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Louis Ates

@mycolates.bsky.social
2.4K followers 546 following 392 posts

Tuberculosis, immunology and microbiology. The PPE-guy. Preclinical lead TB vaccine development at BioNTech. Activity here strictly personal.

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Reposted by Louis Ates
Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hey all, If you're interested in the work we do on designing mRNA encoded TB vaccines at BioNTech, check out this webinar I gave recently for the @isv-news.bsky.social webinar series. youtube.com/playlist?lis...
youtube.com
ISV Webinar Series - YouTube
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Rita Strack @ritastrack.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I love typos now because it's a little sign AI didn't write it.
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Jan Claesen @claesengroup.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
... ... ... ... ... a) on its own? b) from a grant proposal with prelim data that was uploaded by someone working on this? Who's to say? 🤷‍♂️ www.anthropic.com/news/claude-...
anthropic.com
Claude discovers a novel enzyme system
In early results from our new life sciences research lab, Claude agents found an enzyme system whose function is still unknown.
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hey all, If you're interested in the work we do on designing mRNA encoded TB vaccines at BioNTech, check out this webinar I gave recently for the @isv-news.bsky.social webinar series. youtube.com/playlist?lis...
youtube.com
ISV Webinar Series - YouTube
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Nope nope nope.
static.klipy.com
Shawn Of The Dead Shovel Action
ALT: Shawn Of The Dead Shovel Action
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Conor (Conchúr) Meehan @conmeehan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We are looking for someone with a strong background in metagenomics and epidemiology to join our team for ~2 years at UKHSA to work on the mSCAPE programme. Please see (and share) the link below and feel free to message me with any enquiries. www.healthjobsuk.com/job/Canary_W...
healthjobsuk.com
Job vacancy: Senior Scientist (Epidemiology), UK Health Security Agency, Canary Wharf, London | trac.jobs
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Cas Blaauw @casblaauw.eurosky.social · 21/09/2026
I understand that being dogpiled sucks, and I'm sure you've gotten all kinds of stupid responses. That said, I do think these arguments also misrepresent the arguments that your fellow scientists are making. Three thoughts:
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yes! Wonderful! also , can't resist, we proposed the same model (we called it fusion- fragmentation) in our paper on the Murray collection, where we look at how those plasmids end up in fusions, or fragmented. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Pre- and postantibiotic epoch: The historical spread of antimicrobial resistance
Plasmids are now the primary vectors of antimicrobial resistance, but our understanding of how human industrialization of antibiotics influenced their evolution is limited by a paucity of data predati...
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Reminder to tune in today to hear me talk about tuberculosis vaccine design! In case you read this too late. It will also be recorded.
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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Please have a look at our review on a very interesting and underappreciated group of proteins... Getting a grip on StAR-related lipid-transfer (START) domain proteins in bacteria academic.oup.com/femsre/artic...
academic.oup.com
Getting a grip on StAR-related lipid-transfer (START) domain proteins in bacteria
Bacterial START domain proteins have a conserved helix-grip fold, but diverge from mammalian lipid transporters by utilizing a more versatile array of proc
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Can't believe I missed this. Thanks to Galit Alter for highlighting our work in this news and views article! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Industrial-scale mRNA expertise meets a century of tuberculosis immunology - Nature Immunology
A protective tuberculosis vaccine is needed. Two mRNA vaccines against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection exhibit robust immunogenicity and efficacy in rodents. Those same vaccines are currently in ...
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Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Does the new shingles vaccine (Shingrix) protect against cardiovascular disease (CVD)? Yes, according to a new 'natural experiment' study in @natmed.nature.com. But the truth is sadly far less convincing! Pull up a chair and let's examine another peer review failure in a Nature journal. 1/10 🧵
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Jan-Willem Veening @veeninglab.com · 26/08/2026
Great to see an independent validation of our 2017 PNAS work on MapZ. Less great to not see it even mentioned nor cited.. #MicroSky www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I look forward to presenting our preclinical work on mRNA encoded TB vaccines at BioNTech. Tune in on the @isv-news.bsky.social webinar September 9th. isv-online.org/event/isv-se...
isv-online.org
ISV September Webinar (EDT)
TITLE:  Preclinical Development of mRNA Based Tuberculosis Vaccines PRESENTER:  Louis Ates, PhD, BioNTech MODERATOR:  Sita Awasthi, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, ISV Outreach & Public Engagement ...
