iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

We are looking to recruit a Ph.D. student to start in Q1 2026 for an exciting new project that is part of the newly funded SynthImmune Cluster of Excellence. Are you interested in the intersection of virology and immunology? Please see the attached info and apply at application.synthimmune.de.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Feeling deeply honored to receive this year's Aventis Life Science Bridge Award. Grateful to the Aventis Foundation for their support, and to my colleagues, mentors, collaborators, and my amazing research team who make this work possible. Excited to keep pushing our HIV research forward together.

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Reposted by Frauke Muecksch

Center for Integrative Infectious Diseases Research (CIID) @ciid-heidelberg.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Die Abteilung Virologie am Zentrum für Infektiologie lädt gemeinsam mit der Aidshilfe Heidelberg am 1. Juli 2025 um 17 Uhr in die Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften am Karlsplatz zu einer interaktiven Veranstaltung ein.

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Reposted by Frauke Muecksch

Center for Integrative Infectious Diseases Research (CIID) @ciid-heidelberg.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Applications are open for new Schaller Research Group Leader Positions in the field of Infectious Diseases at Heidelberg University. These generously funded positions of 5+2 years are a great opportunity for young virologists! Find out more here: www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/in...

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Thank you for this! Can you add me as well?

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Reposted by Frauke Muecksch

Christian Gaebler @cgaebler.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

🚨 One week left to apply! 🚨 Don’t miss the chance to join the Gaebler & Ibrahim Labs for a cutting-edge postdoc position at the intersection of viral immunology, virology & gene regulation. 👉Apply here charite.hrpuls.de/de/job-offer...

charite.hrpuls.de

Postdoctoral Scientist (d/f/m) in Life Sciences/Genetics

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Received some nice news today - humbled to be included in the #Clarivate #HighlyCited2024 list! Very grateful to the incredible scientists who contributed to this. To all past & present colleagues, collaborators and mentors! clarivate.com/news/clariva... full list 👉 clarivate.com/highly-cited...

clarivate.com

Clarivate Reveals Highly Cited Researchers 2024 List | Clarivate

Prioritizing research integrity with enhanced filters to address publication and citation manipulation

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 24/07/2024

Organized by @LeibnizLIV scientist Ulrike Lange and @HOPEforHIVCure CAB member Sydney Norman! Sponsored by the German Center for Infection Research @DZIF_

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 24/07/2024

Interesting and important discussion about why language matters when talking about our research. With @RaifDerrazi and Ebony Gordon (@HOPEforHIVCure), @AHoelzemer (@DZIF_ TTU HIV, @LeibnizLIV) and Marc Franke (TTU HIV community representative).

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 24/07/2024

It was great fun to participate in yesterday’s panel discussion of the DZIF/HOPE workshop at #AIDS2024 - Bridging Communities: Enhancing Engagement through Language in HIV Research. @DZIF_ @HOPEforHIVCure

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 24/07/2024

The next Berlin patient. Second #HIVCure @ChariteBerlin. @c_gaebler live on stage at @AIDS_conference presenting this remarkable case in Munich! @iasociety

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 22/07/2024

"One person dies of AIDS every minute. That is something that must change." - German Chancellor @OlafScholz at the #AIDS2024 opening ceremony in Munich. I could not agree more and I am looking forward to the next days hearing about science and interacting with the community.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

Wir freuen uns auf viele interessierte Besucher im @CiidHeidelberg anlässlich unserer Veranstaltung zum #WorldAIDSDay2023. @DZIF_ @uniklinik_hd

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 27/07/2023

Had such a good time the last 4 days at #IAS2023! My first time serving as a Rapporteur, so this was pretty intense 😄 Leaving with many good memories! Pictured is Lish @ndhlovulab presenting our team’s basic science highlights in the Rapporteur session!

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 28/05/2023

Pictured: @gopaperboats, @Steph_Ullrich and Djordje Salai (@CiidHeidelberg Postdoc/PhD students from the Fackler, Müller and Kräusslich labs) who all gave great talks! Go Heidelberg :)

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 28/05/2023

On my way back from a fantastic #cshlretro meeting @cshlmeetings! Had such a good time listening to great talks, having interesting discussions at posters and chatting with old and new friends!

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 05/06/2022

So many friends and colleagues @UniHeidelberg and @RockefellerUniv, including the @PaulBieniasz, @theodora_nyc and @NussenzweigL lab teams that I had the honor of working with throughout those years and who continue to inspire me! Thank you!

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 05/06/2022

My Bachelor (Anna Starzinski-Powitz), Master (Ralf Jacob), PhD (Hans-Georg Kräusslich) and Postdoc (Paul Bieniasz, but also Theodora Hatziioannou and Michel Nussenzweig) mentors from whom I have learned so much.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 05/06/2022

Time has been flying and given that I will be moving soon I felt this needed some proper, even though last minute, announcement. It is a dream come true and I am extremely grateful to my friends, colleagues and mentors who have supported me along the way.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 05/06/2022

I am beyond excited to announce that I will be starting as a Chica and Heinz Schaller research group leader at the @CiidHeidelberg very soon - in July 2022 to be exact! I am thrilled to join the amazing infectious disease community in Heidelberg and can’t wait to get to work!

