📢A new effector-triggered immunity role for GBP1! No place for pathogens to hide now that GBP1 can detect extracellular pathogens that hijack the actin cytoskeleton. Surprise*suprise* GBP1 does this independently of LPS! 🧵 biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Pleased to share and briefly highlight our new manuscript just published 𝘑𝘊𝘐 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 (a short🧵) "A STING-adjuvanted outer membrane vesicle nanoparticle vaccine protects against lethal 𝘗𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘢 pneumonia" 🔗 doi.org/10.1172/jci....

An NLRP3 stimulatory universal influenza vaccine. We report an NLRP3 stimulus that generates hyperactive dendritic cells (hDCs). journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Excited to share our new publication, out today in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... @kanchanj.bsky.social led this fascinating fungal-bacterial interaction project. We are grateful for our wonderful collaborators Brian Peters and David Underhill.

So excited that this study is now online! It's been a pleasure to work with BioAge Labs and our collaborators on this story. We characterise a new class of #NLRP3 inhibitors with translational potential for so many inflammatory diseases.

#InterferonPower! Thrilled for our latest work @cp-cell.bsky.social! With @danielboehmer.bsky.social, we dug into tons of papers & created what we hope will be a go-to resource for immunologists & non-immunologist about type I, II, III (& IV😉) #interferons! Free👉 authors.elsevier.com/a/1leKGL7PXu...

Another piece of the #glycoRNA puzzle revealed by @raflynn5.bsky.social and @vijayrathinam.bsky.social!! RNAs with modified base acp3U activate TLR3/7, but not when acp3U is N-glycosylated. This is how cell surface/secreted glycoRNAs avoid stimulating autoimmunity. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#GlycoPower! @vijayrathinam.bsky.social @raflynn5.bsky.social @vinnieviruses.bsky.social &co show @nature.com that N-glycosylation of host small-RNAs present at cell surface prevents immune recognition by TLR3 and TLR7 upon apoptotic cells uptake avoiding autoinflammation!

@vijayrathinam.bsky.social @vinnieviruses.bsky.social ‪@raflynn5.bsky.social‬ discovers why RNA undergoes glycosylation: N-glycans on glycoRNAs hide self-RNA from endosomal TLRs promoting ‘silent’ clearance of dead cells @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out this @nature.com paper from the brilliant scientist I get to call my husband!!!!

today.uconn.edu/2025/08/swee... Thanks to @uconnresearch.bsky.social and @kimkrieger.bsky.social for covering our glycoRNA paper @vinnieviruses.bsky.social @raflynn5.bsky.social

The work brought together a lot of expertise from labs including Penghua Wang, Michael R. Wilson, Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja, Beiyan Zhou, Franck J. Barrat, and Thomas Carell - and we were critically supported by grants from NIH (NIGMS, NIAID, NIDDK) and scleroderma research foundation

Finally, we found that the de-N-glycosylated RNA is sensed through both TLR3 and TLR7 which could suggest that encoding both ssRNA and dsRNA motifs with acp3U and thus dual engagement of TLR3 and TLR7 provide sufficient signal threshold.

We defined the chemical moiety causing this stimulation to be the core RNA modification of acp3U, which we had previously found to be a covalent linker between RNA and N-glycans (Xie et al. Cell 2024). We confirmed this with chemical synthesis RNAs containing only 1 acp3U.

This effect was also true on the surface of apoptotic material which is normally cleared via efferocytosis in an immune silent process. Loss of N-glycans on this material triggers innate immune cells.

We found that de-N-glycosylation of purified small RNA using PNGaseF causes the RNA to be immunostimulatory to both mouse and human macrophages

RNA N-glycosylation enables immune evasion and homeostatic efferocytosis by chemically caging acp3U. Excited to report this work lead by Vinnie @vinnieviruses.bsky.social and in collaboration with @vijayrathinam.bsky.social in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Why does RNA undergo glycosylation? Excited to have our paper out. We in collab w/ Ryan Flynn @raflynn5.bsky.social show N-glycans on glycoRNA hide self-RNA from endosomal TLRs promoting silent removal of dead cells. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @uconnresearch.bsky.social @uconnhealth.bsky.social

A few weeks late, but delighted to announce I'm an editor at Infection and Immunity! Send your manuscripts to this @ASM.org society journal - proceeds go back to our community. And free immediate #OpenAccess through #SubscribeToOpen. Want to know more? journals.asm.org/S2O

A new function for an ancient innate immune stimulus. Zanoni et al report that oxidized lipids control IL-10 expression, impacting host defense and disease. Kudos to the authors on this important discovery www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#EpigeneticPower! 💥 #NewPaperAlert! We show @cp-immunity.bsky.social that endogenous oxidized lipids decide whether host survives or dies during #sepsis, #ARDS, or Staph infection! Ox lipids bind & inhibit #AKT, boosting inhibitory H3K27 methylation via EZH2 & blocking #IL10!

