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Ben Krishna

@benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social
3.6K followers 2.5K following 131 posts

Associate PI in the Dept Medicine, University of Cambridge. Immunologist/virologist. Previously Long COVID, now working on human cytomegalovirus reactivation

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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It’s quite alarming how many targeted videos I’ve had in the last few days asking me not to join the army
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I'm glad the journals have two factor authentication. It would be awful if a hacker got in and wrote all those reviews for me
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Woke my fiancé up this morning, told her the news and then had to say “it’s ok, he did very well for a bin”
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Reposted by Ben Krishna
Marc Veldhoen @marcveld.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Well, it is SARS-CoV-2 infection, and no, it does not damage "the immune system". Immune weakening (stress, medication, old age) and inflammatory mediators (any infection, trauma) can all awaken latent viruses. This is NOT SARS-CoV-2 specific.
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I’m amazed that some students turn up able to write code and others can’t use excel. I genuinely can’t figure out if they’re better or worse on average than my generation of students
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Remembering this quote: "Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you’re the one filming it." www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce...
bbc.co.uk
Suffolk wildfire not yet under control, fire service says, but no risk to nearby nuclear plant
A major incident has been declared - one holidaymaker tells us he was woken up by "hammering" on his door and told to evacuate immediately.
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Cambridge City council's website is purposefully difficult to get into, because I'd hate if someone hacked my account and paid my council tax for me
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
There's basically at least one long review article for every gene under the sun, all published in late 2020 because so many scientists were locked out of the lab during the early pandemic
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Fun fact, we've had 5 Prime Ministers since 2016. We also had 5 Prime Ministers between 1979 and 2016.
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Sorry, but what a choice of words
A manuscript starting with the words: "While COVID-19 has gained popularity as a pandemic".
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
I don't think we factor viral dosage in enough when we consider symptoms. A toddler sneezed in my face 9 days ago and it's the worst I've felt since getting COVID in 2021. I bet the sheer amount of virus I was inoculated with played a role in the severity of disease!
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
Let my dad choose the family Christmas film. Last year was Blue Velvet, this year it’s Contagion
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
The early phase of AI image generation was artistically brilliant. Prompt: Boris Jonhson observing a toilet
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Really pleased to see this work, looking at stability of the immune system after Long COVID, is published! www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... I'll write an explanation of our findings (and further scientific context) soon!
microbiologyresearch.org
Robust antibody and T cell responses tracked longitudinally in patients with long COVID
After severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, a minority of patients experience persistent or emerging symptoms, termed ‘long coronavirus disease (COVID)’ or post-acute...
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
I'm so incompetent that I just got a rejection letter for a job I didn't apply to. At least I apparently performed well at the interview?
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Oddly was discussing this last night, I don’t think I rented a place with a living room between 2009 and 2017. I doubt it’s got better! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Houses without lounges are a reality for renters
Nearly a third of homes advertised on a property sharing website had no living room.
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
I love how you can word a sentence clearly, but reviewer 1 and 2 don't like the sentence so you carefully reword. Then it comes back and gets carefully reworded again. Months of back and forth before acceptance. Then the copyeditor says "correct for clarity" and it goes back to how it was!
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Tidying out my parents place, this folder has every western blot I ran during my PhD
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
I'd love to know whether... 1. I'm just getting old 2. UX no longer exists 3. UX as a concept has changed ...because I really struggle to log into websites these days
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
I'd love to understand why my local neighbourhood's section of NextDoor needs so many posts about Jeffrey Epstein
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
I'm reading a very persuasive review linking disease Y to mechanism X. The issue of publication bias is so interesting though as I've spoken with plenty of people who failed to find X in disease Y. The negative data is either unpublishable or goes into small journals that people don't read....
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Helpful
Google AI informs me that Ken Watanabe is not a herpesvirus and has nothing to do with herpesvirusesGoogle AI tells me that Ken Watanabe works on the herpesvirus HHV-6
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
