Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dr Danika Hill

Joanna Groom @groomlab.bsky.social · 28d

Thrilled to have our latest research @wehi-research.bsky.social published in @natimmunol.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This work was an outstanding partnership between talented PhD student Len Dalit (now postdoc, no 🦋) and bioinformatician @chinweetan.bsky.social

Thread below...

Divergent cytokine and transcriptional signatures control functional T follicular helper cell heterogeneity - Nature Immunology

Dalit, Tan and colleagues provide a multiomic profile of T follicular helper (TFH) cells responses to diverse pathogens, revealing a blueprint for transcriptional flexibility and new tools to interrog...

www.nature.com

3 16 37

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Jul 28

It is such fantastic work Lauren! Congrats.

1 1

Reposted by Dr Danika Hill

Cyril Seillet, PhD @seilletlab.bsky.social · Jun 2

🎓 PhD positions available @MonashUni
Join our lab to explore how neurons and immune cells shape gut immunity!
🧬 Single-cell RNAseq
🔬 3D imaging
🧠 Neuro-immune interactions
👥 Great mentoring & collaborations

Apply now 👉 tinyurl.com/Seilletlab

Understanding the neuroimmune regulation of innate immunity | Supervisor Connect

tinyurl.com

10 8

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

Congrats @linterman.bsky.social @smguillaume.bsky.social and team for this nice study about B cells fighting on the front lines (the 🫁)

Michelle Linterman @linterman.bsky.social · Apr 3

Great to have our paper out in @pnas.org showing that lung B cells in ectopic germinal centers undergo affinity maturation.

@smguillaume.bsky.social @wsfoster.bsky.social @sanmarti92.bsky.social @emae-watson.bsky.social Silvia Innocentin, Grant Kennedy & Alice Denton. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Lung B cells in ectopic germinal centers undergo affinity maturation | PNAS

The lungs are constantly exposed to the external environment and a myriad of antigenic challenges within the air. Chronic exposure to allergens and...

doi.org

1 7

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

It seems these sugar-specific B cells don’t follow some of the “rules” for selection, which could in theory mean differences for tolerance checkpoints too!

Many anti-sugar Abs are unmutated IgM’s, including those that recognise host-glycans. So this may be a restricted phenomenon.

1 1

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

That’s an interesting question, particularly as the Strep A glycan has also been implicated as an autoantibody involved in rheumatic fever.

Right now, it’s still unclear.

1 2

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

Congrats to first authors @hollyfryer.bsky.social and Cathy Pitt, and all my co-authors many of whom provided the amazing clinical samples that powered this research.

@joshosowicki.bsky.social @njmoreland.bsky.social @melanieneeland.bsky.social (and many more not on 🦋)

1 5

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

These findings reveal how age and infection history can influence the quality, quantity, and isotype use of sugar-specific B cells. This work has important implications for the design and schedule of glycan-containing vaccines.

1 1 3

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

We conclude that mucosal pathogen encounters elicit glycan
responses that class-switch, evolve and diversify through the GC.

📖🥊 take that textbook!

1 1

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

We found that Strep A infection induced sugar B cells to enter the Germinal centre where they became highly mutated.

How were they doing this? By comparing to protein responses (SpyCEP) we found that sugar B cells had a molecular signature consistent with receiving reduced T cell help.

1 1

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

By studying human blood, spleen and tonsils, including samples from a Strep A human challenge model, we show that sugar B cell responses shift from IgM
towards IgG and IgA memory with age and antigen exposure.

1

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

We asked - is this dogma correct when sugar-specific B cells could engulf whole bacteria? (that contain proteins for T cells to recognise).

We focussed on Strep A, where the sugar (GAC) is a leading glycoconjugate vaccine candidate.

Image: Natalia Korotkova

1

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

As T cells can’t “see” sugar molecules via their T cell receptor, text books say that antibodies to sugars occur without T cell help. T cell help is critical for germinal centres (GC), the structure in which the antibody sequence on B cells gets mutated with the aim of increasing binding strength.

