New paper out! From my Postdoc at the Gresham Lab, @nyu.edu . Every cellular IAV infection is a small bottleneck. If 10 virions infect a cell, 1 or 2 replicates. Stochastic intracellular replication dynamics shape population-level evolution in Influenza A Virus academic.oup.com/ve/article/d...

Stochastic intracellular replication dynamics shape population-level evolution in Influenza A Virus

Abstract. Understanding the sources of genetic diversity in Influenza A Virus (IAV) infections is crucial for understanding the mechanisms of viral evoluti

academic.oup.com

🚨New Pre-Print!🚨 Want to search for variation in influenza A virus sequences, but find the amount of data overwhelming? Wondering if new avian flu strains have signs of mammalian adaptation? The #Flu-MutationExplorer, a new online tool, can help (1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 detected in a greater crested tern at Robe, Limestone Coast, South Australia. All previous detections in Australia were in migratory birds that had likely brought the disease from the subantarctic, but the greater crested tern is a resident seabird in Australia.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo ago

Deadly H5 bird flu found in local Australian seabird for first time

With Ebola impacting parts of Africa, and all the travel bans, I can already see stigmatizing language in the media Journalists must do better and this essay offers some tips (with Annalisa Merelli) 10 best practices for equitable global health journalism qz.com/10-best-prac...

10 best practices for equitable global health journalism

If journalists want to help make global health more inclusive, they can start with these guidelines

qz.com

Why do influenza viruses make ludicrously long filamentous virions? Probably lots of reasons, but in a new study Lu Liu et al. provide evidence for an appealing hypothesis: filaments are more stable in acidic solutions and hence survive for longer in aerosols www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨New paper!🚨 Our study showing that H5N1 influenza viruses can remain infectious in unpasteurised milk for, basically, as long as you are likely to encounter that milk has now been published: www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

🚨New pre-print!🚨 Influenza viruses need proteases to become infectious. Here, we identify the proteases needed for influenza D virus entry, and show that proteases in the human airway are more than capable of activating this non-human virus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨New pre-print!🚨 Using a panel of different H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b viruses and human seasonal influenza, and mammary explants from common beef and dairy cattle breeds, we add to the growing data showing that H5N1 spillovers into cattle should be seen as an ongoing risk www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨New pre-print!🚨 Because influenza virions are highly variable in form no single method can show their molecular architecture in detail. Here, we integrate multiple structural and compositional approaches to identify new features of these beautiful virus particles www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to advertise a fully funded PhD with @socialinfluenza.bsky.social investigating how influenza virus evolution differs between different avian hosts (and how this impacts pandemic potential). Joint between @pirbrightinst.bsky.social + @cvrinfo.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

FULLY FUNDED PhD - Visualising avian influenza virus tropism and co-infection in avian hosts at University of Glasgow on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - FULLY FUNDED PhD - Visualising avian influenza virus tropism and co-infection in avian hosts at University of Glasgow, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

So pleased to contribute to this preprint on H5N1 spillover from birds to dairy cattle from the Moo Flu Crew, led by the excellent @jevp.bsky.social. We traced both B3.13 in Texas and D1.1 in Nevada and Arizona to look at how the virus evolves and what changed👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Really excited to be able to share our latest preprint, describing how during its evolution in cattle, H5N1 has got better at using a type of alternative receptor that's abundant in cows, but not found in humans and birds. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

www.euronews.com/health/2026/...

Italy confirms first European human H9N2 avian flu case

The first human case of H9N2 avian flu in Europe has been detected in Italy in a person who travelled from outside the continent.

euronews.com

🚨New Influenza Tool🚨 Interested in IAV mutations? Looking for markers of mammalian adaptation? Frustrated by converting between IAV numbering systems? The #Flu-MutationExplorer, a new tool from @cvrbioinfo.bsky.social and @royalvetcollege.bsky.social, is here to help: flu-gdb.cvr.gla.ac.uk (1/n)

Cryo-EM structure reveals how influenza A virus NEP binds the viral polymerase at a regulatory hotspot, coordinating RNA synthesis and nuclear export. Fantastic collaboration with @loiccarrique.bsky.social and Jon Grimes. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

First evidence in Europe of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 infection in a dairy cow. Antibodies against H5N1 detected in a cow with mastitis and respiratory signs on a Dutch dairy farm at the end of December. A cat on that farm had died from H5N1. www.tweedekamer.nl/downloads/do...

