Really excited to be able to share our latest preprint, describing how during its evolution in cattle, H5N1 has got better at using a type of alternative receptor that's abundant in cows, but not found in humans and birds. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Are you excited by virology? Would you like to do a PhD? Three fantastic opportunities are available to do joint PhDs between @cvrinfo.bsky.social and @pirbrightinst.bsky.social Details in the thread below - please share! Deadline 8th May 2026, fully funded for UK Home students (1/4)

Do you like microscopy? Do you think viruses are cool? Do you want to advance our understanding of one of the world's most important pathogens? Come and do your PhD with myself and the fantastic @peacockflu.bsky.social, at @pirbrightinst.bsky.social and @cvrinfo.bsky.social 🤓🦠🐓

5 more dairy cows tested positive for #H5N1 #birdflu antibodies on the Dutch farm where a previous cow tested positive. No surprise that if 1 was positive, others would be too. This dairy farm is the first outside the US to report H5N1 transmission. www-melkvee-nl.translate.goog/artikel/1450...

🚨New Pre-Print🚨 Although H3N2 subclade K has multiple mutations in HA, neutralisation assays with pre-epidemic human sera show only moderate antigenic drift, and vaccines used in the 2024/2025 flu season induced cross-neutralising immunity www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

First evidence in Europe of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 infection in a dairy cow. Antibodies against H5N1 detected in a cow with mastitis and respiratory signs on a Dutch dairy farm at the end of December. A cat on that farm had died from H5N1. www.tweedekamer.nl/downloads/do...

Interested in high containment work on viruses? We have an opening at the Pirbright Institute, working on high consequence viruses of livestock and humans in the core CL3 team. isw.changeworknow.co.uk/pirbright/vm...

Really excited our paper about how H5N1 rapidly adapted to cattle (and how these adaptations also increased its ability to infect cells from the human respiratory tract) is now published! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We find that subclade K viruses are antigenically advanced; however, this year's flu vaccine surprisingly elicited antibodies in many individuals that efficiently recognized these viruses. The implications are clear: go get this year’s vaccine if you haven’t already! www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

#H5N1 : An infected herd was recently detected in Wisconsin, and genome sequencing indicates that this is yet another spillover event, making it the fourth detected one. How do these spillovers happen and why are they restricted, so far, to the US? www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-...

If you'd like to celebrate the biology of viruses - or the fight against viral diseases - this winter, try out our free and updated #VirusSnowflake designs. Please share, and if you have any photos of Virus Snowflakes in your area it would be lovely to see them! cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl...

Finished a virology PhD or finishing soon? Check out this job - www.healthjobsuk.com/job/UK/Londo...

Our lab's paper describing the North American H5N1 epizootic is out now in Nature! So thrilled to have this out, and congratulations to @lambod50.bsky.social for all the fantastic work on this: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I want to spell this out in case the implications aren't clear: This means all public tools/webapps of GISAID data (all the ones you've been used to seeing thru the pandemic, as far as we can tell) are prohibited. The file allowed this. Cut that - cut off all tools the public & others were using.

🚨 NEW: The majority holder of the world's genetic sequence data is a bad actor who can cut off access to critics and competing services. We've tolerated this for years, and now it threatens the pandemic treaty. Time for WHO to step in. With @ctrlalttim.com: www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/to-f...

If you are looking for a PhD in the UK, please check out the LIDo program - www.lido-dtp.ac.uk/apply. If you are interested in viruses and making genetically edited salmon, please look up my icase project. International students are welcome to apply! Please reach out if you have questions.

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...

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN Influenza Update 2025 University of Warwick, 15th - 16th December warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/... Registration from £50 - £120 DEADLINE: 7th November We hope you can join us there!

After years in the making, Joe McKellar @viroscope.bsky.social’s final PhD paper is finally out today in PNAS! 🎉 🎉🎉 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

And the sister paper from collaborator and good friend Katie Doores ... A deeper dive into how some of these broadly neutralising #sarbecovirus #coronavirus #sars2 #covid antibodies actually work www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our first post on here and it's a doozy 😍🤩. Our epic piece on #sarbecovirus host range. #virology #sars2 #covid #vaccines. Enjoy and please repost. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Really excited to have been a small part of this work investigating sarbecovirus host range, receptor usage and antigenicity! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.673949v1

In new study led by @ckikawa.bsky.social, we provide near real-time data on human neutralizing antibody landscape to influenza by measuring ~26,000 titers to >100 recent viral strains Data can inform vaccine selection & evolutionary/epidemiological modeling www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New preprint! If some merbecoviruses use DPP4 and others use ACE2, what do those hedgehog merbecoviruses use?! As it turns out, neither! In our latest study, we uncover the "missing" receptor for the MERS-related viruses in hedgehogs. [These findings were first shared at ASV this year] (1/6)

The cow udder may be a mixing vessel where different strains of influenza can recombine--"underscoring its potential role in generating novel influenza viruses with pandemic risk." [Preprint] www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Finally!