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 22/04/2022

Our most recent work on how mRNA booster vaccination modulates B cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 and its variants is now out in @Nature! A big thank you to the entire team behind this work, especially to @VinciZijun, Alice Cho & @c_gaebler. You are the best! disq.us/t/4718b09

disq.us

Increased memory B cell potency and breadth after a SARS-...

A third dose of an mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 result...

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

16/ And in real life? To put it very simple: everyone should get their 3rd shot. This will allow the body to react to future infection with rapid production of large amounts of antibodies that are more diverse & potent and with this more likely to keep us out of the hospital.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

15/ It is those cells that produce large amounts of antibodies within days after infection. Thus, rapid recall by a diversified & expanded memory B cell compartment is likely to be one of the key mechanisms contributing to enhanced protection against severe disease by a 3rd dose.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

14/ What does this mean: The 3rd dose boosts plasma antibody responses, but the levels are insufficient to prevent Omicron breakthrough infection in many. However, the 3rd dose also elicits increased number of memory B cells that express more potent and broader antibodies.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

13/ In fact, antibodies isolated after the 3rd dose are at least as broad as antibodies obtained from a cohort of convalescent unvaccinated individuals 12 months after infection with 94% and 56% of all tested antibodies neutralizing Beta and Omicron pseudoviruses, respectively.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

12/ When extending the analysis to unique clones and singlets found early after the 2nd and 3rd vaccine dose, we found that the proportion of Omicron-neutralizing antibodies increased from 15% after the 2nd dose to 50% after the 3rd dose.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

11/ We then compared the neutralizing breadth of clonal antibody pairs isolated 5m after the 2nd and 1m after the 3rd dose. Most antibody pairs showed exceptionally broad neutralization and there was little change in antibody breadth within the analyzed pairs.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

10/ Compared to persistent clones, new clones appear to target more conserved regions of the RBD. Several mechanisms could account for this antigenic shift including epitope masking by high affinity antibodies elicited by earlier vaccine doses.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

9/ Using BLI experiments we show significant differences in the epitope distribution among RBD-binding antibodies between early time points after the 2nd and 3rd dose. Those differences can be accounted for primarily by emergence of new clones and singlets.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

8/ We detected a significant improvement in the neutralizing potency of antibodies expressed after the 3rd mRNA vaccine dose. Newly detected singlets and clones of expanded memory B cells account for most of this improvement.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

7/ In addition, however, the 3rd dose elicits newly emerging clones and singlets that show increased somatic hypermutation indicative of germinal center residence and persisting evolution.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

6/ Looking closer at those cells, we observed an expansion of persisting anti-RBD-specific memory B cells which only acquired few additional somatic mutations. This indicates that the 3rd dose expands persisting clones through the germinal center-independent compartment.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

5/ When looking at the memory compartment we saw that individuals that received a 3rd dose showed significantly increased numbers of RBD-binding memory B cells compared to the 2nd dose or infected individuals.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

4/ As many others we saw that the 3rd mRNA vaccine dose results in a substantial increase in anti-Omicron neutralizing antibodies. Titers nevertheless remain lower than against Wuhan-Hu-1 which likely explains why many vaccinees remain susceptible to Omicron-infection.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

3/ We evaluated immune responses of 43 participants after receiving the 1st, 2nd, and, finally, 3rd Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccine dose. We obtained, sequenced, and analyzed 1370 antibody sequences and cloned almost 500 antibodies for functional analysis.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

2/ As before, an awesome collaboration of @NussenzweigL, @PaulBieniasz, @theodora_nyc, with @VinciZijun, Alice Cho, @c_gaebler and many many others. (Very) Detailed summary of our not yet peer-reviewed work below.

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 15/02/2022

1/ Our new work on antibody immunity following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA booster vaccination provides insight into why a 3rd dose of a vaccine that was not designed to protect against variants is so effective at preventing severe disease after Omicron-infection....

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 31/12/2021

Now out in peer-reviewed form: Plasma Neutralization of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant | @NEJM www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc… Thank you to everyone involved, especially Fabian, Yiska, Eva, @_JustinDaSilva, @PaulBieniasz, @theodora_nyc,...

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 11/08/2021

This is not about COVID for a change ;) I am excited to share my first HIV-1 paper in @PaulBieniasz’s lab! In collaboration with @CharlesBNader and @jinweizhang we show the HIV-1 matrix-tRNA complex structure and it’s implications for Gag localization tinyurl.com/4n6uarx5

tinyurl.com

ScienceDirect

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 31/07/2021

Great collaboration between the @PaulBieniasz @theodora_nyc @NussenzweigL and @bjorkmanlab labs! Thank you to Yiska Weisblum, @cobarnes27 and Fabian Schmidt as well as @julioclorenzi, @Doctor_DSB and @VinciZijun and so many more. It is a pleasure working with you!

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Frauke Muecksch @fraukemuecksch.bsky.social · 31/07/2021

Very happy that one of our recent studies is now out in Immunity: antibody evolution leads to higher affinity antibodies with increased potency and breadth that can neutralize other sarbecoviruses and limit the options for viral escape....

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