Really excited our paper about how H5N1 rapidly adapted to cattle (and how these adaptations also increased its ability to infect cells from the human respiratory tract) is now published! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Spillover of #influenza A viruses from animals to humans represents a threat to our health. In this Perspective, Silke Stertz @virology.uzh.ch discusses emerging research that suggests some influenza A viruses can enter host cells via MHC-II receptors across species 🧪 #virology

A new path to spillover: MHC-II entry of influenza A viruses

Spillover of influenza A viruses from animals to humans represents a threat to our health. This Perspective discusses emerging research that suggests some influenza A viruses can enter host cells via…

plos.io

🚨New Paper!🚨 Some like it hot: Matt Turnbull and @samjwilsonphd.bsky.social collaborated with groups from @cvrinfo.bsky.social, @cam.ac.uk and beyond to show that, while our fevers are hot enough to control human flu, they don't protect against avian influenzas adaptd to the hotter bodies of birds

Avian-origin influenza A viruses tolerate elevated pyrexic temperatures in mammals

Host body temperature can define a virus’s replicative profile—influenza A viruses (IAVs) adapted to 40° to 42°C in birds are less temperature sensitive in vitro compared with human isolates adapted t...

science.org

H5N1 in bats - what should we think about this? @itingtu.bsky.social explains her recent preprint (a collaboration with multiple @cvrinfo.bsky.social groups) in a really nice interview with @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

Vampire bats may have contracted H5N1 bird flu in Peru, raising worries about further spread

Bats could form a bridge between marine and terrestrial mammals, scientists say

science.org

I-Ting Tu@itingtu.bsky.social · 11mo ago

My 1st first-author paper is out as a preprint! Excited to share the fascinating story of marine-feeding vampire bats 🌊🦇 We found that marine-diet bats were exposed to #H5#AvianFlu 🦠 from marine wildlife and could potentially spread it to livestock via blood feed🩸 doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.09.686930

On the first day of Christmas, a virus gave to me...

If you are looking for a PhD in the UK, please check out the LIDo program - www.lido-dtp.ac.uk/apply. If you are interested in viruses and making genetically edited salmon, please look up my icase project. International students are welcome to apply! Please reach out if you have questions.

Really excited to have been a part of this study, lead by @willharv.bsky.social on how reassortment of H5N1 in birds has lead to a 'specialist' genotype that thrives in seabirds and drives summer/spring (rather than winter) waves of poultry outbreaks www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Genetic reassortment and diversification of host specificity have driven evolutionary trajectories of lineages of panzootic H5N1 influenza

Since 2021, subclade 2.3.4.4b A(H5N1) high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) viruses have undergone changes in ecology and epidemiology, causing a panzootic of unprecedented scale in wild and domes...

biorxiv.org

Want to move to Switzerland? We are looking for a postdoc to study airborne viruses: careers.epfl.ch/job/Lausanne... @linseymarr.bsky.social @lakdawalalab.bsky.social @corsiaq.bsky.social @influenzal.bsky.social @chuckhaas.bsky.social

Our lab is looking for a post-doc to investigate the effect of air composition on respiratory virus transmission! If you're someone with experience in virus inactivation, cryo-EM and fluorescence microscopy, and/or aerosol science, apply here: careers.epfl.ch/job/Lausanne...

Something a little different. If you're looking for interesting science to engage with older school children, I would like to plug my students' work on cow flu - where it came from and what risk it might pose. doi.org/10.1042/bio_... PS> Not peer reviewed but was fun to help write!

Excited to present the first review from my lab! Which mutations allow H5 influenza to jump into humans or other mammals? How close is H5 to a pandemic? This review has the answers and explains the molecular mechanism behind the mutations. Led by @fcapelastegui.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1099/jgv....

🚨🔎 Out now in PLOS Pathogens ! 🔎🚨 This project has taken us @cvrinfo.bsky.social @uofgmvls.bsky.social on a wild and wonderful journey. I am excited to share our story of how influenza A viruses (IAVs) exploit cell death to facilitate its covert spread. N/1 journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Induction of tunnelling nanotube-like structures by influenza A viruses requires the onset of apoptosis

Author summary Influenza A viruses (IAVs) spread efficiently through the respiratory tract in the form of extracellular virus particles, but can be restricted by neutralising antibodies and antiviral ...

journals.plos.org

Our analysis of the second incursion of H5N1 viruses (genotype D1.1) into dairy cattle in the US is now posted to virological virological.org/t/timing-and...

Timing and molecular characterisation of the transmission to cattle of H5N1 influenza A virus genotype D1.1, clade 2.3.4.4b

Jonathan E. Pekar, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Thomas P. Peacock, The Pirbright Institute, Woking, UK, GU24 0NF; Department of Infectious Disease, Imper...

virological.org

🎺 PhD studentship available at @lshtm.bsky.social and RVC! @influenzal.bsky.social and I are advertising for a project to investigate the unexpected phenomenon that mutagenic antiviral drugs can give rise to viruses with hundreds of mutations which are still viable. 🧵 www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/fees-a...