Die virale Geschichte ist in unserem #Erbgut verankert: Menschen tragen #Herpesviren offenbar seit über 2500 Jahren in ihrer #DNA - so zeigen neue Analysen. Manche #Viren werden über Generationen vererbt. #wissenschaft.de berichtet über die spannende Koevolution: www.wissenschaft.de/gesundheit-m...

If you have been following the African swine fever "mystery" in Catalonia, you would have noticed that this had the early hallmarks of a "lab leak" from a nearby facility. Turns out it wasn't, however. h/t @acritschristoph.bsky.social @flodebarre.bsky.social www.infobae.com/espana/2025/...

Did you know? White bellbirds (Procnias albus) produce the loudest bird song. With 125 dB, it is louder than a chainsaw. Males aim this call at females, potentially damaging their hearing. Listen to it here: tinyurl.com/4tmper2x. 📸 Daderot, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) #Birds #FeatheredFriday

Research on HIV's conical capsid ultimately led to lenacapavir, the first capsid inhibitor. The drug's double-decade journey underscores the value of basic science research today to support the generation of innovative drugs for the future. Read the story: asm.org/articles/202...

academic.oup.com/nar/article/... Latest article from Rebecca Youle in Taylor lab at Crick in collaboration with Chad Swanson and my labs on the enzymatic activity of KHNYN, cofactor for ZAP It is a highly active endoribonuclease with cleavage site preferences and an absolute dependence on manganese

The #Tübingen bus company is taking the holiday season seriously. Getting to work on the "glitter bus" today.

All living organisms face the problem of parasites - but what happens when DNA has invaded the genome? go.nature.com/3MDiJCq

Great news for everyone working on EVs and viruses: the #GFV2026 meeting will include a full session on #ExtracellularVesicles in Viral Infection! Looking forward to the discussions and abstracts from our communities. 📅 17–20 March 2026, Heidelberg 📝 Abstracts: 4 Jan 2026 🔗 virology-meeting.de

Did you know? Turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) are attracted by ethyl mercaptan, which was added to odorless gas by US oil companies. If vultures circled a pipeline, it meant a leak: gwern.net/doc/biology/.... 📸 ALAN SCHMIERER, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) #Birds #FeatheredFriday

A rare but real adverse event. And apparently not just limited to the adeno-based vaccines.

The effect of shingles vaccination at different stages of the dementia disease course: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Spillover of #influenza A viruses from animals to humans represents a threat to our health. In this Perspective, Silke Stertz @virology.uzh.ch discusses emerging research that suggests some influenza A viruses can enter host cells via MHC-II receptors across species 🧪 #virology plos.io/4pP3Gnq

Very nice study by the Heidmann lab. The human endogenous retroviral envelope HEMO protein interacts with BACE2: Novel partnership acquired in the primate lineage | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Did you know? In Sweden, wild crows (Corvus sp.) are rewarded with food for picking up cigarette butts. The startup Corvid Cleaning found that these clever birds can be trained to collect butts, helping reduce urban waste. 📸 Retired electrician, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) #Birds #FeatheredFriday

New paper out! How can we force HIV genomes out of their capsid shells and what can we learn about HIV biology doing so? Hint: capsid inhibitors actively re-route nuclear HIV complexes, and expose genomes via intriguing structural effects! open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1... read below

🚨 We are hiring a group leader in Virology at CIRI ! Join us in the beautiful city of Lyon 🇫🇷 Deadline on March 31st 2026

Our paper on the second Berlin patient came out in Nature today and I’m really happy we can share this story on World AIDS Day. I want to thank everyone on the team and all co-authors for their work over the years. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How does fever work? Our new Science paper shows how elevated body temperature can protect against severe influenza and that avian-origin viruses escape this defence. This is likely one reason why bird flus and some pandemic influenzas can be so severe.🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🪱 Selfish genes are everywhere and drive some of biology’s biggest innovations (CRISPR, antibody recombination, epigenetics). Yet almost no one asks the obvious question: how does a selfish gene begin? Our new manuscript uncovers how selfishness can emerge directly from the host genome.

🧵 1/
Our new pre-print is up:
“Capillarity Reveals the Role of Capsid Geometry in HIV Nuclear Translocation.”
👉 arxiv.org/abs/2510.26357 It explores how the shape of the HIV capsid helps it pass one of biology’s tightest gates — the nuclear pore.
#HIV #biophysics

Did you know? Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica) fly >10,000 km nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand - the longest flight of any bird. Before takeoff, they double their weight and shrink their gut. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18974033/ 📸 USFWSAlaska, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) #Birds #FeatheredFriday

A new technology allows researchers to glue down extracellular vesicles in precise patterns—allowing them to study how other cells respond to these packages alone. That and more of the best from @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

Was wissen wir über HIV in 🇩🇪? #WeltAIDSTag Schätzungen des RKI für 2024 zeigen, dass sich 2.300 Menschen mit #HIV infiziert haben. Das sind ~200 Neuinfektionen mehr als 2023. Alle Zahlen, Details zu Erstdiagnosen und welche Rolle Prävention spielt, lest ihr im #EpidBull ➡️ www.rki.de/hiv

ViroCareer Compass – Navigating Your Career in Virology Shape your career at the 6th #ACHIEVE Workshop of the #GfV! Explore academia, industry & diagnostics, strengthen your CV, get hands-on tips for your first grant 📅 16–17 Mar 2026 | Heidelberg | Late PhD, postdocs & MDs 📝 Apply: achieve.g-f-v.org