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Amazing TB vaccine PostDoc opportunities with one of the best in the field. Don't think Rasmus is on here. So thought I'd share like this #TBsky
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Christophe 🔬 Leterrier @christlet.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Appel aux collègues qui connaissent @parissaclay.bsky.social et alentours ! Ma fille a été acceptée au dernier moment à son #1 ParcourSup (CPES www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/formation/cy...) On ne connait pas du tout le coin, des conseils et plans pour logement, vie étudiante ? Merci 🙏
universite-paris-saclay.fr
Cycle Pluridisciplinaire d’études supérieures
Formation d'excellence en 3 ans dans le domaine de la science des données orientée vers les domaines applicatifs santé/société, le CPES est un diplôme pluridisciplinaire et interdisciplinaire exigeant...
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Ach Deutschland...
A picture of an "artwork" of a wooden sausage for sale for €1200.
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Dirk-Jan Scheffers 🟥 @dirkscheffers.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Fantastic 🧵 👇! For more information on the role of Dutch scientists in clandestine penicillin production during WW2 see citation below. 1/
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Jeff Groh @jeffgroh.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNAS
In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...
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Michael Glickman @michaelglickman.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Please repost! #microsky🦠 The Glickman Lab at MSK is recruiting! Projects in Mtb pathogenesis, basic biology of mycobacteria, and mycobacterial cancer therapies. See our publications here: tinyurl.com/3f386f4x Send CV and cover letter to: glickmanmycolab@gmail.com
scholar.google.com
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George Davey Smith @mendelrandom.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Does the (live) shingles vaccine protect against dementia? Fergus Hamilton and colleagues provide important evidence in a new preprint using hospital data from the whole of England in a regression discontinuity design from which we *don't* show evidence of a meaningful protective effect /cont
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ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
While my hair is hanging in there, I'm of the age where my social media feeds get targeted ads for hair loss products, e.g. Amazon's #1 bestselling "Nutrafol" As I study host-pathogen interactions, I wondered what other immune cell-themed grooming products might be envisioned .. Any other ideas?
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Joachim Goedhart @joachimgoedhart.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
The van Leeuwenhoek Centre for Advanced Microscopy (LCAM) organises the next edition of the "Functional Imaging" course at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Netherlands at Oct 5th-16th 2026. More info at: www.microscopycourse.nl?page_id=652
microscopycourse.nl
LCAM Functional Imaging (annual) – Microscopycourse
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
When people ask me what the phrase "artificial intelligence" means, my short answer is, it means "venture capitalists, give me some money". But OUP asked me for a longer answer, given here and summarized in the section headings: doi.org/10.1093/9780...
Screencap of page for linked article, reading: 

Contents
Introduction
AI Is a Research Field
AI Is an Approach to Cognitive Science
AI Is a Parlor Trick
AI Is an Ideology
AI Is a Way to Hide and Devalue Human Labor
AI Is a Way to Shift Accountability
AI Is a Way to Centralize Power
Conclusion
Notes
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Phil Abitua @ohnolog.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Annual killifish continue to surprise us: they make neutrophils before almost every other cell type, even before gastrulation. Neutrophils usually arise from the lateral plate mesoderm (forming in cyan), but in killifish they are already patrolling around the embryo in gold. tinyurl.com/killiphil
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Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...
open.substack.com
My Peer Review of The 1%
I wanted to like QED's new 1% ranking. I don't.
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Patrick Moynihan @pmoyniha.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
New paper in collaboration with @proftracypalmer.bsky.social, @lislowe.bsky.social and many more. We show that mycobacteria produce Type VII secreted anti-bacterial protein toxins. Excited to explore this new area of mycobacterial biology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A Type VII-secreted toxin enables inter-mycobacterial competition - Nature Communications
Mycobacteria have not yet been reported to engage in interbacterial competition via secretion of proteinaceous toxins. Here, Benedict et al. show that some mycobacteria can use their type-VII secretio...
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
If you had to work (laptop) in a cafe for a morning in Edinburgh, where would you go (asking for me)
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European Society of Mycobacteriology @esmyco.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
🏆 Congratulations to Bouke de Jong, winner of the Gardner Middlebrook Award at #ESM2026! One of the highest honours in our community, awarded for an outstanding career and lasting impact on mycobacteriology. A privilege to celebrate it in Verona. Huge congrats, Bouke 👏 #ESM26 #ESMyco
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I'm incredibly proud to share our paper on the preclinical evaluation of the BNT164 mRNA tuberculosis vaccine candidates. Now online in the final version at Nature Immunology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccines BNT164a1 and BNT164b1 are immunogenic, well tolerated and efficacious in rodent models - Nature Immunology
Here the authors characterize mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccine candidates BNT164a1 and BNT164b1 and show that they are immunogenic, well tolerated and efficacious in preclinical animal models.
