iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Antigen Evolution & Design Lab

Jumpei Ito @jampei2.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

New preprint! We show that poxvirus gene repertoires are shaped by expansion-biased birth-and-death dynamics and genome architectural constraints. Led by Arnon Plianchaisuk (@chainorato) in our lab. Please share! (1/10) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

First official lab-related trip! Had a great time visiting Daniel Ruzek's lab in Brno last week! 🇨🇿 Discussing cool science and thinking of future collaboration! 😁 (+a visit to Gregor Mendel's museum and greenhouse! 🫛 🫛)

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Reposted by Antigen Evolution & Design Lab

Spyros Lytras @spyroslytras.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Come work on exciting AI for biology projects in Paris!! 🇫🇷 Details and application below, deadline sept 1st!

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Reposted by Antigen Evolution & Design Lab

Xin Hou @xinhou.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Come if you want! 🖥️🦠

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Reposted by Antigen Evolution & Design Lab

Max Bonomi @bonomimax.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Fantastic opportunity at @pasteur.fr in Spyros’ brand new lab, especially if you like protein design 🎉

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

🚨 JOB ALERT🚨 We are very excited to be hiring the lab's ✨very first postdoc✨! Work on new AI technologies for decoding antigen protein evolution in a fresh research environment, at the heart of Paris 🇫🇷 Details & link to apply: research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd... Deadline: Sep 1st

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Reposted by Antigen Evolution & Design Lab

Spyros Lytras @spyroslytras.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

New review out! At @annualreviews.bsky.social for Virology! Check out the summary thread below 👇👇👇

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Reposted by Antigen Evolution & Design Lab

Mahan Ghafari @mghafari.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Very happy to have been part of this work w/ Spyros Lytras and Joe Grove! New structural prediction tools are opening up exciting possibilities for virus discovery and for reconstructing their deep evolutionary histories, as we explore in our new review article www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

annualreviews.org

Studying the Deep Evolution of Viruses in the Era of Artificial Intelligence Structure Prediction

High mutation rates erode viral sequence similarity, obscuring deep evolutionary history. While protein structure is far more conserved than sequence, its use in evolutionary studies has historically ...

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

More research on these exciting areas to come from our lab soon! 👀👀

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Lastly we discuss how amino acid changes relate to structural changes and how combining the two can help us resolve much deeper nodes of the virus protein evolutionary tree.

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

d. Evolution Did complex folds evolve convergently or from a single origin? Comprehensive structural surveys across the tree of life make it possible to formally investigate this while accounting for the frequent protein exchange between viruses and their hosts.

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

c. Function structural conservation over long timescales is driven by purifying selection to maintain biological function. Similarity to well-characterized folds allows us to infer likely functions of divergent sequences and map the mechanisms across the virosphere.

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

b. Taxonomy structural relatedness can reconcile high-level virus taxonomy by identifying where orphan taxa fit in the current system.

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

a. Discovery structural searches can expand the known virosphere, uncovering the viral identity of proteins previously classified as metagenomic dark matter.

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

before going into areas where these predictions will be (or are already) advancing our undertanding of virus evolution:

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

We outline all the new databases of predicted virus protein structures such as - the well-known @ebi.embl.org AFDB alphafold.ebi.ac.uk - @martinsteinegger.bsky.social lab's BFVD bfvd.foldseek.com - and our Viro3D database viro3d.cvr.gla.ac.uk

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

In our review we discuss some of the exciting new prospects that AI structure predictions have unlocked when it comes to studying the most ancient parts of virus protein evolution.

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Reposted by Antigen Evolution & Design Lab

Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Congratulations to @spyroslytras.bsky.social on launching his lab at the Pasteur in Paris! Looks like there will be some exciting openings at this lab soon... 🧪 #evosky #virosky

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Reposted by Antigen Evolution & Design Lab

Institut Pasteur | 130 years of biomedical research @pasteur.fr · 07/07/2026

🔬 Meet Spyros Lytras, one of our new G5 group leaders! Using AI to predict viral protein evolution, he's designing vaccines for strains that don't yet exist. No more waiting for threats to emerge—be ready ahead of time. The future of pandemic preparedness. 🧬 📖 www.pasteur.fr/en/research-...

pasteur.fr

Predicting viral evolution with AI

Spyros Lytras is one of four young scientists selected in 2025 to lead new research groups at the Institut Pasteur. He has headed the “Antigen Evolution & Design laboratory” 5-year Group (G5) since Ju...

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

we'll be looking for people soon! keep an eye out (or get in touch in advance) 👀👀

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Antigen Evolution & Design Lab @antigenevo.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Inaugural post! We are a brand new lab @pasteur.fr studying how pathogen antigens evolve and how we can exploit these proteins' evolution to make better vaccines! Read a few words from the currently sole member of the lab @spyroslytras.bsky.social below! 😁 www.pasteur.fr/en/research-...

pasteur.fr

Predicting viral evolution with AI

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