1

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Apr 4

New preprint alert 🚨

My team and I are pleased to share our most recent story about how bacterial pathogen (Streptococcus pyogenes, Strep A) exposure induces antibody responses against glycan and protein antigens.

For paper: SSRN ssrn.com/abstract=519...
biorxiv : doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

2 11 32

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Mar 7

I’m so excited to be a chief investigator for this $10M Wellcome Trust grant, and for all the important things we’re going to learn about immunity against Strep A with researchers spanning three continents.

Josh Osowicki @joshosowicki.bsky.social · Mar 6

A terrific postscript!

Exciting @wellcometrust.bsky.social funded #StrepA work, with Ed Clarke, Hannah Frost, @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social, @njmoreland.bsky.social, @thushan-desilva.bsky.social, Penda Johm, Ya Jankey-Jagne, @drmichaelmarks.bsky.social, David Khoury, Andrew Steer.

1 11

Reposted by Dr Danika Hill

Joanna Groom @groomlab.bsky.social · Jan 15

Kicking off the new year searching for a postdoc to join our team @wehi-research.bsky.social
Apply now and spread the word

Research Officer

Job Title Research Officer Job Description An excellent opportunity is available for a Research Officer to join the Groom Laboratory in the Immunology Division at Australia’s pre-eminent biomedical re...

wehi.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com

13 9

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Jan 8

I would love to see this 📖 one day!

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Jan 7

Really important #ImmunoSky findings from @jenjuno.viralvaxlab.com and co-authors about the pitfalls of using activation markers to detect antigen-specific T cells.

Good news is they’ve found a marker combination that gets rid of bystander activated cells! Check out the preprint and 🧵 below 👀

Jennifer Juno @jenjuno.viralvaxlab.com · Dec 20

As a first #ImmunoSky post, I’m excited to share our latest pre-print, by the fantastic Mitchell Zheng!

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

Our group is interested in virus-specific CD4 T cells, which means we often use in vitro stimulations (like the AIM assay) to find our cells of interest. 🧵 1/9

www.biorxiv.org

1 1 16

Reposted by Dr Danika Hill

Jennifer Juno @jenjuno.viralvaxlab.com · Dec 20

8/9 In short, we suggest in vitro stimulation activates ag-specific T cells, which secrete cytokines and activate Treg and Th17/22 cells. Without careful phenotyping, all of these cells can get picked up as AIM+, accounting for the Th17-like memory cells found in many virus-specific AIM datasets.

1 2 8

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Jan 6

My n=1 experiment confirms that this scientifically tested recipe makes a delicious Cacio e Pepe, and the pre-print is surprisingly thorough!

Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Jan 4

1/n Some time ago my colleague, excellent cook, and friend Ivan told me: "Cacio e pepe is the recipe that I screw up more often. Let's make a project studying systematically the physics of that sauce".

Prepare to get cheesy, I'm glad to share the Cacio e paper preprint:

arxiv.org/abs/2501.00536

1 10

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Dec 19

This is phenomenal!! What a creative bunch!

1

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Dec 9

I’m loving these! Keep them coming!

1 1

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Dec 4

Thanks Tri!

Reposted by Dr Danika Hill

Nikki Moreland @njmoreland.bsky.social · Dec 4

Finally jumping into 🦋 - and what better way to do than highlighting this super thread. Wonderful to have been involved in this study with our Strep A friends across the Tasman

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Dec 3

🎉 I'm a #newPI , and I'm so excited to share our new paper out in Nature Comms today! 🧵
rdcu.be/d2gBV
Quick intro for the new followers:
I'm from Monash Uni in Melbourne, and we study T and B cell responses to viruses, bacteria & parasites with the goal of improving vaccines. #ImmunoSky #MicroSky

1 3 9

Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social · Dec 4

@rhcmcg.bsky.social my fantastic co-author Reuben McGregor from University of Auckland is on 🦋 too!

1