Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David Tscharke @dctscharke.bsky.social · Jun 22

Canberra too!

Reposted by David Tscharke

Brian Ferguson @viropractor.bsky.social · May 31

Good fun to contribute to this super paper from Yorgo Modis' lab where we looked at the impact of disease-associated MDA5 mutations on its structure, biochemistry and antiviral functions #immunosky www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Molecular basis of autoimmune disease protection by MDA5 variants

Loss-of-function MDA5 variants increase the risk of chronic inflammation but protect against autoimmune disease. Singh et al. show that autoimmune-protective variants impair MDA5 signaling via differe...

www.cell.com

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David Tscharke @dctscharke.bsky.social · May 12

Great people doing outstanding science!

Nicole La Gruta @niclag.bsky.social · May 12

We're looking for an experienced lab manager to join our wonderful team investigating fundamental T cell biology 🤓
careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...

Job Search

careers.pageuppeople.com

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David Tscharke @dctscharke.bsky.social · May 2

A great story showcasing the brilliant Yi Ning Fu, who I had the privilege of supervising last year as a student with the equally fantastic @agrowlipowli.bsky.social. It's a huge pleasure scienceing with them.

Science & Medicine at ANU @scienceanu.bsky.social · May 2

“Tasmanian devils are the world's largest remaining marsupial carnivore and have a very important ecological niche,” says Yi Ning (Sabrina) Fu, @jcsmr.bsky.social. “And they are cute and adorable—we need to save them.”

That's where cutting-edge virology comes in. science.anu.edu.au/news-events/...

Cool science to save cute devils: Honours student targets contagious cancer

Scientists from all over the world have been racing to understand the fundamentals of Devil Facial Tumour Disease and find a way to stop it. One of them is Yi Ning (Sabrina) Fu, a recent Honours gradu...

science.anu.edu.au

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Science & Medicine at ANU @scienceanu.bsky.social · May 2

“Tasmanian devils are the world's largest remaining marsupial carnivore and have a very important ecological niche,” says Yi Ning (Sabrina) Fu, @jcsmr.bsky.social. “And they are cute and adorable—we need to save them.”

That's where cutting-edge virology comes in. science.anu.edu.au/news-events/...

Cool science to save cute devils: Honours student targets contagious cancer

Scientists from all over the world have been racing to understand the fundamentals of Devil Facial Tumour Disease and find a way to stop it. One of them is Yi Ning (Sabrina) Fu, a recent Honours gradu...

science.anu.edu.au

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Hensley Lab @scottehensley.bsky.social · Apr 16

After 8 months of peer review, our manuscript was published today @nature.com showing that bovine H5N1 viruses bind poorly to human-type sialic acid receptors. We now know that the virus is only 1 HA substitution away from efficiently binding human receptors.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bovine H5N1 binds poorly to human-type sialic acid receptors - Nature

Nature - Bovine H5N1 binds poorly to human-type sialic acid receptors

www.nature.com

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc(hon) @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social · Apr 5

My first post on BlueSky, I could not access the same handle as my X (someone hacked into that one):

So it's @peterhotez for X and @peterhotezmdphd for BlueSky

I'm a pediatric-vaccine scientist based in Houston TX at our Texas Medical Center

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · Apr 2

The vaccine against Shingles helps protect against dementia, results of a natural experiment, adding to prior evidence
"implications are profound"
New @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com/articles/s41...

A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia - Nature

Using a natural experiment that avoids common bias concerns, this study finds that the live-attenuated shingles vaccine reduced the probability of a new dementia diagnosis within a follow-up period of...

nature.com

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David Tscharke @dctscharke.bsky.social · Mar 29

Happy to be added

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · Mar 15

Huh. Well this is neat- endogenous antigen presentation on MHC II is a feature of mRNA vaccines.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Endogenous antigen processing promotes mRNA vaccine CD4+ T cell responses

Lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-encapsulated nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines elicit robust CD4+ T cell responses, which are essential for antiviral immunity. While peptides presented to CD4+ T cells via ma...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by David Tscharke

marque lawyers @marquelawyers.com.au · Mar 12

Doesn’t matter what The Age says; the fact is it’s taken money to publish hate speech

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Eddie Holmes @eddieholmes.bsky.social · Mar 11

Big news

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · Mar 11

🎉 bioRxiv & medRxiv are now managed by openRxiv, a new independent nonprofit. This transition allows for more flexibility and innovation. Our mission remains being a free service to authors ensuring rapid sharing of scientific information before peer review.
ℹ️ openrxiv.org/introducing-...

Introducing openRxiv: a new independent home for preprint sharing in the life sciences - openRxiv

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of openRxiv as an independent nonprofit to oversee bioRxiv and medRxiv, the world’s leading preprint servers for life and health sciences. openRxiv ensures that r...

openrxiv.org

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Hilda Bastian @hildabast.bsky.social · Feb 14

Hate that it has come to this, but it's time to consider PubMed vulnerable to enshittification. My latest post @plos.org discusses the lines we need to fight to hold – and alternatives we can rely on internationally:

absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2025/02/14/w...

#medlibs

What if We Can't Rely on PubMed? - Absolutely Maybe

PubMed is incredibly reliable. And a lot depends on it. It’s an ecosystem built around MEDLINE, the steady feed of new publications…

absolutelymaybe.plos.org

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Marion Koopmans @marionkoopmans.bsky.social · Feb 11

the evolution of mpox Clade Ib in DRC. Great collaborative study with support from @EDCTP3 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Epidemiological and genomic evolution of the ongoing outbreak of clade Ib mpox virus in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Nature Medicine - Genomic and epidemiologic data suggest that the rapid spread of MPox Clade I in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has happened mostly through sexual contact within densely...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · Feb 9

Here’s a reason why the incoming NIH Director, health economist Jay Bhattacharya, should know cutting indirect costs at NIH is self-defeating and stupid.

