Back at home after two days of great science in the 18 Mini Herpesvirus Workshop and 1st and only HHV-65 Symposium, celebrating Harmut Hengel’s birthday. @lucasmendesm.bsky.social and @ninaplueckebaum.bsky.social presented exciting results showing how herpesviruses modulate the immune response

Congratulations to the 2025 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine winners Drs. Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, & Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance. View their related research published in #CellPress journals: spkl.io/63325AVK2R

Michel DeGraff, a tenured professor of linguistics at MIT, discusses how his proposal to teach a class on language & decolonization in Haiti, Israel, and Palestine was denied. He faced significant repercussions: he was removed from his department, had a pay raise withheld, and his salary frozen.

New in @natbiotech.nature.com: a team led by scientists at MSK and ‪University of Toronto have developed a new platform to facilitate the study of RNA-biding proteins (RBPs) across hundreds of species of plants, insects, and animals.

In the last day of the #IHW2025 Josi Schenk funded by @resist-cluster.bsky.social gave a great explanation on how VZV modulates One Carbon metabolism in epithelial cells. Inhibition of this pathway blocked VZV, HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection, providing novel ways to target these viruses

Nina Plückebaum gave a great talk at the #IHW2025 showing the results of a bindings screen performed with the RL11 protein family of #human_cytomegalovirus and 80% of all human single transmembrane proteins revealing a novel viral strategy to modulate natural killer cell activity

Today there were many interesting talks at #IHW2025, including one from Nadine Brückner who gave a great talk in the VZV Satellite Workshop exploring how VZV is repressed during infection of neuron-like cells.

On my way to the #IHW2025 in Berlin. Looking forward to meeting many friends and colleagues and to learn more about herpesviruses

Last Sunday we went hiking in the Deister, nice hills close to Hannover. It was a very nice day despite the heat.

Don't forget 📆 Abstract deadline for poster or oral presentations is June 18. Please repost to your network to spread the word! More info or register at seattle.cytokinesociety.org

It was a great experience to participate and present our data in the last GRC viruses and cells conference organized by @sesmalab.bsky.social. Looking forward to more exciting science and collaborations!

Wonderful news! This will allow @resist-cluster.bsky.social to better understand why some individuals are highly susceptible to infectious diseases while others aren’t. Thanks to everyone involved in the application and evaluation process!

Don’t miss the @resist-cluster.bsky.social seminar by @richstanton.bsky.social this coming Thursday!

We are very much looking forward to the two lectures on Wednesday (!), 14 May from 12.30 pm by Prof. Donna Neumann and Prof. Robert Kaletja, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Come in large numbers to lecture hall Q at the MHH! We will offer snacks at 12.00 PM www.resist-cluster.de/en/veranstal...

Thanks @beatesodeiklab.bsky.social for your kind words. It was a great experience talking about SPR in the “How to…” seminar series organized by the ACHIEVE Academy of the @gesvirologie.bsky.social. I especially enjoyed the discussion part of the event

"This is my home - I really love my country. But a lot of my mentors have been telling me to get out, right now" 75% of US scientists who answered our poll are considering relocating. Read the full story: https://go.nature.com/3QS4TLC

An immigration crackdown in the United States is rattling the global research community, with high-profile detentions and deportations of academics stoking fears even for travellers with valid entry documents. https://go.nature.com/3FG63rf

'Among those NIH-funded projects are more than 100 clinical trials that now may be forced to halt abruptly, agency officials told me. And those officials expect further orders to cancel hundreds more.'

🧪 A paralysed man can stand on his own after receiving an injection of neural stem cells to treat his spinal cord injury https://go.nature.com/4jaZ3RB

Hundreds of international students have just received an email telling them their visas have been revoked. The ‘justification’ is campus activism or social media posts. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/hun...

At least 95% measles vaccine coverage is needed in all communities to prevent #measles and stop outbreaks. The only way to prevent measles? Two doses of measles vaccine. Let’s close the gap and keep measles away!

Terrible news today of a powerful Myanmar earthquake that shook communities across Southeast Asia. Our staff working in Myanmar and Thailand are safe and accounted for. Swift and unhindered access to the affected areas is critical. More here: www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-r...

