🎉 Happy 5th Birthday to the MCID! 🎂 On 18 Jan 2026, the Center celebrated five years since its launch 🚀 To mark the milestone, we prepared a special anniversary edition of The SPREAD, reflecting on achievements and looking ahead to the future. Thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey!

Read this issue or previous issues on our webpage 👉 tinyurl.com/5n893pne #MCIDresearch #TheSPREAD #Anniversary @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social @labfaso.bsky.social @bereadycohort.bsky.social @ispm.unibe.ch @izb-unibern.bsky.social @medfacultyunibe.bsky.social @unibe.ch

With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268

🌟 Excited to welcome our new MCID PhD cohort! 🌟 Last week we met for coffee&cookies at MCID HQ as our incoming students kick off their PhD journey with us. They’ll join the newly funded projects that recently began, and we can’t wait to see the innovative work and impact they’ll bring.

Afterwards a panel discussion was moderated by Caroline Schlaufer featuring film director Christian Frei, biosafety expert Kathrin Summermatter & virologist @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social. The audience posed great questions on funding, biosafety & media polarisation.

On 11th Feb, the MCID, Swiss Biorisk Alliance & Institute of Infectious Disease hosted a full-house preview of Blame, the new documentary by Christian Frei. The film, centred on COVID-19, explores virology, public trust & political discourse. 👉 www.blame-documentary.com

⏰ Deadline Feb. 11 (11:59 PM MST)! Submit scholarship applications and/or short talk abstracts for Viral Pathogenesis & Immunity in Hannover, Germany. 🎥 Organizer Michaela Gack: youtu.be/DuwcwCJNv50 🔗 Apply: keysym.us/KSViral26 @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social #KSViral26 #Virology #ViralImmunity

Our panel (Theres Luethi, Alinna Zumbrunn, @philippmarkolin.bsky.social, Tobias Rohrbach) sparked great discussion on science communication in a polarised world. Expertly chaired by MCID’s Carmen @labfaso.bsky.social and @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social .

Great energy at the MCID Annual Event 2025 last Friday, despite the season’s first snowfall❄️, almost 100 participants joined us. We kicked off with keynotes on vector-borne disease surveillance and heard rapid-fire talks on respiratory viruses, TBE, AMR, and COVID-19–related research.

Congrats to MCID members Georgia Salanti and @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social who are named among this year’s Highly Cited Researchers! Their work ranks in the top 1% by citations, highlighting sustained excellence and wide-ranging impact. @ispm.unibe.ch @medfacultyunibe.bsky.social @unibe.ch

2️⃣ Naah, MHV plays stress granules like a pro: show up late, strip out the translation machinery, keep your RNA away, and let these 'empty shells' persist while you replicate freely. Moh covers a #preprint from @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social & team #preLight⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/highlights/s...

Stammt #Covid aus einem chinesischen Labor oder entstand das Coronavirus durch natürliche Übertragung vom Tier auf den Menschen? In den USA glauben zwei Drittel der Leute, dass Covid aus dem Labor kam. In Europa dürfte es ähnlich sein. Kein Wunder: Die Medien ... www.bazonline.ch/covid-warum-...

It has always only been a matter of time.... @mcid-unibe.bsky.social @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social @unibe.ch Mosquito-borne viruses surge in a warming Europe | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

🌙🔬 Our “RNA – Master of Versatility” booth at Nacht der Forschung 2025 was a hit! Big thanks to our Science Knights and amazing organizers. 💙🙌 Read more: nccr-rna-and-disease.ch/news/article... #ndfunibern @unibe.ch

✨ We are proud to have taken part again in the Nacht der Forschung @unibe.ch ✨ 🔬 Highlights included a focus on MCID-funded research, interactive pathogen posters as well as “make your own pathogen” & the legendary Splat the Bacteria 🦠💥 Great to be sparking curiosity & connecting with the public ❤️

Many thanks to our team of volunteers, the @bereadycohort.bsky.social, the Ethics and Policy team and our VR Pandemic Control Centre. Your contributions and hard work made it a really fun and worthwhile event! #ndfunibern

🔬✨ Join us this Saturday (September 6) | 16:00-23:00 at Nacht der Forschung 2025 at the University of Bern ✨ Come and check out our booth "RNA – Master of Versatility" 👩‍🔬 Meet our researchers & enjoy pipetted cocktails at the reproduzierBAR! www.nachtderforschung.unibe.ch #ndfunibern @unibe.ch

Preprint by the Thiel, Heller&Chao labs w/1st author Reto Lang "Stress granules formed during different RNA virus infections show remarkable plasticity &substantial virus-specific differences in their formation&composition" @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social buff.ly/vU7Tdg6 @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social

The MCID funded a study by the IKMB @unibe.ch to track how conspiracies start, spread & the role of the media to stop them. Journalists and Researchers discussed findings and raised new questions in a May workshop. Read the UniAktuell article here: bit.ly/3Hy7V6m #MCID #Research #Journalism

Happy August. Here is a little surprise for everybody: The english version of my book is finally available. You can get it on Amazon. You can also read and listen to it on my blog, where I will release the book as freely accessible serialized novel. 1/ www.protagonist-science.com/p/lab-leak-f...

