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4jkXukf

On the cover of the Journal of Virology this month with all our bat colleagues! #Bats #LZCI @stephseifertphd.bsky.social Associated article: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

🚨Latest BAT publication now out in @plosbiology.org with @fviromics.bsky.social @stephseifertphd.bsky.social and others. #PLOSBiology 🦇 Proud of our PhD candidate, Victoria Gonzalez! #LZCI journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... More detailed post from my colleague, Dr. Letko: bsky.app/profile/fvir...

Our study developing new bat cell lines is now published with PLoS Biology! We made new bat cell lines for virology research that are immunocompetent and support entry and replication of orthohantaviruses and several others. tinyurl.com/ymfduzjw

Are bats tolerant of all viruses? With a comparative -omics approach, we show that Egyptian fruit bat cells show both antiviral and pro-inflammatory immune responses to infection with Zika virus while our Jamaican fruit bat cells are not susceptible. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

These data are complementary to reports of pathogenesis in bats challenged with ZIKV in vivo. Big congrats to my postdoc, Dr. Alexander Brown, and @annafagre.bsky.social who co-lead this study along with @ricardoriveroh.bsky.social @speranzalab.bsky.social @fviromics.bsky.social @viralemergence.org

🚨Excited to share our latest research published in @commsbio.bsky.social , where we've developed a predictive model that integrates both host ecological traits and viral genomic features to identify potential reservoir hosts for Orthopoxviruses, including mpox virus. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Come join us at the 2025 Bat ID meeting. 👇🏾

Not a fan of corporate virtue signaling but right now it feels important to stand up and be counted. We’re determined to stand firmly behind our mission, our values and our principles, & against censorship & any attempt to compromise the core principles of scientific inquiry. tinyurl.com/vndz2j5w

You can have art without technology, but you cannot have technology without art. You can have scientists without AI, but you cannot have AI without scientists.

Our department received a continuing NOA today including the correct (negotiated) indirect rate. The funding blockade at the NIH appears to be partially relieved for now.

Allegory alert!

On changes to #NIH indirect rates, there is a law in place that prohibits NIH from making such changes without the approval of Congress. See Division D, Title II Section 224 of The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law No: 118-47) grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

SCOOP: Cats that became infected with bird flu might have spread the virus to humans in the same household and vice versa, according to data that briefly appeared online in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but then abruptly vanished. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/h...

The H5N1 risk continues to increase. New spillovers, more infections. The agencies running response are being dismantled & it seems like maybe some info about bird flu is in order. @mehdirhasan.bsky.social asked me to write an explainer piece for @zeteo.com, so I did. zeteo.com/p/how-to-pre...

This editorial is almost 5 years old, but somehow I feel its overall sentiment is even more important in current times journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Page 2. These data were generated with US taxpayer dollars. They belong to the American people. CDC made them available to the world. Deleting these data is theft. Now we take back what is ours. acasignups.net/25/02/02/lin...

📣 UPDATE: OK, still working with some others to figure out the best way to present it all, but in the meantime here's the first batch of links to the most-recent archived versions of every page at the CDC prior to the Trump/Musk Purge: acasignups.net/25/02/02/whi...

ACE2-dependent bat coronaviruses in Spain! One has compatibility with human ACE2, further expanding the geographic boundaries for human ACE2-compatible animal coronaviruses. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

More hantaviruses in Carollia bats. Did I mention we just deposited cell lines with BEI from these animals that supports hantavirus replication? www.scielo.br/j/mioc/a/fcs...