Good news: a new species has been spotted in Tübingen. Bad news: it's a highly venomous Chilean recluse spider...found at our University 🕷 tinyurl.com/2fefarkc

Three must read papers for PhD students. #scisky #PhD #science #research #academicsky 1. The importance of stupidity in scientific research Open Access journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Did you know? Researchers recorded bats catching European robins (Erithacus rubecula) in mid-air—confirmed by bird distress calls and chewing sounds! 😧 😬 A chilling example of aerial predation. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41066553/ 📸 Estormiz, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) #Birds #FeatheredFriday

Das Nationale Referenzzentrum für Poliomyelitis und Enteroviren hat in einer Abwasserprobe aus Hamburg Polio-Wildviren vom Typ 1 nachgewiesen. Mehr zur aktuellen Situation und den Empfehlungen für medizinisches und labortechnisches Personal im aktuellen EpidBull: 🔗 www.rki.de/DE/Aktuelles...

Really great initiative by the Journal of Virology and @asm.org — the “New Voices in Virology” feature highlights an excellent group of early-career virologists. journals.asm.org/journal/jvi/... #virology

Come join us in beautiful Britanny, France in May 2026 for a workshop that I am organizing with @lucievirevolte.bsky.social and @psudmant.bsky.social on Rapid host adaptations to infections: sites.google.com/berkeley.edu...

We are looking to recruit a Ph.D. student to start in Q1 2026 for an exciting new project that is part of the newly funded SynthImmune Cluster of Excellence. Are you interested in the intersection of virology and immunology? Please see the attached info and apply at application.synthimmune.de.

We’ve identified a highly divergent betacoronavirus from South American bat that encodes a functional furin cleavage site. Another fascinating reminder of how diverse coronavirus evolution is in wildlife reservoirs. #Virology #VirusEvolution #Bats #Coronavirus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Guidance for formulating good research questions www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Did you know? Fairywrens (Malurus cyaneus) and many other bird species share a common alarm call to alert neighbors of approaching cuckoos. Could this be how shared language evolves? pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41044184/ 📸 Caroline Jones, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) #Birds #FeatheredFriday

Only few days left! ⏰ Apply for the new @gesvirologie.bsky.social Pulication Prizes for Innovative Methods in Virology 🏆 - Biosafety, Biosecurity and Risk Mitigation 🦠 - Application of the 3R principle (Replace, Reduce, Refine) 🐭 Deadline: November 1st g-f-v.org/en/forschung...

New paper out! We show that APOBEC3B, a key repressor of retrotransposons, is downregulated in senescent cells — unleashing LINE-1 activity and fueling genomic instability and aging. 🔗 doi.org/10.1186/s13100-025-00378-5 #Retrotransposons #APOBEC3B #Senescence #Aging

Did you know? Harpy Eagles (Harpia harpyja) have talons that are longer than grizzly bears’ claws. A new case report documents the first scientifically confirmed attack on an adult human: tinyurl.com/bdkdxuhc 📸 Givanildo Silva, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) #Birds #FeatheredFriday

We asked 3,785 PhD students across 107 countries about their experiences. Where do you think the happiest doctoral candidates were? go.nature.com/3Wzz2lL

SARS-CoV-2 delta and omicron variants alter trophoblast cell fusion and syncytiotrophoblast dynamics: new insights into placental vulnerability www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nature research paper: A human-specific regulatory mechanism revealed in a pre-implantation model go.nature.com/4o2TgQs

#MicrobiologyMonday: Can bird song shape your microbiome? 🐦Scientists propose that interactions with nature may influence gut microbiome composition, suggesting it is shaped not just by direct microbial exposure, but by multisensory experiences. #mSystem asm.social/2Cx

New paper alert 🎉 We explore the origins of deltaviruses and find they have infected and co-evolved with termites for 141 million years 🐜🕑🦴 This was a fascinating story to work on with @ariskatzourakis.bsky.social, Jose Gabriel and @anselmojiro.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Do you research endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) or want to learn more about them? 🧬🤔 Consider presenting at or attending AuusiERV - an inaugural online symposium for ERV research in Australia 🇦🇺 (and abroad) 🗺️ Abstracts due 1st October! events.humanitix.com/aussierv-2025 #ERV #retrovirus

Nicht alle Viren machen uns krank, tatsächlich nur ein ganz kleiner Teil von ihnen. Andere leben auf und in uns, und manche sind sogar fester Bestandteil unseres Erbguts! Ein Einblick in die vielen Facetten der Virologie bei @quarkswdr.bsky.social: www.ardmediathek.de/video/Y3JpZD...

Did you know? The Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) is named after the long feathers on its head, resembling quill pens tucked behind a secretary’s ear. It hunts snakes by stomping on them with its powerful feet. 📸 Hobbyfotowiki, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) #Birds #FeatheredFriday

A new analysis of individuals living with HIV reveals key sex differences in innate immune profiles and the complexity of the HIV proviral reservoir. Read more in #ScienceTranslationalMedicine: https://scim.ag/4mridnp

Check out our new paper 🎉. Thanks to everyone who was involved 🙏🏻.

Leider wurden die endogenen Retroviren mal wieder vergessen… Die machen rund 8% unseres Genoms aus. Rechnet man das auf alle Zellen hoch, schleppt jeder Mensch (ganz grob) etwa 15 g virale DNA täglich mit sich herum. Das entspricht immerhin fünf Stück Würfelzucker!