Expression of CD103 facilitates localization and activation of CD4+ T cells within Mycobacterium tuberculosis lung-lesions from @rmortensenssi.bsky.social and colleagues www.mucosalimmunology.org/article/S193...
Ben Gern
@bengern.bsky.social
Pediatric Infectious Diseases physician-scientist at Seattle Children’s studying spatially-resolved immune responses during tuberculosis - (he/him) - gernlab.com
Pleased to see this out now in @jem.org 🔬 We characterise the early immune response during M. tuberculosis infection in mouse models and demonstrate a detrimental role for type I interferon activated neutrophils in TB lesions. Thanks to all involved @crick.ac.uk and i3S, Porto.
William J. Branchett, Anne O’Garra @crick.ac.uk et al. reveal that type I signaling early during M. #tuberculosis infection favors #neutrophil swarming and limits CD4+ T cell–#macrophage interactions in #TB lesions, impeding TB disease control. rupress.org/jem/article/...
A nice discussion here of our work on the early immune response in M. tuberculosis infection and the great recent paper from @bengern.bsky.social et al
First impressions count in #TB. Andrea Cooper @uniofleicester.bsky.social discusses studies by @wjbranchett.bsky.social et al. (rupress.org/jem/article/...) and @bengern.bsky.social et al. (rupress.org/jem/article/...), in Insights: rupress.org/jem/article/...
Insights from Andrea Cooper: Mtb drives expression of type I IFN–mediated #neutrophil accumulation, which limits interaction btwn CD4 T cells & macrophages. Failure to limit type I IFN very early in the process allows rapid progression of disease rupress.org/jem/article/... #Tuberculosis
Asymptomatic Tuberculosis in Children with Household Exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis ✅ Just Accepted #IDSky 🔗 https://bit.ly/47csDBA
Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by acute, intermittent, recurrent episodes of airway inflammation. A decade of work developing the tools, techniques and collaborations needed to figure out how CD4+ T cells in the lungs propagate disease can be found here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Tertiary lymphoid structures support the development of allergen-specific progenitor CD4+ T cells
Tissue-resident memory CD4+ T cells (TRM) are key sentinels of the adaptive immune response that provide a rapid, robust inflammatory response upon reactivation in non-lymphoid tissues. While CD4+ TRM...
biorxiv.org
We are inviting applications for postdoctoral fellows in immunology of TB at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative, University of Cape Town. For more information see the attached ad: idm.uct.ac.za/media/739223
Our October issue is here! rupress.org/jem/issue/22... The cover image shows the lung of a mouse infected with M. #tuberculosis stained for #neutrophils (orange) normal lung parenchyma (blue), collagen (white) and CD4 T cells (green). See @bengern.bsky.social et al. rupress.org/jem/article/...
Treat pediatric CAP with 5 days of amox monotherapy. Check out our QI project here in @annalsofem.bsky.social using pre-clicked durations in order sets and an EHR-integrated pathway! #Pedsky #PedsIDSky #AntimicrobialStewardship #EM #PEM #EmergencyMedicine www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Clinical Pathway Revision Increases Amoxicillin Monotherapy and 5-Day Durations of Therapy for Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia in the Emergency Department and Urgent Care: A Quality Improvement...
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 5-day amoxicillin monotherapy as first-line treatment for pediatric uncomplicated community-acquired pne…
sciencedirect.com
A recent study from the Gerner and Urdahl labs at UW and @seattlechildrens.org uncovers fundamental determinants of tuberculosis lung pathology. This has important implications for new strategies to prevent or treat tuberculosis. 🧐 See the abstract in @jem.org : https://bit.ly/41IdeHA
Conflict between the innate & adaptive immune system responses determines the kind of damage lungs suffer when infected with TB Image made with @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social microscopy 📷 @bengern.bsky.social et al @seattlechildrens.org in @jem.org ➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025...
Happy to share our new pre-print, led by PhD student Linh Pham! We examine inhibition of MHC II expression by NRF2 during Mtb infection and its impact on innate-adaptive crosstalk. Special thanks to the Behar lab who helped us set up a T cell co-culture system for the project! #TB #immunology
NRF2 inhibition of alveolar macrophage MHC II expression during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.16.670319v1
We are hiring! The Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics is looking for faculty at the Assistant or Associate professor level (tenure track). Please consider joining our vibrant microbiology and immunology community at the University of Pittsburgh School of medicine
#WomenInSTEM becoming independent: People should feel free to be themselves and do great science. We asked ten women researchers about their science and the process of setting up a lab as an independent researcher: rupress.org/jem/article/...
