Interesting stuff on the most common #virus of #Drosophila! academic.oup.com/ve/advance-a...

A new genetic study in Science overturns the myth of the “London Underground Mosquito,” revealing that this common urban insect originated not below the cities of modern Europe, but in ancient Mediterranean civilizations more than a thousand years ago. https://scim.ag/43xWovB

Awesome opportunity.

Maybe this shouldn't be surprising to me but it is, and really really cool.

Despite all the shit going on, we have to celebrate our victories. New publication with @entomososwin.bsky.social and @vectorimmunity.bsky.social showing that hemocytes play a central role in disseminating flaviviruses to secondary tissues potentially functioning as a Trojan Horse(TBD) rdcu.be/euj4g

“It makes a really powerful statement that the professors themselves are stakeholders and that it’s just not the institutions alone...It’s a way of saying, ‘Well, if you’re slow to the battlefield, we’re going to get there first.’” www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Horribly shortsighted and stupid. Driving with your eyes shut is unsafe, not keeping them open to detect and respond to the hazards ahead. I can't scream BS loud enough.

🛡️ How to stay safe: ✔️ Vaccinate ✔️ Wear protective clothing ✔️ Check for ticks after hikes ✔️ Skip raw dairy Adventure smart — not sorry. Full info & maps: bit.ly/42p8XJT #TickSeason #TBE #EuropeOutdoors #HealthTips #Camping #Trekking #Outdoors #IDsky #EpiSky

Less than two weeks remaining to apply to our #PhDposition. Applications need to be submitted through the application portal, follow the link below. Any questions about the application etc, feel free to reach out!

"The overlapping global distribution of dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever" now out with the WHO GAI team doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Happy to share our work exploring the genetic basis of dengue susceptibility in Aedes aegypti and revealing the antiviral role of a cytochrome P450. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... It had been a long and wild ride that started back when I was a postdoc within @lambrechtslab.bsky.social ! A thread ⬇️

My Du? Huskered.

Pretty rough week, not gonna lie. Here's the final published version of our study on SARS-CoV-2 in the Denver Zoo. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Hey ASV members (or new potential members!), don't forget to renew your membership and register for ASV 2025! Current members receive a discount on registration rates! Please log into your membership account at members.asv.org to renew. Contact [email protected] if you need help/have questions.

Last week we attended the WCMVCA and WMVCA joint meetings in Jackson, WY. We tested our vector knowledge at a game of trivia, talked mosquitoes & ticks, and enjoyed seeing our colleagues and peers! 🦟Thanks to all who organized, looking forward to next year! #mosquitoes #publichealth

One positive thing that happend this otherwise challenging week is that this paper is FINALLY out. Why are Culex tarsalis so good at spreading West Nile virus? We learned a lot by doing this study. A testament to the tenacity and creativity of Dr. Emily Fitzmeyer. journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Much needed, solid, objective, well done work to realistically assess possible mosquito vectors of the emergent Oropouche virus.

Whenever I tell people that I am a prof, I typically get asked "what classes do you teach?" Teaching is important but I spend most of my time running an NIH-funded lab. I wish more people appreciated that research is an economic driver for the state. MN receives $957,099,187 in NIH funding

Tusen takk til Prof. Anders Goksøy for alt dette. Det er mange store vitenskapsmenn i Norge 🇳🇴 👇

Looking forward to reading this one in detail.

This is 100% awesome.

Vikings

Resharing a few days late, but whatever. My spirit could be in that balloon.

A call for action from colleagues in Valencia, Spain on the risk of vector borne disease outbreaks related to severe weather events. They propose to Integrate climate and environmental health data into public health planning to predict potential risks pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39717076/

Adding that I have been following this team since 1973.

Seasons ended with a #Vikings playoff loss (!=Super Bowl, *=conf championship) 1968 1969 ! 1970 1971 1973 ! 1974 ! 1975 1976 ! 1977 * 1978 1980 1982 1987 * 1988 1989 1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998 * 1999 2000 * 2004 2008 2009 * 2012 2015 2017 * 2019 2022 But this is definitely our year. #Skol

On bats and viruses www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-... Nice loingread on research trying to understand what drives spillovers

The deadline for undergraduates to apply for this paid international research experience is January 2nd. Please help spread the word. See 🧵 for details or contact me. 🧪🐝

Just this for you all today.

Are you an early-career researcher looking for a forever home? I found that the perfect home may be in an unexpected department. That perfect home allows you to thrive in ways you never anticipated. In the best possible outcome, the benefits go both ways. I reflected on my path recently for JVI:

Plus my brother works at UI!!

Amazing!

people who don't believe in biblical prophecy and aren't old enough to understand that both Minnesota and Detroit being 12-2 is some flapping wings of apocalypse business smdh

The ICTV are just imposing a hard structure which is not what we see in nature. The rules are insane. For example, you are not allowed to italicise Latin animal/plant species names embedded within virus species names. But a lot of journals rightly object. It’s an utter shambles at the moment.

wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/... Evidence of Influenza A(H5N1) Spillover Infections in Horses, Mongolia

Another study makes the Covid lab leak theory appear implausible. The Wuhan Institute analyzed the genomes of 56 types of coronaviruses recovered from all of the bats they collected 2004-2021. All of the viruses are very different from SARS-CoV-2. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Structural infection biology postdoc opportunity in a neighbour lab in my department!

Limited impact of the siRNA pathway on transposable element expression in Aedes aegypti https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.26.625377v1

I spoke to @mscribe.bsky.social @theguardian.com about the H5N1 case in BC. More and more human cases are occurring, along with mutations that indicate further human adaptation. We need to treat these cases like a warning, because that is what they are. www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...

Algiers Point LA, yesterday.

Couldn’t find a virology starter pack so here’s one to get the ball rolling. Repost/reply if you are a virologist so I can find and add you to the list! go.bsky.app/SinqoJU

A weekend-worthy preprint! This was a pretty fun study about a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak among animals at the Denver Zoo. *Probably* the last of our SARS papers? Who knows. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Here's a recent-ish paper from the group looking at WNV and SLEV coinfection in a variety of different systems. This has been in progress for a long time. journals.asm.org/doi/full/10....

Consoling myself by eating foods that are bad for me. Today fried stuff. God it's delicious. Maybe one more day and then I'll just have to get on with the regular.

Go Matt!! This is really important work and I'm so happy that it's being done.

Powassan virus is highly (weirdly so) phenotypically variable. Here's a paper from Bekah McMinn's Ph.D. work where she explored the ability of several low passage strains to infect ticks. The work was complex and time consuming. Very proud of and happy for her. www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/16...

Plus you get to experience the pain of the Minnesota Vikings!

Wow. Crappy grant scores just never get old.