#RNAi is an ancestral #antiviral system that degrades viral RNA, but what about in #cnidarians? @yehumoran.bsky.social &co show that #Nematostella has an siRNA-mediated antiviral response that lacks 2ary amplification & functions as a short-term antiviral mechanism @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3N192OD

One Week left to apply for this exciting PhD via the QUARTILES DLA w/ @micecoevo.bsky.social , @timskvortsov.bsky.social & Julianne Megaw) on understanding drivers of virus ecology in the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles, Lough Neagh! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

It will take some time (a few years), but this change will lead to hundreds of thousands of preventable diseases in the most vulnerable parts of the population, including deaths. I assume we'll follow this up with the introduction of universal healthcare and paid family/sick/parental leave?

Virus taxonomy increasingly rests on phylogenetic hypotheses, but the trees, alignments, and assumptions behind them are often ephemeral. This post explores what it might look like to make that phylogenetic basis transparent and reproducible, using retroviruses as a case study. shorturl.at/s9aft

As a football fan I can only wonder who’ll be next in line for the much coveted FIFA peace prize. They may as well reinstate Russia now in international competition. A disgrace to the sport we love.

Thanks for including me here, @benmorton.bsky.social learned a lot from discussing these approaches with you since joining LSTM!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... It's finally out! Meriam Guellil expertly led this project from the first HHV6 detection to the final paper. We found both human herpesviruses 6A and 6B in ancient remains going back 2500 years.

In this perspective, Ryan Langlois @langloislab.bsky.social suggests that understanding fever’s role in shaping antiviral gene #evolution may illuminate blind spots in our comprehension of host–pathogen interactions and antiviral mechanisms. rupress.org/jem/article/... #InfectiousDisease #Virology

The long-held belief that only female mosquitoes bite may not be true after all. Very excited to have had the opportunity to contribute to this study showing that male mosquitoes can also bite and feed on blood. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

No internet? No problem. Just like border-free travel across the EU, staying connected has never been easier, thanks to EU roaming and the WiFi4EU app. Stay connected to what matters, wherever you are this festive season. ✨🎄

Gregor Mendel spent seven to eight years crossing and scoring tens of thousands of pea plants. In contemporary terms, this is known as “a postdoc”

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has struggled to convince observers he has the agency’s best interests in mind—and is truly in charge. https://scim.ag/3MMXDSh

This study does not have equipoise. It is proven that the newborn hep B vaccine dose reduces the risk of primary liver cancer & other liver diseases (eg this RCT had 30 yrs of follow-up: journals.plos.org/plosmedicine...). It is unethical to deliberately withhold the birth dose to “see what happens”

BBC News - Drones detect deadly virus in Arctic whales' breath www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... (it is, in case you're wondering, cetacean morbillivirus)

This is not the first time RFK Jr or his fellow anti-vax travelers conducted a study they knew would harm or kill children in low-income countries. It is a dehumanizing, colonialist model of manufacturing evidence: sacrificing foreign kids for political pseudoscience. www.notus.org/health-scien...

🚨 PhD Opportunity 🚨 Investigating the immunobiology of TB/CMV interactions with Rajko Reljic and myself ; www.findaphd.com/phds/project... Informal enquiries to Rajko Deadline 2nd Feb 2026 Pls RT!!!

Dear colleagues - the international meeting on arboviruses and their vectors planned in Hamburg, Germany for 2026, is going to be moved to Liverpool instead. Logistical reasons beyond our control necessitated this move. Still the same dates- see you on Merseyside!

Although having grants that are rated as fundable but there’s no money to actually make the projects happen suggests there is still some way to go. Europe must do better.

Best two pieces I’ve read today are by @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social (The other one precedes this in my feed.)

We trivialise influenza at our peril; an unusual H3N2. We don't know how bad this wave will be, but #NHS is (predictably) overwhelmed every year by "winter pressures". RSV also on the up. We could do so much to prevent, yet some prefer to minimise 🙄 mol.im/a/15375235

I agree with that- can we put impact statements for most applications in the bin…?

Argentina: 23 hantavirus cases have been confirmed nationwide open.substack.com/pub/outbreak...

2027 will see the return of the European Meeting in Viral Zoonoses in St Raphael, Côte d’Azur, France! September 18-21. Put in our diaries. Speakers to be announced.

BBC News - Mutated H3N2 flu virus is circulating - so should you buy a vaccine this year? - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Despite the slightly lurid title this is a very good general summary (and spoiler alert, the answer is yes)

I really do hope that news outlets who report on the recent #ACIP recommendations understand that these decisions have nothing to do with HepB per se, and everything to do with sowing bigger doubts about vaccines - all vaccines - in general. Don’t lose sight of what the bigger agenda is.

