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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · 28d

In memory of the exemplary scientist David Baltimore, who passed on September 6th, TWiV has re-issued its 100th episode featuring a discussion with him on viruses. Our lab was incredibly fortunate to work with and learn from him since he joined @caltech.edu almost 28 years ago. tinyurl.com/2md4kknj

TWiV Special: David Baltimore, remembered

TWiV re-issues our 100th episode which featured a discussion of viruses with David Baltimore, an exemplary scientist and Vincent' exemplary mentor, who passed on 6 September 2025.

tinyurl.com

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · 28d

Mourning the loss of David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate and President Emeritus of Caltech. His groundbreaking work on reverse transcriptase reshaped our understanding of genetics and paved the way for advances in cancer and HIV research. A true giant in science. www.caltech.edu/about/news/c...

Caltech Mourns the Passing of President Emeritus and Nobel Laureate David Baltimore

David Baltimore, President Emeritus and the Judge Shirley Hufstedler Professor of Biology, Emeritus at Caltech and a co-recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, passed away on Sept...

www.caltech.edu

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · 28d

Science saves countless lives. But proposed cuts to NIH & NSF threaten to shut down labs & stall progress millions of families are counting on.

Urge Congress to protect and restore funding for medical research. Act now: tinyurl.com/24p2n4fc #ScienceSaves #FundNIH

Stand up for Cures, Not Cuts

Medical Research Saves Lives – But Progress Is At Risk. Congress is considering a 40% cut to life-saving cures, which would shut...

tinyurl.com

Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Jul 4

Exciting news! A few weeks ago, the TWiV podcast reviewed a paper from Michael Letko's lab (@fviromics.bsky.social) featuring one of our graduate students as a co-first author. Give it a listen!

www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-12...

TWiV 1223: Someone is guano be sick

TWiV reviews RFK Jr.''s MAGA report with non-existent literature citations, a new fungus that could further devastate North American bats, surveillance of avian influenza viruses through bird guano in...

www.microbe.tv

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · May 23

in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social : Mapping essential somatic hypermutations in a CD4-binding site bNAb informs HIV-1 vaccine design doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... "Here, we created a library of IOMA variants in which each SHM was individually reverted to the inferred germline counterpart [...]"

Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · May 23

Cross-reactive sarbecovirus antibodies induced by mosaic RBD nanoparticles: doi.org/10.1073/pnas... "We present approaches to elicit and identify cross-reactive mAbs that recognize conserved receptor-binding domain (RBD) epitopes using mosaic RBD nanoparticle immunizations in animals." @pnas.org

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Mar 29

Analysis of Terminated NIH Grants with Word Clouds

First, using the titles of grants not to Columbia...

Gender and DEI predominate

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Mar 31

from Deborah Fuller and @psmitchej.bsky.social at University of Washington: "Cuts to science research funding cut American lives short" ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/03/31/c...

Cuts to science research funding cut American lives short • Ohio Capital Journal

Nearly every modern medical treatment can be traced to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. Cuts from President Trump and Elon Musk will critically harm research on cancer treatment, ...

ohiocapitaljournal.com

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Daniel Drucker @danieljdrucker.bsky.social · Mar 10

The 2025 Wolf Prize Laureate in Medicine, Professor Pamela J. Bjorkman “For pioneering innovative strategies to overcome viral defenses through novel antibody-focused approaches” @caltech.edu wolffund.org.il/pamela-j-bjo... @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social

Pamela J. Bjorkman

Wolf Prize Laureate in Medicine 2025

wolffund.org.il

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Feb 27

An unvaccinated child died during a measles outbreak in rural West Texas, marking it the first U.S. death from the highly contagious respiratory disease since 2015. Vaccines against the disease are safe & effective, and measles was once considered eliminated. @apnews.com

apnews.com/article/meas...

A Texas child who was not vaccinated has died of measles, a first for the US in a decade

A child who was not vaccinated has died from measles in West Texas. It's the first death in an outbreak that began late last month and the first from measles in the U.S. since 2015.

apnews.com

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Feb 26

Congratulation to @jacobparresau.bsky.social and @elowitzlab.bsky.social for their new publication in @cellpress.bsky.social on competitive protein dimerization networks!