Really excited to have been a part of this study, lead by @willharv.bsky.social on how reassortment of H5N1 in birds has lead to a 'specialist' genotype that thrives in seabirds and drives summer/spring (rather than winter) waves of poultry outbreaks www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Come work with us👇

Very pleased to have our new work out where we perform a structure/function study on the bornavirus polymerase complex with fantastic coauthors. Have a read www.nature.com/articles/s41... @warwicklifesci.bsky.social @loiccarrique.bsky.social @franziskaguenl.bsky.social

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨 Here we show that stabilized influenza hemagglutinin HPAI H5 immunogens improve the quality of elicited antibody responses. Thank you to @open_phil for funding this work! bit.ly/4lgr0rM

Exciting new work from my @ciddpsu.bsky.social colleagues showing that pandemic H1N1 immunity reduces susceptibility to H5N1 infection and disease in ferrets.

🦇 NEW RESEARCH: Our 3-year study of Australian flying foxes identified six co-circulating coronaviruses, with highest rates of infection and co-infection in young bats, and evidence of circulating recombinants 🧪🌏 🧵 Available open access in @natcomms.nature.com 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very happy that our paper on the receptor binding properties of contemporary H3N2 viruses is now published @CellReports # glycotime www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is quite late but our lab has a preprint out about a SARS-CoV-2 situation we had in mink in Lithuania back in 2021. It's a doozy with re-emergence of extinct lineages, a country-wide test of all mink farms in Lithuania & some interesting dynamics in mink. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/5🧵

A hybrid coronavirus, formed of cat and dog coronaviruses, caused a severe outbreak of disease among cats in Cyprus, researchers found. Their work, in Nature, showed how this new virus was able to cause widespread cases of Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) among the island’s cats.

I am paw-sitively thrilled to say that out latest work is out in Nature today! #Virology #Genomics #Coronavirus #AnimalHealth #InfectiousDisease #Sequencing #FIP #FCoV23 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our paper describing how in-host evolution of a recently emerged, highly pathogenic coronavirus modulates entry into cells, membrane fusion and likely pathogenicity has now been published in its peer-reviewed form! Led by Ale Tortorici! @hhmi.org www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New job offer in the team! If you're an experienced virologist (with a PhD), join us to work on Horizon Europe-funded APPEAL project in the vibrant city of Montpellier, South of France! euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/359640

Rare postdoc opportunity to study the emergence and evolution of pandemic viruses in the lab of Dr. Martha Nelson in the Division of Intramural Research (DIR) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). www.training.nih.gov/jobs/pdf-cb-...

Our new paper on SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site is now out at JVI. Study examines disruption (rather than deletion) of the FCS & maintains the longer S1/S2 loop found in #SARS2. FCS disruption attenuates pathogenesis, but not required (but helps) transmission. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Excited to present the first review from my lab! Which mutations allow H5 influenza to jump into humans or other mammals? How close is H5 to a pandemic? This review has the answers and explains the molecular mechanism behind the mutations. Led by @fcapelastegui.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1099/jgv....

SAVE THE DATE! The 2025 Influenza Update Meeting will be held ‪@uni-of-warwick.bsky.social on the 15th and 16th December - ‪@nicolerobb.bsky.social‬ is leading the organisation for this year's event. We hope you'll join us there - please repost! www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

🚨🔎 Out now in PLOS Pathogens ! 🔎🚨 This project has taken us @cvrinfo.bsky.social @uofgmvls.bsky.social on a wild and wonderful journey. I am excited to share our story of how influenza A viruses (IAVs) exploit cell death to facilitate its covert spread. N/1 journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

JOB: Our Viral Gene Expression research group is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join a project examining virus-host interactions between arboviruses and their mosquito vector. Full details and to apply ➡️ www.pirbright.ac.uk/careers-and-...

If you don't pasteurise it, how long can H5N1 influenza viruses stay infectious for in milk? We had a look at this in a new preprint with ‪@cvrinfo.bsky.social‬, @roslininstitute.bsky.social‬, ‪@pirbrightinst.bsky.social‬ & the APHA (1/N) www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our study screening the majority of all published Merbecovirus RBD’s for cell entry phenotypes is now published in Nature Communications! (1/5) shorturl.at/gYz4E

A long thread about mpox and the context specific nature of outbreaks prompted by the large outbreak of MPXV Clade IIb happening at the moment in Sierra Leone:

Great opportunity to work on influenza virus-host factor interactions in a brand new lab at Imperial (led by a friend and collaborator, Carol Sheppard) www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

Absolutely thrilled to announce the launch of ARTIC2 - a £5.5M 5 year project funded by @wellcometrust.bsky.social to build on the ARTIC approach of low-cost, globally accessible genome sequencing for surveillance of outbreaks, epidemics and endemic diseases: www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/am...

A new review on H5 'bird flu' is just out in @natrevmicro.nature.com: "Evolution, spread & impact of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza A viruses" by Beatriz Bellido-Martin, Willemijn Rijnink, Matteo Iervolino, Thijs Kuiken, Mathilde Richard & Ron Fouchier, from @erasmusmc.bsky.social. A 🧵 (1/9)