My favourite part of #ihw2025 was the student explaining their poster who said: "This is the mechanism we propose, which is supported by the data. I don't think we have it right really but its the best explanation we have". Quite appreciated the honesty!
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Having to explain Yu Gi Oh to an Emeritus Professor #ihw2025
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Back in 2021 I was unemployed so I asked the SLC if I could stop repaying my student loan until I got a new job. They would only recognise me as unemployed if I took unemployment benefits. I actually got a job before I managed to get unemployment benefits….
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Doing chemical safety training today, not sure why the videos all have a jazzy intro but I'm thoroughly enjoying it www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyxB...
youtube.com
How to tackle a laboratory spillage.
YouTube video by James Leith
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
This is probably the most exciting result I’ve had in about 18 months!
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Update, I asked them to discuss similar work in the field. They said no! What a weirdly convoluted way to get your manuscript rejected
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
I’m amazed how many papers I read which don’t compare their data to similar studies. “We found xyz”. Ok but similar studies found wxz, why? It feels so fundamentally incurious that you wouldn’t discuss this after doing 2-3 years of work?
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
I note that when you agree to review a paper within a week, they don't tell you how long the paper is beforehand
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
The apheresis cone price has gone up. Feels weird that the cost of human blood is subject to inflation
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
It feels so tacky now that the queen’s death was first announced on twitter. It shows how important boring, stable institutions are
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
When my father retired, he decided to take up art as a hobby. I don't know much about art and he doesn't know much about science so we both just sort of nodded and said "very nice" at each other's work. The most I can say is that he seems to like chalk and pastels, like the piece I've attached 1/4
My dad's pastel drawing of a Portugese cistern in El Jadida, Morocco
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
30 years after the end of the Cold War and Greece is still considered Western Europe and Poland Eastern Europe
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
I always wonder how best to review manuscripts with suboptimal English. Like I understand what they mean but it's not how it ought to be said. I refuse to correct English line by line, and I really think it's the journal's job to sort out
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
It’s another group finding overactive CD8 T cells in Long COVID! They focus more on IL-3 than IFN-y www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Hyper-reactivity of CD8+ T cells and high expression of IL-3 correlates with occurrence and severity of Long-COVID
Following SARS-CoV-2 infection, some individuals develop Long-COVID-syndrome lasting for more than 3 months. We analyzed blood samples from patients w…
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Giving blood on the hottest day of the year. Wore a white jumper. Peak planning
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
I really want to avoid being political on this account. Or a millennial book nerd… …But if I wrote a popular book where the bad guys’ colour are green and silver, I’d avoid taking celebratory photos wearing those exact colours?
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
The academic career has really delayed my family life, but I hadn’t realised how bad it was
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
I feel like dentistry is just the modern version of blood letting
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
My dad: “I want to go on twitter and say rude things about Elon Musk but I’ve forgotten my password”
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
One day someone will say: “hey Ben, aren’t you Burmese?” And it won’t be in response to a natural disaster, civil war, genocide…
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Shrinkflation: my lunch costs the same but is smaller and now advertised as a low calorie option
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
I know I've complained before but this manuscript is 28 pages and 197 citations and Frontiers gave me 3 days to review it
I've received 4 emails in 3 days from Frontiers about a resubmitted manuscript
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
My student's presenting her rotation project work today. She had two results suggesting we're on to something interesting, and two suggesting we've got everything backwards. She's worried how the audience is going to take this but I think ending the project on a cliff hanger is brilliant!
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Love that Greece is Western Europe but Poland is Eastern Europe
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Student today: “I would hate to do a PhD project and find that it diverges into something else entirely” Oh boy
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
I think I should retire now while I'm ahead
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
I did think at the time: “it feels like there’s a hole in my glove” and “ponceau will stain my hand pink for a week” But there you go
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Ben Krishna @benjaminkrishn3.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Odd choice or words from my student or do I ask for a wellness check?
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