Dorian McILROY
dmcilroy.bsky.social
Dorian McILROY
@dmcilroy.bsky.social
Virology lecturer at Nantes University. Interested in polyomaviruses, particularly capsid interactions with antibodies and host receptors.
Long day teaching - 8am start and 7 pm finish! But on the upside, really great to teach such a positive and engaged group of students this afternoon.
December 3, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
#medsky #pedsky #idsky #immunosky #episky

I collaborated with exceptionally talented people in infectious diseases to write this Special Article about aluminum salts in childhood vaccines.
We review the evidence base for key safety concerns and offer guidance for communication with caregivers.
The Role and Safety of Aluminum Adjuvants in Childhood Vaccines
Aluminum salts have been used as adjuvants in vaccines for nearly a century, enhancing the immune response to purified antigens and ensuring durable protection against serious infectious diseases. Des...
publications.aap.org
December 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
A collaborative project that began with the Osaka Expo has just been released as a preprint!
Here, we show Promethearchaeota (Asgard archaea) “moving” under anaerobic conditions.
The videos capturing this unique behavior are so fascinating you can watch endlessly.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Dynamic protrusions mediate unique crawling motility in Asgard Archaea (Promethearchaeota)
Crawling motility is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells and requires a dynamic actin cytoskeleton, regulated adhesion, and spatially organized signalling pathways1–3. Asgard archaea (phylum Promethearchae...
www.biorxiv.org
December 2, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Really informative and important thread. Hiring and promotion committees need to change the way they work. Maybe ask applicants for their top 2 papers in the last 5yr and actually read them?
Since AI slop is again all over Scientific Reports, a thread on the economics of grey-zone publishing.

Why does slop keep getting published? What does it mean for science? How can we stop this?

Background readings:
Understand the strain: tinyurl.com/2b6wxx5r
Stop the drain: tinyurl.com/3jfscscy
December 1, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
November 28, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Good place to go, Glasgow.
November 27, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Australia leading the way
November 27, 2025 at 6:30 AM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
‘The clip, which appeared on live television, shows the President of the United States snapping at a female reporter “Quiet, Piggy!”’

From the new Private Eye, out now.
November 27, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
If you'd like to celebrate the biology of viruses - or the fight against viral diseases - this winter, try out our free and updated #VirusSnowflake designs.
Please share, and if you have any photos of Virus Snowflakes in your area it would be lovely to see them!
cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl...
November 17, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
Antimicrobial peptide delivery to lung as peptibody mRNA in anti-inflammatory lipids treats multidrug-resistant bacterial pneumonia - @yizhoudonglab.bsky.social @icahngenomics.bsky.social go.nature.com/3LZS6HD
Antimicrobial peptide delivery to lung as peptibody mRNA in anti-inflammatory lipids treats multidrug-resistant bacterial pneumonia - Nature Biotechnology
Antimicrobial peptides delivered to mouse lung as mRNA peptibodies eradicate multidrug-resistant pneumonia.
go.nature.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
November 25, 2025 at 10:56 PM
This is very bad and very depressing news. Habitat loss due to human activity is the main culprit.
Your 'moment of doom' for Nov. 25, 2025 ~ and he is us

"the species extinction rate is estimated to be between 1 000 and 10 000 times higher than natural extinction rates – the rate of species extinctions that would occur if we humans were not around.”

www.2oceansvibe.com/environment-...
Gone, Gone...And Gone: The IUCN Drops Its 2025 Species Extinction List
Yes, this grim roll call of vanished species comes with a side serving of climate chaos and human meddling.
www.2oceansvibe.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
Unraveling the mechanism behind the probable extinction of the B/Yamagata lineage of influenza B viruses

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Unraveling the mechanism behind the probable extinction of the B/Yamagata lineage of influenza B viruses - Nature Communications
Influenza B/Yamagata lineage has rarely been detected since COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions were introduced, while transmission of other influenza lineages resumed. Here, the authors investi...
www.nature.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
President orders troops to shoot unarmed American children. Perfectly legal, apparently.
Twisting military code, the Trump administration says “all orders” from the president are “lawful orders,” and troops have no right to question him. trib.al/M0jcTz3

The comments come as Hegseth weighs court-martialing a Democratic senator for his part in a video reminding troops to follow the law.
November 25, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
Hearing news that Carl Dieffenbach, the Director of the Division of AIDS at #NIH (NIAID), has been removed from his position because he was "not aligned with HHS/OMB."

Russell Vought continues to remove great scientists as part of the Project 2025 mission to politicize and destroy NIH.

🧪 1/
November 24, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Good to see the ASM standing up for science.
asm.org ASM @asm.org · 14d
For the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be effective, the public needs to trust its recommendations. Confidence that policies are being guided by science—not politics—is at the heart of that trust. Our statement: asm.org/press-releas...
November 22, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
Amazing, but likely not the last time a country will be forced to such measures: www.iranintl.com/en/202511209...
Iran president says capital move now a necessity as water crisis deepens
Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has mad...
www.iranintl.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
In 2022, archaeologists at @uni-kiel.de's @neolithicbodies.bsky.social found 34 decapitated skeletons piled in a space the size of a parking spot. In the 3 years since, they’ve found 50 more. The mass grave is evidence for the collapse of the 1st pan-European culture 7,000 years ago. @science.org 🏺💀
Headless bodies hint at why Europe’s first farmers vanished
Wave of mass brutality accompanied the collapse of the first pan-European culture
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 7:17 PM
The long-awaited YFV receptor!
November 20, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Such a needless death, and of course the foetus died too. Beats me how anyone can pretend this is pro-life.
I don't know how many more women need to die before the cruelty of these strict abortion laws finally dawn on us a society. This story is heartbreaking. Nothing about this is pro-life. It is anti woman and anti-life.
www.propublica.org/article/texa...
“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.
Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.
www.propublica.org
November 19, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
I never tire of seeing the amazing success of HPV vaccination. We are seeing the elimination of a leading oncogenic virus pathogen in real time
(Source: GAVI)
www.gavi.org/vaccineswork...
November 18, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Can anyone help me out with a question that came up in class today? In general discussion of the stability of naked compared to enveloped viruses, I pointed out that almost all enteric viruses are non-enveloped. The question is, what is special about enteric corona/toroviruses?
November 18, 2025 at 6:34 PM
This is what you get when you have large numbers of genetically homogenous individuals cooped up in a small space: high attack rate and high fatality rate. Thinking about it, there's gotta be money in ANP32 GMO chickens, right?
Hickman’s Egg Ranch, the largest egg producer in the Southwest United States and 81 year old family run company, is being sold to a Brazilian company after suffering major losses from a bird-flu outbreak that wiped out nearly six million birds. www.azfamily.com/2025/11/16/a...
Arizona-based Hickman’s Family Farms set to be acquired by Brazilian company
Hickman’s Family Farms has over five locations across Arizona. The company also has locations in California, Colorado, and Nevada.
www.azfamily.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
Do you rely on others for support?

From the new Private Eye, out now.
November 18, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Dorian McILROY
WE ARE RECRUITING PHD STUDENTS!!!

We have three(!) funded PhD studentships advertising presently. If any of these are of interest, please reach out! Thread below with links to more information on each project.

#Drosophila #Evolution #Immunity #SelfishGene #Aphids

Thread with links below 🧵 1/4
November 15, 2025 at 3:35 PM