Excited to announce I am starting as Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester this week! I am #hiring a #postdoc in Manchester, to work on human intestinal lymphocytes in #Coeliac disease, please get in touch if interested. @lydiabeckeriii.bsky.social

Camp Summer2023: We're Hiring

ALT: Camp Summer2023: We're Hiring

static.klipy.com

· #AcademicSky · #EduSky · #SciSky · #AI · Scientists using LLMs will ‘do more, less well’, modelling study predicts

Scientists using LLMs will ‘do more, less well’, modelling study predicts

Research suggests that the combination of incentives to publish and the use of large language models will lead to more papers, but they will be less refined.

nature.com

Weirdly AI is making me a more productive writer because any time I get stuck, or run out of momentum on a document, I ask myself "What are you going to do, Richy? Ask the machine for help?" and then I'm suddenly fueled by sufficient spite to keep going.

If you’ve just completed an undergraduate degree and are interested in converting to a career in neuroscience, we still have places for 2026/27 on the Applied Neuroscience MSc programme at the University of Dundee, a one-year course with a summer research project. Find out more: uod.ac.uk/app-neuro

Applied Neuroscience MSc

Get an advanced understanding of the brain and nervous system. Learn how to use it to solve real-world research problems and uncover new neuroscience knowledge

uod.ac.uk

So sad to hear about Sam Neill - he was a real one. Great advice here, especially for those of us in precarious career positions.

Daniel Benneworth-Gray@danielgray.com · 3w ago

Sam Neill on tackling depression and imposter syndrome when you’re between jobs.

I really believe the first question you should ask after realising a chatbot can do a task is: "Should we really be doing this task at all?"

Patrick Freyne@patrickfreyne.bsky.social · 4w ago

I really believe this is a deskilling programme not a skills programme. Whenever I see what folk are using AI for (& I'm obsessed with this) 4 times out of 5 it's a pointless, lazy use case responding to a preexisting lazy, pointless work practice. It's going to speed up the production of bad work.

If you are a researcher that uses slop machines to create figures for your talk, you are embarassing yourself

New manuscript from the lab online: Here we define that Notch/Dll1 via Goblet cell-ILC2 acts as checkpoint preceding a protozoa-driven Tuft cell response. Free download available here: www.science.org/eprint/XBEHH.... Hope you will find this interesting. 😘 #theonlylabever #immunosky @science.org

Goblet cells tune ILC2 activity through a gut-specific response checkpoint

Notch signaling tunes the environmental responsiveness of intestinal ILC2s.

science.org

I’m basically George Orwell - a grumpy, high tax liberal. I’m good with that.

We found maternal helminth infection can promote antiviral immunity in offspring 🤱🪱 www.cell.com/cell-host-mi... Don’t worry, we are not suggesting we reinfect everyone with worms! Instead, we identified a microbiota-derived metabolite, Indole-3-propionic acid, that enhances antiviral immunity!

Maternal helminths rewire the microbiota to promote offspring antiviral immunity

Fernandes et al. show that maternal helminths, long-standing mammalian partners, confer antiviral immunity to offspring via the microbiota-derived metabolite indole-3-propionic acid (IPA). This work r...

cell.com

Breaking: Jess Phillips resigns as safeguarding minister just ahead of the 1pm news bulletins

Urgh fine parasite immunology edition: malaria immunology, nematode immunology, cryptosporidium immunology

◥◤Kriston Capps 250@kristoncapps.bsky.social · 3mo ago

DC, Maryland, Virginia

Just a lovely news story, go Immunology and also go Sam Neill, a proper nice dude. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ap...

Sam Neill announces he is cancer-free after taking part in Australian clinical trial: ‘I’m very, very excited’

Jurassic Park actor is advocating for CAR T-cell therapy, which he underwent as part of a clinical trial, to be rolled out for blood cancer patients across Australia

theguardian.com

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

Job opportunity for a #FlowCytometry technician, School of Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK. We do cool flow with fungi, bacteria, diatoms, space particles, as well as mammalian cells. Spectral, conventional and sorts. Join us! Details here: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

I think the clocks in UK go back tonight. Or forward. Not sure. Is it forward

Having an office which adjoins the lab means that I have become highly sensitised to the soft "huh" that indicates you have ELISA results that have just developed on your bench. You'd better believe I will apparate at your elbow when I hear that noise.

a cartoon of homer simpson standing in front of a lush green field

Alt: a cartoon of homer simpson appearing out of a hedge (or Henry from his office)

media.tenor.com

Tonic for your GIN: gastrointestinal nematode immunomodulator vaccines

Tonic for your GIN: gastrointestinal nematode immunomodulator vaccines

No vaccines are currently available for any gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections of humans, despite a large global burden of disease. In livestock, limited helminth vaccines are available, while current anthelmintic treatments are waning in their effectiveness as resistance is developing. The reasons for the lack of vaccines are manifold but include the complexity of the parasite genomes, the lack of defined correlates of protection, and the immunomodulatory activities of GIN infections. In recent years, our knowledge of parasite immunomodulation has dramatically advanced. Here, we propose that vaccination approaches can be used to block either parasite immunomodulation or digestive processes, allowing effective ejection or starvation of these parasites. We compare this approach to vaccines against other pathogens and summarise data from rodent, livestock, and human infections.

dlvr.it

New review article published! I have rarely been prouder of a punny title. Unrelatedly, we are also pretty happy with this review - interesting area of using vaccines to block parasite immunomodulatory protein function, allowing their ejection. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Tonic for your GIN: gastrointestinal nematode immunomodulator vaccines

No vaccines are currently available for any gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections of humans, despite a large global burden of disease. In livesto…

sciencedirect.com

Last Valentines me and Danielle spent the night with the police searching the local woods for a suspicious character. This Valentines we had to go to the lab to rescue all our samples from a catastrophic power outage. Lifting freezers till 10pm. Romaaaance.

Delighted to see our new review online. It was an absolute pleasure to be invited to write this for @scienceimmuno.bsky.social with @judiallen.bsky.social & @james-ep.bsky.social - we hope you enjoy our overview of serous cavity #immunology ☀️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Immunobiology of the serous cavities

Local immune function and cross-tissue communication in the serous cavities are reviewed.

science.org

Impact tracking platform Researchfish will be closed down next year, its owners Elsevier have confirmed. Tom Williams reports #academicsky #impact https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/impact-tracking-tool-researchfish-be-closed-down-next-year

I realise its not the main thing here, but Denmark does not decide the Nobel Peace prize... Its based in Norway? Which is a different country? Also, obviously, insane.

Sharon 🪳🌹@sharonk.bsky.social · 7mo ago

mad king moment from the PBS Newshour correspondent

mad king moment from the PBS Newshour correspondent

Check out our latest study on the PfRIPR protein, essential for the malaria parasite to get inside our blood cells. We show how antibodies block the function of PfRIPR by preventing its flexible hinges from bending, or by stopping it from compacting as part of its mechanism.

I presume once you've reviewed and edited sufficient numbers of manuscripts, you max out your XP, level up, then start getting paid for it. Right?

"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se