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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you for the member highlight @cytokinesociety.bsky.social and see you all in Seattle for Cytokines 2025!

signals.cytokinesociety.org/2025/09/28/m...

Member Highlight: Alexander Lercher on Innate Immune Memory and Real-World Microbe Responses - Biweekly newsletter of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society

My name is Alexander Lercher, and I am currently a Postdoc in the lab of Charlie Rice at Rockefeller University in New York, and I am particularly excited about studying immune responses in the context of real-world microbe exposure. Out from the lab, my biggest hobby for the past years has been to explore the

signals.cytokinesociety.org

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Jul 17

Extremely happy to be awarded the Sidney & Joan Pestka Post-graduate award!
Thank you @cytokinesociety.bsky.social and all my mentors, colleagues and collaborators throughout my career so far!

International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS) @cytokinesociety.bsky.social · Jul 16

The International Cytokine & Interferon Society congratulates the winners of the 2025 Sidney & Joan Pestka Graduate and Post-Graduate Awards, the ICIS-Christina Fleischmann Award and the ICIS-Amanda Proudfoot Award. Read more at signals.cytokinesociety.org/2025/07/14/2...

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Dec 27

Location, infection history, antigen persistence shape the phenotype of tissue-resident T cells (Trm), challenging the idea of a universal framework for Trm identity across organs and diseases.
High/low antigen immunogenicity may add another layer...

@cp-immunity.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/49dkc3j7

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Dec 15

A commensal bacterium triggers systemic antibody responses via skin lymphoid structures and can be engineered as a topical vaccine – great therapeutic potential!

Two studies in @nature.com.web.brid.gy by the Fischbach and Belkaid labs

tinyurl.com/5yahn47t
tinyurl.com/4n4btxap

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 25

Link to publication and short graphical abstract below!
www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 25

Great Spotlight by @virusesimmunity.bsky.social and #SashaTabachnikova on our recent publication in #Immunity, where we studied antiviral innate immune memory in alveolar macrophages in the context of respiratory viral infections!

www.cell.com/trends/immun...

SARS-CoV-2 reprograms murine alveolar macrophages to dampen flu

Innate immune cells that are epigenetically reprogrammed by infection can modify host responses to subsequent infections. Lercher et al. have identified epigenetic reprogramming of murine airway-resid...

www.cell.com

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 18

If you are rather an auditory person than a reading person – TWIV discussed our recent paper on antiviral innate immune memory in sequential respiratory viral infections.

Paper review starts at 37:00, more general discussion and broader implications at 1:10:00.

open.spotify.com/episode/777w...

TWiV 1165: What doesn't kill us primes our macrophages

This Week in Virology · Episode

open.spotify.com

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 18

Hello there.

Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 18

This is fantastic, could you please add me [email protected] - thx!

Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 17

...aaaand, we even made the cover at Immunity!
Big thanks to all the funding agencies, collaborators, mentors and friends who made this paper possible!

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 17

These findings shed light on how respiratory viral infections cross-influence their disease pathology via innate immune memory with implications for pandemic preparedness.
Press release: www.rockefeller.edu/news/36603-c...

Could a bout of COVID protect you from a severe case of flu? - News

New findings could lead to therapies capable of boosting general antiviral immunity.

www.rockefeller.edu

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 17

This allowed recovered mice to be better at combatting secondary influenza A virus infection - an effect that seemed to be solely mediated by recovered alveolar macrophages, independent of SARS2-memory T cells!

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 17

We found that alveolar macrophages retain epigenetic remodeling post COVID-19 that allows them to hyper-induce antiviral genes after encountering a secondary viral pathogen

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 17

How do past viral infections influence future viral diseases? We found that SARS-CoV-2 recovery protected from severe influenza A virus disease. But how come? There seemed to be some antigen-independent immunological memory going on..

Paper at Immunity: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 15

Chronic autoimmunity rewires metabolism in progenitors, correlating with innate immune memory formation in macrophages that increases antibacterial activity but might also aggravate autoimmune diseases?
shorturl.at/SZ1Ww

#CellStemCell

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 13

This allowed recovered mice to be better at combatting secondary influenza A virus infection - an effect that seemed to be solely mediated by recovered alveolar macrophages, independent of SARS2-memory T cells!

Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 13

We found that alveolar macrophages retain epigenetic remodeling post COVID-19 that allows them to hyper-induce antiviral genes after encountering a secondary viral pathogen

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Nov 13

Thanks for sharing and appreciating our study!

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Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Feb 8

These findings highlight long-lasting consequences of past #SARSCoV2 infection and have implications for seasonality of respiratory infections.

This study was a strong team effort by the #RiceLab, #JosefowiczLab and #RosenbergLab

Alex Lercher @alercher.bsky.social · Feb 8

Curious how commonly circulating respiratory viruses affect respective disease?

Past SARS2 infection ameliorates disease caused by secondary influenza virus via innate immune memory in airway-resident macrophages. @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social link below.

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

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