Every $1 invested in NIH returns $2.5.

So $4B “savings” is actually $10B we lost.

Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · Feb 8

“A sane government would never do this.” — the former dean of Harvard Medical School

Universities are reeling. Elon Musk’s allies are celebrating.

Looking at the major cut to federal research funding — which many scientists predict will be devastating

With @lenasun.bsky.social and Carolyn Johnson

NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately

The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Christiana Fogg @cnfogg.bsky.social · Feb 7

Timely study by Katherine Kedzierska and Jamie Rossjohn and colleagues defining key structural features of #Tcell binding to circulating #influenza strains from 1918 to ~present #ImmunoSky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Molecular determinants of cross-strain influenza A virus recognition by αβ T cell receptors

TCR-peptide-HLA ternary structures define molecular mechanisms of TCR cross-reactivity toward natural influenza variants.

www.science.org

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Marion Koopmans @marionkoopmans.bsky.social · Feb 5

A call for editors of biomedical journals to resist the banning of terms for political reasons www.cmi-comms.com/article/S295...

From medical editors: A call to the global infectious diseases and clinical microbiology community

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.Robert F. Kennedy, Senior

www.cmi-comms.com

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · Feb 2

Elon doesn't give a shit about bioweapons research and would probably fund it if it were advantageous to him.

The US doesn't do or fund any bioweapons research. Elon is lying that they do because he wants the tax dollars to subsidize him instead of the legitimate public health research we paid for.

Gigi Gronvall @ggronvall.bsky.social · Feb 2

The US does not have an offensive bioweapons program. Gain of function research did not lead to SARS-CoV-2. The scientific evidence points to a NATURAL zoonosis, ie a jump from infected animals to people. If there is evidence to the contrary it has not been presented.

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Eddie Holmes @eddieholmes.bsky.social · Feb 3

Intelligence community report, June 2023:

“… no indication that the WIV’s pre-pandemic research holdings included SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor…”

Facts matter.

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · Feb 2

@charlesgaba.com is a hero and downloaded CDC’s entire website. A small group of us has come together to preserve this critical resource and make it accessible to the scientific community.

More to come. These data are public and they are ours. Deletion disobedience is one way to fight back.

Charles Ghoul-ba ✡️ @charlesgaba.com · Feb 2

📣 UPDATE: OK, still working with some others to figure out the best way to present it all, but in the meantime here's the first batch of links to the most-recent archived versions of every page at the CDC prior to the Trump/Musk Purge:

acasignups.net/25/02/02/whi...

In which I provide links to archived versions of every CDC.gov page available pre-purge (Part 1 of 15)

As horrific as it is that the Trump/Musk Administration is purging data from federal websites, it's good to know that the Internet Archive has been archiving much of it. However, in addition to the Ar...

acasignups.net

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Charles Ghoul-ba ✡️ @charlesgaba.com · Feb 2

📣 UPDATE: OK, still working with some others to figure out the best way to present it all, but in the meantime here's the first batch of links to the most-recent archived versions of every page at the CDC prior to the Trump/Musk Purge:

acasignups.net/25/02/02/whi...

In which I provide links to archived versions of every CDC.gov page available pre-purge (Part 1 of 15)

As horrific as it is that the Trump/Musk Administration is purging data from federal websites, it's good to know that the Internet Archive has been archiving much of it. However, in addition to the Ar...

acasignups.net

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Ian M. Mackay, PhD (he/him) 🦠🤧🧬📑🦟🧀 @mackayim.bsky.social · Jan 14

Is 2024 Australia's worst year yet for violence against women?
-it's not "an epidemic". It's ENDEMIC to Australia, and that's the problem. Stop making this seem like a surprise.
Every.
Single.
Time.
The surprise is the lack of political anger at it. From anywhere.
www.sbs.com.au/news/article...

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · Dec 27

The #H5N1 #birdflu virus from a severe case in Louisiana shows it was developing mutations that could help it attach to cells in human respiratory tracts, including a mutation seen in a recent severe case in British Columbia, Canada, the #CDC reported today. www.statnews.com/2024/12/26/c...

CDC says H5N1 bird flu sample shows mutations that may help the virus bind to cells in the upper airways of people

The CDC said Thursday that the mutations, detected in a sample taken from a Louisiana patient, may help bind the virus to the upper airways in people.

www.statnews.com

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Reposted by David Tscharke

Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · Dec 20

There's a really interesting new paper out in Science for people who care about immunity to flu (which should be everyone because flu is a VERY big problem):
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Here's my thread explaining this work🧵

Coupling antigens from multiple subtypes of influenza can broaden antibody and T cell responses

The seasonal influenza vaccine contains strains of viruses from distinct subtypes that are grown independently and then combined. However, most individuals exhibit a more robust response to one of the...

www.science.org

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Reposted by David Tscharke

IMAGE Lab @labphan.bsky.social · Dec 12

Excited to offer 2 fully funded PhD projects with Peter Croucher @garvaninstitute.bsky.social using intravital microscopy to track osteoclast/osteomorphs dynamics using novel mitochondrial reporters. Domestic & int'l students from diverse bkg welcome! Please share!

www.unsw.edu.au/research/hdr...

Tracking the origin and fate of osteomorphs

www.unsw.edu.au

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