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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 1d

Happening now. Prof. Kartik Chandran, in Singapore this week for the HCV & Flaviviruses conference, is speaking to ID Labs scientists on their coronavirus research.

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Reposted by Vignuzzi Lab

Connor Bamford @connorggbamford.bsky.social · 5d

🦠 "Social Virology at the Tri-Kingdom Interface in Birds and Mammals" 🐥

We have a new 4y (open to intl students) PhD project advertised through the NorthWestBio Doctoral Training Partnership (lnkd.in/ee8hRpN6 ) between QUBelfast and Lancaster on virus-bacterial interactions across vertebrates!

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 5d

Had a reminder by my colleague Amit Singhal that two years ago to this day our faculty had a retreat in my medieval village of Noyers-sur-Serein. Missing this clunky old house! 🏰 ❤️

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Reposted by Vignuzzi Lab

Patrick Dolan @ptdolan.bsky.social · 11d

New #QVEU preprint! @williambakhache.bsky.social used our #EV71 mutational scanning library to dissect replication complex function with a collection of inhibitors against specific host and viral factors. Then used the data to validate structural predictions! Super cool #virosky #virus #evolution

Genotype-by-Inhibitor Interactions to Dissect Enterovirus Replication

Replication organelles of positive-sense RNA viruses are essential to virus biology, yet their molecular mechanisms remain poorly defined. While deep mutational scanning (DMS) measures the impact of m...

researchsquare.com

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

It's beautifully done, tells a whole proof of principle story, perfect for your journal club too!

download it here at Nature Biomedical Engineering:
rdcu.be/eH4le

Engineered bacteria launch and control an oncolytic virus

Nature Biomedical Engineering - CAPPSID relies on an engineered S. typhimurium to act as a synthetic ‘capsid’ to transcribe and deliver viral RNA inside cancer cells, launching a virus...

rdcu.be

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

BUT now, a million years later, my lab is revisiting all this stuff, saRNA vaccines, bacterial delivery systems, oncolytic therapies, with a modern updated touch.

READ this very cool paper by SINGER et al, one of my favourites for 2025 for sure!

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

We packaged all this up in a patent, but never published...because in the meantime, all that work on ribavirin resistance & polymerase fidelity side project took my career in a different direction!

to see the Salmonella stuff...it's buried in our patent:

patents.google.com/patent/US739...

US7390646B2 - Bacterial vectors and methods of use thereof - Google Patents

The present invention provides a live, attenuated, invasive bacterium that infects a mammalian host cell, and releases exogenous RNA into the cytoplasm of the host cell. The present invention further ...

patents.google.com

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

The enzyme produced by asd gene (Aspartate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase) is essential for diaminopimelic acid (DAP) synthesis.

The Asd gene knockout meant that we could produce Salmonella in broth supplemented DAP, while in the host cell, the bacteria falls apart - missing its peptidoglycan wall.

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

This was my dream as a postdoc! Spent years knocking out S typhimurium of sifA, orgA and Asd genes. My PhD developed the 1st polio saRNA vectors, and in Andino lab, I engineered S.typhimurium to deliver like Trojan horse to gut macrophages, delivering Yellow Fever & polio RNA in vitro and in vivo.

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

To restrict the spread of the oncolytic virus, they swapped one protease cleavage sites with that of Tobacco Etch virus, so only cells expressing TEVpro from the Salmonella can produce full virus. Cool safety switch!

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

Impressively, these oncolytic viruses launched from T7 RNA promoter in Salmonella expressing T7 polymerase, significantly reduce tumours at the injection site and at other sites, fully protecting mice against the disease.

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

They use this bacteria to invade a cell and deliver an oncolytic Senecavirus RNA, which replicates, and spreads to neighbouring tumours.

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

They added hylE and bacteriophage E lysis genes to break the Salmonella apart to further deliver its contents into the cytoplasm. In our approach, we knocked out the Asd gene that is needed to maintain bacerial wall integrity to have the same effect.

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

When Salmonella infect cells, they hide themselves in a Salmonella Containing Vacuole, the sifA gene helps maintain this vacuole, both these authors and we knocked this gene out so that the Salmonella would fall into the cytoplasm for RNA delivery.

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

Here, they show its value as a therapeutic in vivo.

The authors use Salmonella typhimurium to encode T7 polymerase, lysis proteins and an expression cassette to launch RNA virus replicons or full viruses. The goal : to deliver these viruses to tumor cells and lyse the tumors.

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 16d

Very cool paper that I presented to journal club today by Singer et al, by Tal Danino and Charlie Rice labs.

I LOVE this paper!
rdcu.be/eH4le

As a postdoc in Andino lab 20 years ago, we took a similar strategy to deliver recombinant RNA viruses or saRNA by intracellular S. typhimurium.

Engineered bacteria launch and control an oncolytic virus

Nature Biomedical Engineering - CAPPSID relies on an engineered S. typhimurium to act as a synthetic ‘capsid’ to transcribe and deliver viral RNA inside cancer cells, launching a virus...

rdcu.be

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 21d

Lab 🌈 at @astar-idlabs.bsky.social annual retreat at Universal Studios Singapore! What’s your colour? Where’s your pot of gold?

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · 29d

My lab found me in my hiding spot when I try to avoid responsibilities.

Back to work.

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · Sep 11

EMBO course in India in Feb 2026:

Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · Sep 11

Interested in attending the EMBO Lecture Course, entitled "RNA virus infection and host immune responses," hosted in Faridabad, India, on 11 – 14 February 2026?

sign up here:
meetings.embo.org/event/26-rna...

RNA virus infection and host immune responses

The India I EMBO Lecture Course on “RNA virus infection and host immune responses” addresses cutting-edge research in emerging and reemerging RNA viruses, with particular emphasis on fundamental infe…

meetings.embo.org

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · Sep 9

Congratulations to Jolene Fu from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. Today she defended her PhD thesis on COVID immune escape and evolution. Excellent dissertation and oral defence.

Dr. Jolene Fu, PhD!

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · Sep 8

Immigrant to new Citizens, 1977-1980, Canada. Our Citizenship photos.

Why was my photo different? Always the odd one out!

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · Sep 2

hahahahaha indeed! Alice in wonderland had it easy!

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · Sep 2

Welcome to Paul Foucambert! Paul is an MD from France, seeking experience in biomedical sciences, and will be part of our Vignuzzi lab family for the next three years developing new vaccine strategies, learning about molecular virology and sharing his medical and clinical insights.

Welcome Paul!

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Vignuzzi Lab @vignuzzilab.bsky.social · Sep 1

Welcome Dariel Tanoto to our lab!

Dariel is a Research Officer that will be working with our postdoctoral scientist Fish Poh on new RNA therapeutics.

And with that we can add 🇮🇩 to our lab flags!

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