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Reposted by Rory Mulloy

Mandy Muller @mandymuller.bsky.social · 2d

🧬 Exciting news from our lab 🧬 The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has approved our project studying KSHV and RNA decay: our first grant since re-launching the lab in Switzerland 🎉 We’re now looking for a Postdoc and a PhD student to join the team (start date January 2026) - please repost!

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Joseph Luna @virologistjoe.bsky.social · 8d

I made a sign for the lab with our informal lab motto, inspired by this convo between @itaiyanai.bsky.social and Martin Lercher: nightscience.buzzsprout.com/1744020/epis.... A good reminder that talking is among the best forms of thinking!

A plastic sign with a logogram of two people in conversation alongisde text that reads "There are no lone geniuses"

Our new "There are no lone geniuses" sign mounted on the door to the lab.

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Bloom lab @jbloomlab.bsky.social · Aug 20

In new study led by @bdadonaite.bsky.social, we measure how spike mutations affect function & antigenicity of spike of KP.3.1.1 strain of SARS-CoV-2.

Sheds light on how key neutralizing epitopes are changing & importance of RBD up/down motion.

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

Spike mutations that affect the function and antigenicity of recent KP.3.1.1-like SARS-CoV-2 variants

SARS-CoV-2 is under strong evolutionary selection to acquire mutations in its spike protein that reduce neutralization by human polyclonal antibodies. Here we use pseudovirus-based deep mutational sca...

www.biorxiv.org

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Trushar Patel, PhD, DSc, FRSC @trushar7.bsky.social · Aug 12

Collaborative study with Kharpeskyy lab @dalhousieu.bsky.social + our lab @ulethbridge.ca (under review) shows: sequence features—not secondary structure—of 5′ UTRs give viral & cellular mRNAs resistance to SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1 host shutoff.

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

Escape from SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1-mediated host shutoff by TIAR transcript reveals general features of Nsp1 resistance

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) immune escape strategies include general inhibition of host gene expression referred to as host shutoff. Viral non-structural protein 1 (Ns...

www.biorxiv.org

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Jasmine 🌌🔭 @astrojaz.bsky.social · Aug 9

i love you hubble

Bright stars cluster against a black background. The stars are more densely concentrated in the center of the image. The stars appear mostly white, but bright red and blue stars are also visible sprinkled throughout the image.

Part of a nebula in space. Layers of gas and dust clouds in different colors, from blue and green shades to pink, red, and black, each indicating light emitted by different molecules, comprise the nebula. The background cloud layers are thicker and puffier, though still translucent, and the upper layers are thin and bright at the edges. Behind the clouds are many small, mostly orange and some blue, stars.

A spiral galaxy seen at a skewed angle. Its center is a bright spot radiating light. A thick, stormy disk of material surrounds this bright center, with swirling strands of dark dust and bright spots of star formation strewn through the disk. A large spiral arm extends from the disk toward the viewer. Some foreground stars are visible atop the galaxy.

$Three bright stars with diffraction spikes shine near the center-right of the image, illuminating nearby clouds that glow in pale blue. The clouds darken at the edges of the image, and are dotted with smaller stars, some also with diffraction spikes.$

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Leonard Lloyd @leonardlloyd.bsky.social · Aug 4

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Rory Mulloy @rorymulloy.bsky.social · Jul 31

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39567830/

There was also this provocative story about SARS using cellular RNA editing as a tool to explore evolutionary space… but it too would be contingent on gRNA hanging out with APOBEC/ADAR at some point in time

Viral N protein hijacks deaminase-containing RNA granules to enhance SARS-CoV-2 mutagenesis - PubMed

Host cell-encoded deaminases act as antiviral restriction factors to impair viral replication and production through introducing mutations in the viral genome. We sought to understand whether deaminas...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Rory Mulloy @rorymulloy.bsky.social · Jul 31

Presumably if specific consensus viruses emerge from these long-term infections, ADAR may be stochastically editing the viral genome (either during packaging or perhaps a sloppy dmv). BUT certain editing sites are favourable for the virus or ADAR is only able to reach these sites as said by emily!

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Rory Mulloy @rorymulloy.bsky.social · Jul 31

Think this is related to iterative ADAR editing of SARS2 genome in these latent infections?

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Alex de Mendoza @alexdemendoza.bsky.social · Jul 28

Giant virus endogenization in Acanthamoeba we covered more in detail in a separate manuscript published some weeks ago in @bmc.springernature.com Biology, in a great collaboration with John Archibald's group at Dalhousie: bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10..... 6/7

Epigenetic silencing and genome dynamics determine the fate of giant virus endogenizations in Acanthamoeba - BMC Biology

Background Endogenized giant viruses are emerging as major contributors to the genome evolution of microbial eukaryotes, with both degraded and fully functional latent viruses being found integrated i...

bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com

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David Grimm @david-grimm.bsky.social · Jul 28

Crab-like creatures are famed for having evolved five times in evolutionary history. But anteaters have evolved at least 12 times--in half the evolutionary span. Cool story by @jakebuehler.bsky.social for @science.org

‘Things keep evolving into anteaters.’ Odd animals arose at least 12 separate times

Findings speak to the dramatic impact ants and termites can have on mammalian evolution

www.science.org

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Che Colpitts @colpittsc.bsky.social · Jul 23

Huge congratulations to Dr. Emma LeBlanc on her successful PhD thesis defence yesterday! As my first PhD student, Emma was instrumental in getting my lab up and running, in the midst of a pandemic, while managing to be very productive and do some exciting science along the way! #proudPI

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Jay Brito Querido @jbquerido.bsky.social · Jul 22

Finally out!
I’m thrilled to share our new paper (Wolin et al., Cell 2025).