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Contextual computation by competitive protein dimerization networks

Competitive dimerization networks, in which protein monomers dimerize in various combinations, can perform diverse biochemical computations and can adapt those computations for different cell contexts...

www.cell.com

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Feb 20

from @nature.com "almost all grant-review meetings remain suspended at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), preventing the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research from spending much of its US$47 billion annual budget."
go.nature.com/4k8Njjx

Revealed: NIH research grants still frozen despite lawsuits challenging Trump order

The Trump administration is exploiting a loophole to keep a funding freeze in place, leaving researchers in limbo.

go.nature.com

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Jan 27

The answer lies in the differences between vaccines and antibiotics-and between the viruses and bacteria they fight. Vaccines stimulate the immune system to create a response without causing disease, while antibiotics kill bacteria during infections. 2/2 🧵

Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Jan 27

@caltech.edu asked Dr. Pamela Bjorkman "if overusing antibiotics can be harmful. Should we worry about overusing vaccines too?" The short answer is no.
Swipe to learn more from Caltech's Pamela Bjorkman.
#AskCaltech at caltech.edu/AskCaltech. 1/2

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Reposted by Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech

Waggoner Lab @labwaggoner.bsky.social · Jan 23

Designed mosaic nanoparticles enhance cross-reactive immune responses in mice @cellcellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
@bjorkman-lab.bsky.social
@anamnestic21.bsky.social

Designed mosaic nanoparticles enhance cross-reactive immune responses in mice

Computational methods were used to design mosaic nanoparticle vaccines displaying receptor-binding domains of SARS-CoV-2 variants and sarbecoviruses. Immunization of naive and pre-vaccinated mice elic...

www.cell.com

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Jan 9

Update on Campus Operations: Caltech’s campus will remain closed on Thursday, January 9. The Institute intends to resume operations on Friday, January 10, pending continued assessments of the situation. Individuals who do come to campus for essential positions are advised to wear a K/N95 mask.

Reposted by Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech

Caltech Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering @caltechcce.bsky.social · Jan 3

Please join us in welcoming our newest Professor of Chemistry, Sandeep Sharma! 👋

His group's research eﬀorts are directed towards developing algorithms that solve the problem of electronic structure theory. He loves to spend time with his family and enjoys playing racket sports.

Welcome, Sandeep!

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Dec 18

After more than 4 years, the infamous and dangerous hydroxychloroquine paper has finally been officially retracted! 🎉

Many criticized this unfounded publication, but a huge thank you to @elisabethbik.bsky.social for leading the charge!

#Immunology #Virology #Science #COVID19

Infamous paper that popularized unproven COVID-19 treatment finally retracted

Study on hydroxychloroquine by Didier Raoult and colleagues gets pulled on ethical and scientific grounds

www.science.org

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Dec 14

A bit old but here is a great visual representation from @science.org of the fact that vaccines do work and help keep infectious diseases at bay.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Here's the visual proof of why vaccines do more good than harm

See year by year how vaccines beat back nine dangerous infectious diseases

www.science.org

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Dec 14

It’s easy and quick, find who your representatives are and let them know you support fact-based healthcare! -> www.safecommunitiescoalition.org/rfk

☮☮😸😸☮☮ @catsforpeace2.bsky.social · Dec 14

We MUST keep vaccines.
have you written your Senator to let them know?

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Reposted by Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech

1000WomeninSTEM @1000womeninstem.bsky.social · Dec 14

5️⃣4️⃣ Elisabeth Bik (1966- ) 🇳🇱 #womeninSTEM @elisabethbik.bsky.social Microbiologist, she worked on cholera epidemics in India & Bangladesh. Internationally recognised for her work in detecting image manipulation. 2021 Maddox Prize & 2024 Einstein Foundation award.

www.statnews.com/2024/02/28/e...

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Reposted by Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Dec 13

PLEASE do not feed raw milk to your cats. Or your kids. Or yourself. #H5N1

Steve Valeika @zoonotic1.bsky.social · Dec 13

There are two fatal cases of H5N1 in cats in California. Both cats had been fed raw milk from the recalled lot in the ongoing outbreak associated with Raw Farms. The milk wasn’t tested. But an astute veterinarian tested the cats for flu based on clinical suspicion.
#VetMedsky #IDsky #OneHealth

Cats in L.A. County die after drinking recalled raw milk

Los Angeles County health officials are investigating the deaths of two cats who became ill after drinking recalled H5N1 bird flu-infected raw milk.

www.latimes.com

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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · Dec 10

Stanford alums have written the university president and provost to protest their handling of a student journalist, who is facing 3 felony accusations after covering a protest:

"It was wrongful for the University to direct his arrest and encourage his prosecution" drive.google.com/file/d/1jIx1...

Stanford alumni letter.pdf

drive.google.com

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Dec 10

Could our lab be added to the pack? 🙋

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Bjorkman Lab @ Caltech @bjorkman-lab.bsky.social · Dec 10

Excited to host @cwolberger.bsky.social today at @caltech.edu for our Biology and Biological Engineering Seminar!

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