Wir sind jetzt 1000 Haushalte gross!!

Great to see the new publication from the MCID's co-lead @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social is out. His team has been working for a number of years developing a live attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. They present the next steps demonstrating the efficacy, safety and stability of their candidate vaccine.

Leseempfehlung! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Great discussions in Prague at the 2nd #PanViPrep meeting. @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social shared updates on our MERS and seasonal CoVs research while I talked about EU compliance in ethics and animal welfare. We also found the Prague “Zytglögge”. What a great city!

@mcid-unibe.bsky.social and IVI welcomed the Swiss Klub für Wissenschaftsjournalismus. @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social kicked off with an intro to the MCID, followed by the @bereadycohort.bsky.social study, an IVI spotlight, and rounded off with a lively Q&A session. #ScienceJournalism @unibe.ch

After we heard @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social giving a spontaneous but great talk about novel technologies in virus research many of us had a fantastic poster session with stimulating discussions and a nice glass of wine. We even found a table soccer table to have our weekly training⚽

We have traveled with multiple trains🚆, two ferries🛳️, and a bus🚌 to the #ECV meeting in Cavtat Croatia🌞 We are looking forward to hear great science about our favorite viruses in one of the most beautiful places 🎯 @sarah-oc.bsky.social @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social @mcid-unibe.bsky.social

The question of the origin of #SARS-CoV-2 is a matter of significant scientific and public interest. Current publicly available data suggests a natural origin, while evidence supporting a lab origin remains scarce. Although no hypothesis has been definitively proven, the available data indicate...

Our latest research on #Coronavirus Nsp1 found its home (and a new name) at @cp-cellreports.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-reports... Thankful to the first (dream) team of my lab and funding for making this happen. @nccr-rna-disease.bsky.social @mcid-unibe.bsky.social @unibe.ch

Type I interferon autoantibody footprints reveal neutralizing mechanisms and allow inhibitory decoy design. New study from Kevin Groen, Benjamin Hale (@benhale.bsky.social) and colleagues @virology.uzh.ch: rupress.org/jem/article/... #Autoimmunity #Immunodeficiency #InfectiousDisease

www.dmz-news.eu/2025/03/16/e... Sehr treffende Zusammenfassung. Wer immer noch denkt, es ginge hier um einen unterhaltsamen „Virologen-Zoff“, hat einiges nicht mitgeschnitten. www.zeit.de/gesundheit/2... www.n-tv.de/mediathek/vi... www.youtube.com/watch?v=av2H... www.ullstein.de/werke/alles-...

„Gain of Function“ (GoF)-Forschung aktuell in aller Munde. Unser Vorstand und die „Kommission für sicherheitsrelevante Forschung in der Virologie“ haben hierzu eine Übersicht erstellt. g-f-v.org/wp-content/u...

Prof. Thomas Mettenleiter received the prestigious Loeffler-Frosch-Medaille from the Gesellschaft für Virologie. Kudos! (BS) www.fli.de/de/aktuelles...

A GSK spokesperson confirmed that David Wentworth, who served as director of the CDC's coronavirus & other respiratory viruses division, has been appointed to a snr role in its vaccines R&D unit. His appointment was finalized in late 2024, before President Trump signaled impending federal job cuts.

At Kursaal Bern on #Dreikoenigstag Showcasing how #Philanthropy supports research and innovation @unibern.bsky.social Multidisciplinary Center for Infectious Diseases and @BEreadycohort (Stiftung Vinetum) Wyss Center for Research on Nature Diabetes Center Bern (Willy Michel)

@angierasmussen.bsky.social presented data at the Awaji CoV meeting performing further analysis of the environmental metagenomic sequence data from the huanan seafood market taken in January 2020. 1/n www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Die Deadline zu unserer Jahrestagung 2025 naht: bis 01.12.24 ist es noch möglich, ein Abstract einzureichen. virology-meeting.de/registration...

One of the recent works that we have published this year 🧪 @profvolkerthiel.bsky.social