Hearing from Dr Yue Qu about biofilms and hospital infections. Problem for AMR. Consist of metabolically inactive bacteria (issue for antibiotic uptake), can over come with nano wires that pierce bacterial cells to kill them, similar to dragonfly wings or skin of geckos natureiscool #scienceyeah

Epigenetics Update - Accessory subunits of PRC2 mimic H3K27me3 to restrict the spread of Polycomb domains bit.ly/3NmLO5Q Edwina McGlinn and Chen Davidovich (Monash University) reporting in Mol Cell #Epigenetics #PRC2 #H3K27me3 --- Perfect for cancer, immunology, and aging; epigenometech.com

Fantastic work from @davidovichlab.bsky.social Congrats!

Finally someone did a nice characterization of TSC22D3 (GILZ) in T cell activation I know you T cell omics people have been wondering

1/ Great to highlight our new paper led by @taylahjbennett.bsky.social from her grad work in my lab. We looked how the transcription factor GILZ works as a restraint for T cell activation. A collaboration with Sarah Jones, School Clinical Science @monashuniversity.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jimm...

Standing room only at the @monashuniversity.bsky.social Microbiology seminar today. Hearing from Bob Leung and his work on microbial communities found on the bark of trees and their role in regulating greenhouse gases www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Amazing science!

Oh this is cool, Giant viruses are so interesting!

Last day of #Lornegenome. A great venue, cool talks and discussions. Learnt about diversification of mammalian genomes, inheritance of mutations and impact of mutagens, how TFs direct chromatin organisation and so much more. New collaborations, new projects, can’t wait til next year

Fantastic new paper from @the-de-lab.bsky.social showing how the CMV m11 protein drives immune evasion by blocking CD44-dependent, FRC-mediated DC migration in the spleen, ultimately dampening antiviral CD8⁺ T cell priming @monashuniversity.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Clear skies last night in Melbourne....

View from summit of Mt Wellington, Hobart #summerholidays #bitchilly

The Orion Nebula. Stunning part of the sky.

The government can’t claim that medical research is a priority while failing to treat it as one. Nine in 10 leading researchers in Australia are missing out on government support for world‑class proposals, leaving exceptional talent uncertain about their future.

Think climate change won’t touch you? Next time a mosquito bites, consider what it might be carrying. As temperatures rise, mosquitoes and other vectors expand their range, bringing viruses like dengue, yellow fever, and malaria (among others) closer to home. Important thread👇

NSF is about to dismantle NCAR at Russell Vought's direction to protect the fossil fuel industry. It's hard to communicate just how much NCAR does, so let's take a look: I've never worked at NCAR, and I've worked with NCAR researchers once ever. What scientific discoveries has NCAR made possible? 👇

Curiosity sparked it all, and that curiosity just earned one of science’s highest honors. In the Australian, rb.gy/cdwmki Yet government funding for curiosity-driven science is at an all-time low. Success rates are plummeting. If we don’t invest in curiosity, we risk losing the next big discovery.

A year in review at the Biomedical Discovery Institute @monashuniversity.bsky.social a great place to do discovery research that drives transformations in science and health #discoveryresearchmatters #fundresearchproperly

Me at meetings while still waiting on proofs of an accepted manuscript to arrive in my inbox... #comeon #academiclimbo #excitementbuilding

Five years of COVID taught us one thing: immunology didn’t fail, our public discourse did. My new Substack cuts through the noise with evidence, not ideology. If you want facts over fear, and science over spin, join here: marcveldhoen.substac... 1/2

Melbourne from the train, weekday evening. #melbournecbd

Finally landed back in Melbourne after 4 hour delay due to faulty plane, Perth #ASI2025 was terrific, great science, great colleagues and great weather! Already looking forward to Canberra #ASI2026 already!

Do yourself a favour and come to hear the fantastic work by @niclag.bsky.social and her team, identifying molecular drivers of age related T cell dysfunction #ASI2025 #Tcellsarecool

Now up in the Thursday Plenary @kerryhilligan.bsky.social the #ASI2025 the Peter Doherty medal recipient, celebrating research excellence by ECRs

Super proud that my PhD mentor being awarded the #Burnetmedal at #ASI2025 in Perth, Frank Carbone and the discovery of cross-presentation, and its role in priming killer T cell responses, using his original lecture slides from late 80’s #classicfrank

Waves meet the sand on the beautiful North Coast of NSW. North Coast of New South Wales. © 𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓡𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼 𝓡𝓮𝓼𝓮𝓻𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝓫𝔂 𝓚𝓮𝓿 𝓟𝓮𝓲𝓻𝓬𝓮. #photo #photography #australia #NewSouthWales #AustralianBeach #CoastalView #OceanView #GoldenSand

Excited to hear from @msmacrophage.bsky.social about aging, infection and immunity #ASI2025 #PerthASI #immunologyiscool

Oh great, so a solution to climate change has to adapt because we were too slow to adapt to climate change, looking at you @liberalaus.bluesky.social

Great to contribute to this great study from @sammybedoui and colleagues at the Peter Doherty Institute Microbiota-derived butyrate promotes a FOXO1-induced stemness program and preserves CD8+ T cell immunity against melanoma: Immunity www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

What a wonderful day of science, organised and led by the Dept of Microbiology @monashuniversity.bsky.social grad students, great science, great presentations, great interactions, the discipline of Microbiology is in great hands!