No food or supplies have been allowed into Gaza in over three weeks

We are very close to a near cure for two of the highest-mortality cancers we know: glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer. These are both mRNA based treatments which are losing their funding during stage I and II trials. Thousands will die needlessly because of this motherfucker and his lies.

A measles outbreak in the United States is growing, with no end in sight. We asked specialists how bad things could get. https://go.nature.com/4kOtwXe

This broke my heart when I entered the bookstore. I was compelled to take a photo because I can’t believe we’re here. Thank you Barnes & Noble in Wareham, Massachusetts for placing it as first table when you walk in.

It is essential to keep funding the NIH

Discussions on bird flu in the US. 🤨 If it’s not human and animal health for you, if it’s not ethics for you, it’s at least economics. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The former head of PEPFAR pleads for the preservation of the lifesaving program. @cohenjon.bsky.social speaks with John Nkengasong. www.science.org/content/arti...

Excited to share an Opinion piece that I wrote with my supervisor, @viejoborbolla.bsky.social, now published in Trends in Immunology! We discuss how viral IFNγ-binding proteins might provide mechanistic insights into uncoupling IFNγ-mediated gene expression. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

It was fun to write this Opinion piece together with @lucasmendesm.bsky.social where we suggest strategies to modify interferon gamma to improve its potential applications in the clinic. Just published at @cp-trendsimmuno.bsky.social !

Great talk by @lucasmendesm.bsky.social at the meeting of the @gesvirologie.bsky.social showing how glycoprotein C expressed by varicella zoster virus modulates the activity of interferon gamma!

With this skin organoid model presented by Manja Czech-Sioli she can monitor cell-specific responses to virus infections in a 3D context. Great work! Looking forward to collaborate with Manja studying VZV infection of skin and neuronal organoids in @deep-dv-for5200.bsky.social

Great talk by @josephineschenk.bsky.social at the @gesvirologie.bsky.social meeting in Hamburg! 👏👏👏

Looking forward to learning about #virology and meeting many friends and colleagues @gesvirologie.bsky.social

Repeated threats to research funding and the mass firings of federal workers have pushed some scientists to take on unfamiliar roles as activists, speaking at rallies, calling legislators and forming new pressure groups. https://go.nature.com/4bt2EI8

We are on our way to the meeting of the German Society for Virology @gesvirologie.bsky.social. If you’re attending, don’t miss the talks by @lucasmendesm.bsky.social, @josephineschenk.bsky.social and @ninaplueckebaum.bsky.social, as well as Nadine Brückner’s poster

Francis Collins, the NIH Director for 12 years, led the Human Genome Project and other NIH efforts for 32 years, resigned today. Key words from his resignation letter www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/u...

Congratulations George and Katja!

Congratulations to @kreylab.bsky.social for this great work. And thanks for bringing us on board! Always a pleasure to work with you

Happy to see this study published, a great collaboration between structural, molecular and clinical virology labs! We describe neutralizing antibodies targeting the Hepatitis E virus capsid protein that distinguish between infectious particles and antibody decoy. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really awful news for science and society

Roberta Flack, the magnetic singer and pianist who was one of the most popular artists of the 1970s, died on Monday at 88. Flack was known for her majestic anthems like “Killing Me Softly” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” nyti.ms/4h1KzSh

Update: A block on NIH's new policy to slash billions of dollars of research-overhead costs has been extended by a federal judge. The block was set to expire Monday. https://go.nature.com/3XgyvWn

Already bruised by the Trump administration’s first round of firings of federal workers, employees at NIH faced more bad news. NIH’s 27 institute directors were told this week that the agency must cut staffing back to 2019 levels, or at least 10% below its 2024 tally. scim.ag/3EP8gjy

Happy to share our publication in #PlosPathogens investigating repression of varicella zoster virus in neuron-like cells: journals.plos.org/plospathogen... Thanks to @dandepledge.bsky.social and other colleagues for their contribution!

Their aim is nothing short of a new Dark Ages. Anti-science, anti-education, anti-democracy, in favor of needless human suffering. NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...