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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

Jonathan Dushoff @jdushoff.bsky.social · 11d

The fact that the 6 L (leucine) codons come together to form an L should be interpreted as a sign that this is a good way to visualize the aa table. 🙂

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

Jonathan Dushoff @jdushoff.bsky.social · 11d

Working with @rowandurrant.bsky.social on ways to visualize the amino-acid table and better understand viral evolution.

We started with a two-by scheme for nucleotides (small square), where bond partners are horizontally adjacent and transition-connected nts are vertically adjacent.

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A blackboard with a drawing in several colors of chalk showing 16 squares, some subdivided, with one-letter abbreviations for amino acids and other annotations. Above is a small white square divided in four, showing ATCG (clockwise from upper left). More description provided in the thread.

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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · Sep 5

Sequence data from the new Ebola outbreak in DRC suggests it is indeed a new spillover.

And just incredible to see the virus sequenced and the data publicly shared less than 24 hours after confirmation of the outbreak.
#IDsky 🧪

virological.org/t/the-16th-e...

The 16th Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Bulape Health Zone, Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A new spillover event from an unknown reservoir host

Background The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently facing concurrent outbreaks including mpox, cholera and malaria (1-4). The Ministry of Public Health, DRC has declared the 16th Ebola...

virological.org

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.bsky.social · Sep 1

Six deaths from rabies have been reported over the last 12 months in the U.S., the highest number in years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

'They would never have known:' New warnings about rabies outbreaks as cases rise in the U.S.

The CDC's rabies team says it's tracking 15 different likely outbreaks from New York to Oregon.

www.nbcnews.com

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · Aug 7

New study on scientific understanding in the US:

Vaccines have mostly been a benefit to human health
69% Agree
20% Unsure
11% Disagree

Figure 1: Percent who agree and disagree with 14 conspiracy or science statements, ordered from lowest to highest agreement.

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

Mahan Ghafari @mghafari.bsky.social · Jul 30

🚨Our study on characterising the within-host SARS-CoV-2 evolution during persistent infections is now out in @lancetmicrobe.bsky.social!
👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · Jul 26

'The basic logic of the prion – a protein that can radically change its structure and function, and force that change onto other proteins too – may turn out to be so common that it ranks among the vital biological processes.'
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Stephen Buranyi · Folding and Unfolding: Protein to Prion

How and why do proteins, which are produced by our body to build structures (such as skin and muscle) or carry out tasks...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · Jul 28

We talked about this back when the first trial for lenacapavir first said the magic words everyone wants to hear, "halted for efficacy"(*), so a recap: this is not a vaccine or a treatment. It's PrEP aka "pre-exposure prophylaxis": you take the drug so if exposed to the virus, you will not catch it.

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · Jul 28

If you were alive in the 1980s, this is among the most wonderful & truly incredible things you have ever witnessed in your lifetime.

Don't Fret. It Adores You @seed-corn-thoughts.bsky.social · Jul 27

Anyways, AIDS is going to be gone soon, this is a generic with FDA full approval.

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Thelonevirologist @thelonevirologist.bsky.social · Jul 23

Characterisation of a persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection lasting more than 750 days in a person living with HIV: a genomic analysis www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Characterisation of a persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection lasting more than 750 days in a person living with HIV: a genomic analysis

Convergent SARS-CoV-2 evolution, both in and outside the spike protein, observed in this study suggests parallels with the evolutionary process leading to emergence of the omicron VOC. The inferred ab...

www.thelancet.com

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

Dr Alison Peel @alibat.bsky.social · Jul 21

🦇 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...

Synchronized seasonal excretion of multiple coronaviruses coincides with high rates of coinfection in immature bats - Nature Communications

Bats harbor diverse coronaviruses but temporal dynamics are less well studied. Here, the authors analyzed coronaviruses in Australian flying foxes over 3 years showing peak shedding and co-infections ...

doi.org

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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · Jul 9

🦇 Grooming rabies away

A new study finds vampire bats can lick rabies vaccines off each other, spreading immunity through grooming. 88% of a colony was vaccinated in days.

🔗 www.science.org/content/arti...

#SciComm #Zoonoses 🧪

Vampire bats’ mutual grooming helps spread innovative rabies vaccine

A gel that bats lick off one another’s fur could help prevent rabies outbreaks in cattle, a growing problem in Latin America

www.science.org

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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · Jul 11

What to do if you are bitten by a Bat?
- copiously wash bite wound with soap and water for at least 15 minutes.
- apply and antiseptic like betadine
- seek medical care urgently- you will like be offered rabies post exposure prophylaxis including vaccination.

bit.ly/3GBBsvy

Lyssavirus is rare, but deadly. What should you do if a bat bites you?

