Congratulations @nellymak.bsky.social! So proud. Glad your postdoc lab is treating you well.

💭Check our brand new Research Focus - featuring publications from across the Edinburgh Infectious Diseases network!

@pfvale.bsky.social @richardsloanlab.bsky.social @dbogaert.bsky.social @fionagreco.bsky.social

Full article here ➡️ edinburgh-infectious-diseases.ed.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Just a reminder to apply for this PhD project in our lab @edinuni-irr.bsky.social using a mix of CRISPR screening and computational approaches to find antiviral factors. Deadline Monday 13th January. Fully funded and international applicants accepted. Please share!
@uoe-eid.bsky.social

My first first-author paper is out! If you are curious about how alternative splicing fine-tunes the antiviral specificity of IFITMs in horseshoe bats, make this the last paper you will read in 2024⬇️

Our lab's latest paper published in PLoS Pathogens! Looking at functional diversity of antiviral IFITMs in horseshoe bats doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Led by PhD student @nellymak.bsky.social in collaboration with @batresearch.bsky.social
@uoe-eid.bsky.social @edinuni-irr.bsky.social #Immunosky #Virosky

Second fully funded PhD in our lab! @edinuni-irr.bsky.social Interested in how endogenous retroelements shape bat immune responses? Fully funded PhD with some teaching in China. Excellent supervisors include @batresearch.bsky.social

biomedical-sciences.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate...

#ViroSky #Immunosky

Awesome opportunity to do a PhD in a building filled top to bottom with outstanding virologists, all in sunny Glasgow. What's not to love? Strong recommend...

Give a follow to the amazing @uoe-eid.bsky.social community which brings together virologists, scientists, and social scientists talking about viruses!

#MedSky #IDSky #MedID #PublicHealth #AcademicSky #AcademicChatter

Could you add me please?

Thank you! Much appreciated

Could you add me please?

PhD opportunity in our lab at Edinburgh University! Analysing CRISPR screens for proviral and antiviral factors focusing on coronaviruses and influenza A virus. Using a mix of wet lab and computational approaches (full training provided).
#ViroSky #ImmunoSky

usher.ed.ac.uk/precision-me...

New lab preprint! Understanding innate immunity in bats is important given their role in viral spillovers and with their unusual immune systems. Here we study antiviral IFITM genes in horseshoe bats and find alternative splicing is key to functional antiviral diversity: doi.org/10.1101/2023...

So there is still plenty to find out still aboutthis complicated HIV block to infection (shame the funders don't agree!). Thanks to mBio for taking this on, Kathryn for leading the writing, Aine for the persistence in pursuing this question and Joe Gibbons for the recent experimental work. /end

How is reverse transcription blocked? Why is RPRD2 highly expressed in macrophages and dendritic cells? What is the upstream entry component of Lv2 restriction? Also the relationship between RPRD2 and the HUSH and PAF1 complexes is totally undefined, but the physical links are there 7/n

Meanwhile, over in Birmingham and Manchester
Pawel Grzechnik was working out key details in how RPRD2 is involved in regulating cellular transcription. How this relates to what is seen for HIV is still unclear (but tantalising). There are still a tonne of open questions...6/n

The viral capsid and envelope determinants known for the unmapped Lv2 restriction phenotype were matched to RPRD2, suggesting it is behind a big part of the phenotype. It was then shown HIV-1 Vpr is at play (isn't it always?) degrading RPRD2 and aiding infection. 5/n

Initial analysis of RPRD2 showed not only could it inhibit HIV-2, but also HIV-1 and some SIVs. The block to infection was shown to occur at viral reverse transcription, with RPRD2 binding reverse transcripts and more generally binding RNA probes. At about this point I get involved...4/n

To identify the factors involved in Lv2
Aine and her lab had to brute force it, using whole genome siRNA screening of Lv2 susceptible virus. This pulled up candidates including members of the HUSH complex, the PAF1 complex and an RNApol II C-terminal binding protein - RPRD2 3/n

The Lv2 restriction was initially defined as a block to HIV-2 infection in some cells. Mapping experiments revealed it to be an envelope and capsid driven phenomena, seemingly linked to the route of viral entry (including important contributions from Stuart Neil). 2/n

Our review on the Lv2/RPRD2 restriction of HIV is finally published in mBio! Led by talented postdoc Kathryn Jackson-Jones who took on the task of summarising a couple of decades of molecular virology by co-author Aine McKnight doi.org/10.1128/mbio... 1/n

We are looking for 2 postdocs (a molecular virologist and a bioinfomatician with wet lab experience) to work on our ERC-funded InVIRium project! We're based in Montpellier, France and we aim to better characterize respiratory virus replication in pertinent models of primary airway epithelia.

Excellent PhD opportunity to study how species resist viral infection using bioinformatics, virology, and animal models at Edinburgh Uni. Led by Rob Young at the Usher Institute, virology with me, and animal models with Elly Gaunt at Roslin:
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
#ViroSky #ImmunoSky