A long walk to the sea. Solitude and light on the jetty. Elliston, South Australia. © 𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓡𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼 𝓡𝓮𝓼𝓮𝓻𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝓫𝔂 𝓚𝓮𝓿 𝓟𝓮𝓲𝓻𝓬𝓮. #photo #photography #australia #southaustralia #EllistonJetty #JettyLife #BlackAndWhitePhotography #Monochrome #Seascape #OceanView #jetty

Looking forward to hearing more about this during my visit to @tcddublin.bsky.social today with @adrianbracken.bsky.social lab.

Conference dinner for @events.embl.org #EESImaging at Heidelburg castle last night. Amazing venue, onto the last couple of sessions today, what a great conference, amazing science, amazing community, very much worth the trip #scienceyeah #imagingiscool #superresolution #seeingisbelieving

Wow! @gaiapigino.bsky.social using cryo-EM tomography to reveal the dynamic choreography of molecular machines in cilia assembly. Same components, different conformation depending on cargo delivery vs removal, working like a biological transformer. @events.embl.org #EESImaging #scienceyeah

Day 3 @events.embl.org symposia #EESImaging another exciting day as we are about to go on a deep dive into imaging molecules in cells #scienceyeah #superresolutioniscool #imagingiscool #seeingisbelieving

Day 2 of the @embo.org @events.embl.org #EESImaging symposia. Exciting day of science ahead focussing on dynamic single molecule imaging, can’t wait to apply some of this to our own work #scienceyeah #Tcellsarecool #smlmisverycool

Excited to be at the @events.embl.org #EEEImaging conference in Heidelberg, Germany, hearing the latest in cutting edge imaging of biological systems. The ATC (G) building is modelled on the double DNA helix, the bridges represent the H bonds b/n nucleotides #scienceyeah #microscopyiscool

Excited to announce our latest preprint, exploring the stereochemistry & antiviral properties of natural product MM46115 (pellemicin) against influenza. 🦠 💊 Big thanks to all co authors, including @afifahtasnim.bsky.social @craigpthomp.bsky.social and others. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Bit of colour @monashuniversity.bsky.social today #springshower #melbourneweather #capturemonash

In the #BDI infection program retreat, listening to Fran Short, Dept of Micro @monashuniversity.bsky.social Sampling of fresh creek water identified pathogenic E. coli in microbial communities, highly active AMR gene and virulence determinants #dontswiminthedandenongcreek

Who remembers these note books? Once a common sight in labs for recording keeping. Was cleaning out my office for a move into a new role and found a set of books from a past grad student, love the fact there is raw data, protocols, even mouse cards all in one place #scienceyeah

Quince tree update: we have blooming 💐 now just need bees to pollinate

@leonsmyth.bsky.social just gave a fascinating talk on how brain substructures enable brain waste management, interface with immune cells @monashuniversity.bsky.social

Quince tree update: We have flower buds, I repeat, we have flower buds

TFW the new protocol your grad student set up to test a harebrained idea looks like it worked! #superstargradstudent #Tcellsarecool #epigeneticsiscool #scienceyeah @pacbio.bsky.social #pacbioapplications

Spring is coming #blossoms #springhassprung #quincetreeflowerimg

Just read the draft of Australia’s National Health & Medical Research Strategy. Great to see full funding of research being addressed as a need — but an emphasis on discovery research is missing. You can’t drive impact without fueling the pipeline with fundamental/discovery science.

Up next, talking with 2nd yr microbiology students @monashuniversity.bsky.social about how the innate immune system engages with different pathogens, RNA viruses 🦠 Gram +ves, DNA viruses, Gram -ves #scienceyeah #microbiologyiscool #campuslife

Currently sitting in a seminar from Chris Stubenrauch, learning how efflux pumps found in Gram -ve bugs are also found in Gram +ve bugs, instead of outer membrane interactions, they interact with outer protein layers instead @monashuniversity.bsky.social #scienceyeah #microbesarecool

Just finished up an amazing visit to Harry Perkins Medical Institute in Perth. It was a reminder of why I love research. Getting to present our most recent findings, getting great questions, learning about the cool science others are doing, and coming away with new collaborations #scienceyeah

New preprint: Ever wonder why memory T cells can look like naive T cells but act like effectors? Part the reason is that a chromatin binding protein called SATB1 restrains acquisition of effector phenotypes. Shout out to my grad student Jason Kah for this work. www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...