This paper describes SPIDR, a high-throughput method for mapping RBP binding sites.

By combining #SPIDR with #cryoEM, we identified the exact binding site of LARP1 within the #mRNA channel of the 40S ribosomal subunit.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · Jul 7

It’s too late to save these lost young lives in Texas, but not too late to avert the next tragedy that could be fully avoided.

It’s one thing to say you’re making things more efficient and quite another to gut something essential with no replacement.

Turn the f’ing lights back on!

/fin

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Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · Jul 6

'The myth of meritocracy in science collapses under the financial sacrifices expected at every career stage. From unpaid internships and self-funded conferences to underpaid graduate and postdoctoral positions, the hidden costs of ‘doing science’ are profound.'
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Too poor to science: How wealth determines who succeeds in STEM

From student to researcher, a career in science can come with a high price tag. This Perspective explores how persistent financial barriers limit who can succeed in science, revealing how wealth shape...

journals.plos.org

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Jeremy Kamil @macroliter.bsky.social · Jun 30

💥 Couldn’t be more stoked our study identifying a completely new CMV virion surface complex involved in cell entry is now published at Nature Micro 🦠 H/T @paramyxologist.bsky.social + Lauren Henderson, Erica Ollmann Saphire Chris Benedict @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The GATE glycoprotein complex enhances human cytomegalovirus entry in endothelial cells - Nature Microbiology

The gH-associated tropism and entry (GATE) complex consists of glycoprotein H, UL116 and UL141. This complex is abundant on human cytomegalovirus virions and enables entry into human endothelial cells...

www.nature.com

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Sarafan ChEM-H @stanford-chemh.bsky.social · Jun 10

New CRISPR technology developed by @stanleyqilab.bsky.social‬, Mengting Han & team could pave the way for potential treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and spinal muscular dystrophy:

New CRISPR technology could help repair damaged neurons

Stanford researchers have developed a technology that delivers RNA to damaged neurons and stimulates regrowth – paving the way for potential treatments targeting neurodegenerative diseases like ALS…

news.stanford.edu

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Nature @nature.com · Jun 9

Nature research paper: Probing condensate microenvironments with a micropeptide killswitch

https://go.nature.com/4mMlGyc

Probing condensate microenvironments with a micropeptide killswitch - Nature

Targeting a non-natural micropeptide ‘killswitch’ to several biomolecular condensates altered condensate compositions and revealed condensate functions in human cells

go.nature.com

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Alfredo Castello @alf-castello.bsky.social · Jun 3

🚨🚨 News from the @castello-lab.bsky.social and @shabazlab.bsky.social. Our work, led by Louisa Iselin, reveals pervasive changes in the RNA-bound proteome induced by interferon. #RNA, #immunity, #interferon, #host-virus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Ryan Hisner @ryanhisner.bsky.social · May 26

2nd is the brilliant preprint of @corcoranlab.bsky.social & @rorymulloy.bsky.social. It’s a deep dive into all things N*, & every other paragraph drops some new, delightful discovery.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Ryan Hisner @ryanhisner.bsky.social · May 26

…prompted me to take a closer look, and for reasons I’ll describe below, I now believe rumors of N*’s death are exaggerated. First, XEC is in terminal decline, replaced by variants with full N* expression, so N* is back in fashion. 3/34
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 subgenomic RNAs that enhance viral fitness and immune evasion

Coronaviruses can evolve novel transcription regulatory sequences, generating new RNA transcripts during human infection. This study identifies a prevalent subgenomic RNA in SARS-CoV-2, which produces...

journals.plos.org

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Ryan Hisner @ryanhisner.bsky.social · May 26

SGs can form as a response to dsRNA detection, but when Mulloy induced SG formation via a dsRNA-independent pathway, N* still stopped SGs. Mutation of two essential AA for dsRNA binding (K257, K261) showed that N*’s dsRNA binding was required for SG antagonism.
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Ryan Hisner @ryanhisner.bsky.social · May 26

An awesome preprint on the novel, unsung SARS-CoV-2 N* protein came out recently, authored by @corcoranlab.bsky.social and @rorymulloy.bsky.social. I’ve previously written on N*’s demise in XEC, the top variant for several months, but… threadreaderapp.com/thread/18373...
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Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · May 19

If people of means are interested in establishing a 2025 “Institute for Advanced Study” for displaced/defunded biomedical scientists, I know many people who will help, including myself.
@mcuban.bsky.social
@arcadiascience.com
@arcinstitute.org

John Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · May 14

Let's talk about these two department store owners: brother and sister Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld. From Newark, New Jersey.

They are random people, basically. But in the late 1920s, with fascism taking over Europe, they made a choice that profoundly changed the world: 🧵

A photograph of Louis Bamberger, seated on the right, wearing a mustache and bowler hat, and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld, standing on the left, wearing a fur hat and shawl

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Zha Lab @zhalab.bsky.social · May 16

Excited to share our new paper on Nature - how Ku accommodates Alu expansion in primates by binding to dsRNA, providing a clue for both the high levels of Ku and its essentiality in human cells. Thank @chaolinzhang @hchung03 @LenaSteckelberg More to come www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ku limits RNA-induced innate immunity to allow Alu-expansion in primates - Nature

Nature - Ku limits RNA-induced innate immunity to allow Alu-expansion in primates

www.nature.com

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