We are excited to have our new paper out: Tethering of the pathogen sensor caspase-4 to the endomembrane damage sensor galectin-8 poises the host to rapidly detect pathogens that breach the endolysosomal network. www.cell.com/cell-reports... #innate_immunity #inflammasome #celldeath #immunoSky 1/2

Happy that our manuscript showing that PgtE protease enables Salmonella to evade C3-mediated serum and neutrophil killing is published in mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... - check out the companion paper from @rtsolis.bsky.social and team, focused on PgtE in the African Salmonella strain ST313

I am very excited to share the second paper of my PhD published in @cp-cell.bsky.social. Many thanks to all co-authors, especially from Thomas Carell's group, and my supervisor @v-hornung.bsky.social for their great support and collaboration! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

#NoTimeToDie! @sunnyshinlab.bsky.social @vvasques.bsky.social &co show @asm.org journal that dendritic cells (#DCs) die upon encountering Legionella initially via caspase-11 dependent pyroptosis & later on by effector-triggered apoptosis, restricting Legionella replication in DCs! 👇👇👇

Thrilled that our latest paper showing that DCs undergo either pyroptosis or apoptosis upon bacterial blockade of host translation to restrict Legionella is now online at the @asm.org journal mBio! Congrats to 1st author @vvazquez.bsky.social & co-authors! 🎉 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Excited to share this fun perspective on perinatal mucosal immune development! Check it out ➡️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our latest review on macrophages Macrophages: sentinels, warriors, and healers url:https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/hmg/ddaf087/8158008 academic.oup.com/hmg/advance-...

Delighted to share our paper describing how type I interferon promotes caspase-11 hyperactivity in models of PolG-related mitochondrial disease. Thanks to all co-authors and the POLG Foundation for for their support. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How can a Salmonella effector change the specificity of a host kinase? SteE mediates kinase reprogramming via mimicry of conserved eukaryotic-like motifs- doi.org/10.1038/s443... Great collaboration with @katrinrittinger.bsky.social + big thanks to all authors & congrats to lead PDRA Ioanna Panagi!

Inflammasome signaling in astrocytes modulates hippocampal plasticity! Exciting finding from @lukensjohnr.bsky.social lab! www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Excited to share our new work demonstrating a role for astrocytic inflammasome signaling in modulating hippocampal plasticity. @cp-immunity.bsky.social All credit to Kristine Zengeler, who was the brains🧠 and muscle💪 behind this project and is a wonderful collaborator. www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Type I interferon signaling in Nerve- and airway-associated interstitial macrophages mitigate SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. Congratulations on this cool story to @khannakm.bsky.social @payalyokota.bsky.social @yeungadventures.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Treatment of acute myeloid leukemia models by targeting a cell surface RNA-binding protein - @raflynn5.bsky.social go.nature.com/3YbT1In

Advancing #glycoRNA imaging with FRET-based detection and expanding the scope of their presentation to extracellular vesicles - interestingly high levels of sialoglycoRNAs on blood EVs can be predictive of having cancer @naturecomms.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share preprint (currently in revision) from the PhD dissertation of my former student @lauracanaday.bsky.social. Thanks to @andypedsid.bsky.social @hafeldman17.bsky.social and the rest of the team for their hard work. biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thrilled to share our @elife.bsky.social paper "Inflammasomes primarily restrict cytosolic Salmonella replication within human macrophages" by 1st author Dr. @marisaegan.bsky.social (@cambupenn.bsky.social alum, now faculty @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social)! elifesciences.org/articles/90107 🧵(1/n)

A nearly 9 year effort to design and implement new CLIP-based technologies to define multimeric protein assemblies on RNA. Enables ‘watching’ of RNP assemblies inside living cells Special congrats to Luca Ducoli, Brian Zarnegar, and Paul Khavari @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Whooo! Congrats @vijayrathinam.bsky.social

The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering is marking its 50th anniversary with a class of inductees featuring a significant UConn presence. 🏅 today.uconn.edu/2025/03/case...

Sharing my labs first pre-print ! We discovered a remarkable innate checkpoint in macrophages ! Congrats to tall the authors @umassmedicine.bsky.social @umasschan.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Extracellular vesicles transport gasdermin pores, amplifying inflammatory cell death #immunology

The loss of TBK1, or both TBK1 and the related kinase IKKε, results in uncontrolled cell death–driven inflammation. We show that TBK1/IKKε prevent premature cell death by limiting the activity of multiple death pathways in myeloid cells. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We are thrilled to share our new manuscript @science.org , in which we uncovers a critical role for macrophage peroxisomes in lung repair after viral infection. Could targeting peroxisomes be the key to mitigating long COVID?! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited to share the work of Jonathan Perr where he uncovered a surprisingly common feature of cell surfaces - the presentation and clustering of RNA binding proteins with #glycoRNA. Critically support by #NIH @cp-cell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Excited to share our latest preprint! We find that DCs undergo heterogeneous cell death- either pyroptosis or apoptosis upon bacterial blockade of host translation- to restrict Legionella infection. Congrats to my PhD student @vvazquez.bsky.social & co-authors! Check out his bluetorial 🧵 below! 👇

⛓️ Can pyroptosis spread like a chain reaction? 🕳️ A new paper shows that extracellular vesicles (EVs) from pyroptotic cells carry gasdermin pores, triggering bystander cell death! 🧵 1/4

A large dataset we hope is helpful for patients who may have CAPS, an #autoinflammatory condition associated with genetic variants in NLRP3. Lots of "variants of uncertain significance" now have a specific readout from our in vitro assay which can help with clinical diagnosis. rdcu.be/d9iRG

TGIF!!! Time to catch up on our latest Research Highlights ☕ 👉 "The bystander effect of pyroptosis" highlights a recent @cp-cell.bsky.social paper from @vijayrathinam.bsky.social 's lab - exciting story about the transplantation of gasdermin pores into neighbouring cells. 🔗 go.nature.com/3WOIz8I

Check out our recent Research Highlights!!! 👇 Very kind of @vijayrathinam.bsky.social et al. to discover something so cool I just had write my Highlight on it! Highlight linked below, here's the @cp-cell.bsky.social paper itself: www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...