Early and opposing #neutrophil and CD4 T cell responses shape pulmonary #tuberculosis pathology, say Benjamin Gern @bengern.bsky.social, Michael Gerner, Kevin Urdahl et al. rupress.org/jem/article/... #TB
In @jem.org, @bengern.bsky.social et al. show that the early interplay between #neutrophils & CD4 T cells is pivotal in determining #TB pathology, and that depleting neutrophils can improve outcomes even at late timepoints, which has therapeutic relevance rupress.org/jem/article/...
@bengern.bsky.social et al. show that the early interplay between #neutrophils & CD4 T cells is pivotal in determining #TB pathology, and that depleting neutrophils can improve outcomes even at late timepoints, which has therapeutic relevance rupress.org/jem/article/...
I’m excited to announce that our paper, describing early and opposing roles for neutrophils and CD4 T cells in determining #TB lesion structure, is out at @jem.org ! Huge thanks to my lab, and the Urdahl, @michael-gerner.bsky.social, and Aitchison labs who made this possible doi.org/10.1084/jem....
Tuberculosis continues to impair quality of life long after the antibiotics have finished... Need to work out how to prevent and treat these post-TB sequelae. #IDSky #TBSky
Contribution of Posttuberculosis Sequelae to Life-Years Lost from Tuberculosis Disease in the United States, 2015–2019 @atscommunity.bsky.social www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10....
Happy to share a preprint from the Angelo lab many years in the making. Read on for a saga of multiplexed imaging, immunometabolism, and TB granulomas with some fun side quests into the realms of geographical information sciences and transcriptomics… (1/20) doi.org/10.1101/2025...
The immunometabolic topography of tuberculosis granulomas governs cellular organization and bacterial control
Despite being heavily infiltrated by immune cells, tuberculosis (TB) granulomas often subvert the host response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection and support bacterial persistence. We prev...
doi.org
Very excited for this story to be out!! Check out our dissection of how type I IFN promotes NET release, which contributes to Mtb pathogenesis and is associated with granuloma necrosis. Congratulations to all authors!! www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
Type I IFN-mediated NET release promotes Mycobacterium tuberculosis replication and is associated with granuloma caseation
Sur Chowdhury et al. report that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection results in the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that promote Mtb replication and associate with tissue damage. Blocking NET release results in better control of Mtb replication, revealing a strategy for treating these deadly infections.
cell.com
Best #Nikolaus 🎅! Our paper on how the 🫁 microenvironment can shape #innate immunity against #viruses is out @sciimmunology.bsky.social This was a herculean effort brilliantly led by @pauljbaker.bsky.social who singlehandedly established the model in the lab during the pandemic. 🧪 #Immunosky 1/9
My new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, explores the history of our deadliest infectious disease. It's also about our horrifying present: TB still kills kills over a million people per year, even though it's been curable since the 1950s. Signed copies can be ordered at everythingistb.com
Ok, in time for the International Day of Pride in STEM, here's a starter pack of LGBTQ+ immunologists. Since not everyone is open (or able to be open) about their identities, we're only adding people by request, so let me know if you'd like to be added #Immunosky #PrideInSTEM 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ go.bsky.app/7WTavcd
We are hiring a technician! This position is a great fit for motivated individuals who plan on going to graduate/medical school and want to study host-pathogen interactions using advanced imaging and immunologic tools. Please spread the word! seattlechildrens.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...
So happy to share the latest preprint from our lab, led by grad student @PameliaLim9! Pamelia set out to study alveolar #macrophage innate sensing and found that lack of c-Maf and IL-10 enables Type I IFNs to enhance responses to low-dose LPS. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Absence of c-Maf and IL-10 enables Type I IFN enhancement of innate responses to low-dose LPS in alveolar macrophages
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
biorxiv.org
I’m excited to share that this collaborative effort with Kevin Urdahl, Michael Gerner, and many others is out! We show that preexisting immunity-driven CD4 T cells and neutrophils are opposing forces in determining tuberculosis lesion structure and pathogenesis. #tuberculosis
CD4-mediated immunity shapes neutrophil-driven tuberculous pathology
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
biorxiv.org
This is an excellent article. Kudo's to Katherine Wu for capturing the complexity. www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
A Big Misconception About the World’s Greatest Infectious Killer
The dogma that tuberculosis is lying dormant in the bodies of 2 billion people might be wrong.
theatlantic.com
Are you a faculty member at a SEATRAC affiliated institution (UW, Fred Hutch, Seattle Children’s) - check this out seatrac.uw.edu/funding/n2tb #TBResearch #WomenInSTEM
Hello! I’m a Pediatric Infectious Diseases physician-scientist at Seattle Children’s. My lab studies spatially resolved host-pathogen interactions in order to understand how to better treat infection diseases, focusing on tuberculosis. I’m looking forward to building the scientific community here!