Rift Valley fever outbreak in Senegal: 70% of human cases involve professions exposed to infected animals open.substack.com/pub/outbreak...

At some point in the future, those affected in the US will hopefully be able to hold a number of people to account.

I can’t tell you how glad I am to be released from the disgrace of Temu ACIP. I made a commitment to watch and comment on these proceedings. Not sure I’ll do it again. In summary, ACIP is no longer a legitimate scientific body. Every U.S. state needs to decouple their vaccine policy from ACIP.

Flaviviridae RdRp exploits NSUN2-driven m5C methylation to establish persistent infection journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Another new preprint! This time looking at flavivirus NS5 interactions with our collaborator Armando Arias - www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🦟 #WNV: "Erstmals Mensch in der #Schweiz 🇨🇭 mit #WestNilVirus infiziert" via #SRF #arbovirus #Switzerland www.srf.ch/news/schweiz...

Researchers argue that cool weather spurred by previously unidentified volcanic eruptions set into motion a deadly chain of events, ultimately leading to the Black Death. https://scim.ag/3Ky3bPR

Ticks get everywhere…

Yet another rail journey on the west coast line affected by delays and problems. Rail travel in the UK is an expensive disgrace. A few weeks ago, it was a taxi from Preston to Glasgow (although in great company as desperate travellers got together).

Pleased to share our recent work in collaboration with the @perrimonlab.bsky.social in which we perform the first genome-wide CRISPR knockout screen in Anopheles to examine essential fitness genes and genes associated with clodronate liposome function www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧐 Looking for a #PhD position? @lstmnews.bsky.social is #hiring for a PhD on "Modelling the impact of #vector control and anthropogenic change on vectors of Gambian #SleepingSickness 🪰 " Apply by 3 December 2025! More info: www.lstmed.ac.uk/study/resear...

I taught (and co-taught) a course on human population genetics from 2000-2024. Having retired, I'm now making all the course materials public: github.com/alanrogers/p... #popgen #evbio

Our @sbohvm.gla.ac.uk has been lucky to recruit several fantastic PhD students through this programme. If you are a UK-based Black researcher interested in doing.a PhD in our core areas of #PlanetaryHealth, #EnvironmentalChange, #Ecology or #VeterinaryMedicine, check this out & get in touch

📢 #hiring #jobalert #stellenangebot The #Arbovirus #Ecology group at Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine #BNITM in Hamburg is looking for two highly motivated #PhD Students (m/f/d) – 65 % EG 13 TV-AVH. 🦟 Application deadline: 15 January 2026 Apply here: jobs.bnitm.de/PhD-Stuengnt...

Are you fascinated by viruses? Would you like to design your own original research project in the UK's largest virology centre? Why not come and do a PhD @cvrinfo.bsky.social - application deadline 6th Jan 2026 (1/1): www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

Despite advances in #ProximityLabeling tools, we can't capture intermediary proteins that bridge two associated non-interacting proteins. STUPPIT is a novel method to label intermediary proteins between two non-interacting partners in signaling pathways @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4ab6YwQ

H5N1 in bats - what should we think about this? @itingtu.bsky.social explains her recent preprint (a collaboration with multiple @cvrinfo.bsky.social groups) in a really nice interview with @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

1/5 🚨🚨 preprint alert! 🚨🚨 I wish to introduce CARDIB, not the singer, but the protein. CARDIB=CARD Inhibitory Binding protein. In our new work we discover this antiviral protein that is found in all Anthozoa (sea anemones and corals 🪸) but not in other animals. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The first human case of H5N5 bird flu (sadly, a fatal case) was reported at the end of last week. I've summarised what we currently know and what this might mean for @uk.theconversation.com

What role will structural modeling play in the future of phylogenetics? Find out at the Australasian Protein Structural Phylogenetics Meeting (APSPM).

In addition to nearly 200,000 experimentally-determined PDB structures, RCSB.org now offers access to ~1 million Computed Structure Models (CSMs) from AlphaFoldDB and RoseTTAFold (from Model Archive)

Our fully funded, four-year MRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) is now open for applications for an October 2026 start. We welcome applications from exceptional candidates from a broad range of academic disciplines who are passionate about global and public health. Find out more : lstm.ac/PhD

The agency this week quietly changed its official language to suggest vaccines may cause autism, a claim that scientists say has no basis in evidence