A man in Australia has died after being infected with bat lyssavirus. Here’s what to know about this infection.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Jun 18

Person dies of rabies in Yorkshire after contact with dog in Morocco

UK Health Security Agency says person had contact with stray animal while on holiday in north Africa A person has died in Yorkshire from rabies after contact with a stray dog while on holiday in Morocco, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said. More details soon … Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Martha Luka @martha-luka.bsky.social · May 27

Grateful to see our work featured by @gavi.org. We highlight how we can set up smarter vaccine supply chains in the quest to eliminate human rabies.

Read more: www.gavi.org/vaccineswork...

The research: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#rabies #supplychains #vaccines

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Nick Loman @pathogenomenick.bsky.social · May 22

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...

Ambitious project to develop low-cost genome sequencing for pathogens known and unknown - University of Birmingham

Project will build on research that helped diagnostic labs to adopt sequencing capacity for COVID-19 and permit characterisation of future infectious threats

www.birmingham.ac.uk

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Bloom lab @jbloomlab.bsky.social · May 20

Final version of our pseudovirus deep mutational scanning of rabies glycoprotein now published in
@cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Main addition to preprint summarized above is additional validations of prefusion stabilization candidate mutations in Fig S4 and S5.

Deep mutational scanning of rabies glycoprotein defines mutational constraint and antibody-escape mutations

Rabies virus causes nearly 60,000 human deaths annually. Antibodies that target the rabies glycoprotein (G) are being developed as post-exposure proph…

sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

Heather Ferguson @drheatherferg.bsky.social · May 21

First confirmation of #WestNileVirus in mosquitoes in the UK, in an Aedes species. Risk to public still very low, but highlights huge importance of having robust mosquito surveillance and response programmes in place.
@mosquitoscotland.bsky.social

submit.forms.service.gov.uk/form/3652/re...

Mosquito Scotland Project @mosquitoscotland.bsky.social · May 21

📢Breaking news - @ukhsa.bsky.social confirms 1st detection of #WestNileVirus particles in mosquitoes in the UK. This is a zoonotic virus that usually spreads in birds, but very occasionally infects people. Risk to UK public is extremely low, no detection in Scotland yet

www.gov.uk/government/n...

First detection of West Nile virus in UK mosquitoes

UKHSA says there is no evidence to suggest ongoing circulation of the virus in birds or mosquitos in the UK and the risk to the general public is very low

www.gov.uk

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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · May 13

*oops it actually wasn't this paper but another one I had been hunting for with a known title- but still, incredible

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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · May 13

Okay this is absolutely magical, I've been hunting for a paper (only knowing the author's name, journal and year, no title) for hours and received a pdf back within *5 minutes* of putting in an interlibrary loan request! Thanks for letting me know about this!

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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · May 13

As it happens I re-read this one a few days ago and it's still an absolute pain to track down! The Lancet really doesn't make things easy

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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · May 13

For future reference: archive.org/details/sim_...

American Journal of Veterinary Research 1960-05: Vol 21 Iss 82 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

American Journal of Veterinary Research 1960-05: Volume 21, Issue 82.Digitized from IA1514212-01.Previous issue:...

archive.org

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Reposted by Dr. Rowan Durrant

Mahan Ghafari @mghafari.bsky.social · May 9

🚨We’re hiring a Postdoc to join our group at Oxford!

We’re developing methods to understand how pathogens evolve—across hosts, over time, & through molecular & structural change.

Keen or know someone who is? Please share!

🕒 3-year post
📅 Deadline: 30 May
🔗 Apply: www.jobs.ox.ac.uk/vacancy/179640

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Robertson Lab @davidlrobertson.bsky.social · May 7

New paper on SARS-CoV-2 origins & timings accounting for recombination and similarities to the emergence of the first SARS virus 🦠

Cell - a Cell Press journal @cp-cell.bsky.social · May 7

Now online! The recency and geographical origins of the bat viruses ancestral to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2

The recency and geographical origins of the bat viruses ancestral to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2

Recombination-aware evolutionary analyses of the entire genomes of SARS-CoV-1-like and SARS-CoV-2-like viruses indicate that SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 descend from bat coronaviruses that circulated as recently as one to six years before their respective dates of human emergence. These inferred virus ancestors likely needed to travel faster than closely related bat viruses in order to reach their respective sites of emergence.

dlvr.it

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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · May 6

Does anyone have a copy of Beamer et al.'s "Resistance of the opossum to rabies virus" (American Journal of Veterinary Research, 1960)? #icanhazpdf

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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · Apr 30

Uganda stopped a Sudan Ebola virus outbreak in under 3 months.
No chaos. Just fast action, local leadership, and a rapidly implemented vaccine trial.
Maybe the problem isn’t capacity in Africa after all—maybe it’s the story we keep telling about it.
open.substack.com/pub/bktitanj...

Africa’s Outbreak Response Is the Global Standard Now

From outbreak containment to clinical innovation, African nations are setting new global standards for success

open.substack.com

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