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Jan-Willem Veening @veeninglab.com · 17/06/2026
Beautiful work by @kkjimbsky.bsky.social in collaboration with @nvastenhouw.bsky.social @pengellab.bsky.social where we used CRISPRi-seq in a zebrafish meningitis model of pneumococcal infection coupled with metabolomics. #MicroSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
In vivo genome-wide CRISPRi-Seq in Streptococcus pneumoniae reveals host-adaptive pathways essential for meningitis and identifies new therapeutic targets
Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important human pathogen that causes invasive diseases and remains the leading cause of bacterial meningitis. However, the bacterial determinants required for survival w...
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Hij hangt in de kerstboom tussen andere ballen. Schippers is een van die mensen die ons het leven serieus laat nemen, door de onbelangrijke ruis er omheen niet serieus te nemen.
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I'm incredibly proud to share our paper on the preclinical evaluation of the BNT164 mRNA tuberculosis vaccine candidates. Now online in the final version at Nature Immunology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccines BNT164a1 and BNT164b1 are immunogenic, well tolerated and efficacious in rodent models - Nature Immunology
Here the authors characterize mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccine candidates BNT164a1 and BNT164b1 and show that they are immunogenic, well tolerated and efficacious in preclinical animal models.
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Stephen Gordon @steve-myco.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Oh wow, amazing: "Discovery and identification of a handwritten laboratory notebook by Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin describing experimental studies and development of the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis at the Institut Pasteur" doi.org/10.1016/j.tu...
Title page of the notebook: Cahier D'experiences sur la tuberculose.
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Katrina Velle @katrinavelle.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
After a long hiatus, happy #MicroscopyMonday! Here are some amoebae squeezing themselves into narrow channels (part of a video for our preprint pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41377514/). Sound effects by Dillon (my 4 month old who may have had a little to do with the bluesky hiatus!)
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 08/08/2024
I was discouraged when my "fish on bicycles" project failed to achieve its aims, but I can finally announce that I have completed my "FISH ON STILTS" project successfully. Meet Bathypterois grallator, the tripod fish. They live in the deepest parts of the ocean, resting on three modified fins.
It's a blue-speckled fish standing on comically oversized thin bony rays or spines that are modified from fin structures.  It looks very much like a wire tripod that a fish is sitting on. This image was taken from Fishes of Australia, which gives this description and sourcing:
"A Tripod Spiderfish, Bathypterois grallator, on Mona Slide in the Caribbean, depth 1996-2022 m. Source: Ocean Exploration Trust / WoRMS."
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
This is worth the click. I promise. Very well written indeed. ><
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
It is so great after 1+ year of tendonitis knee injury to be back on the ultimate frisbee pitch. Old dog still has some tricks up the sleeve. Footage from ulti.tv. #worklifebalance
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I am skeptical that already approved Ebola virus vaccines and monoclonals will show promise during the ongoing outbreak of Bundibugyo virus for the simple reason that the two viruses are highly divergent (~35% AA divergence in GP). Focus should be on BDBV-specific or "pan-Ebola" countermeasures. 🧵
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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
shocking statistics, but only limited public outcry.. We should be more vocal about this tb.impactcounter.com
tb.impactcounter.com
Tuberculosis Impact Counter | Tracking TB Funding Impact
Tracking the impact of TB funding via USAID
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Clycstictyrinty is my favorite antibody mediated function! Maybe with some extra AI we can leverage it?!
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
This is a very interesting video. After a brief intro, the first 3 minutes are a monologue starting in the English of 600AD and transitioning to modern American. Where do you start understanding it? youtu.be/842OX2_vCic?...
youtu.be
From Old English to Modern American English in One Monologue
YouTube video by Simon Roper
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Julien GIRAUD @juliengiraud.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
The Journées Sécrétion are back! 8th and 9th October in Marseille Keynote lecture by: @wilbertbitter.bsky.social Registration is open until June 15: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Organized by Romé Voulhoux @cascaleslab.bsky.social, @thicoz.bsky.social, Julien Giraud, Yaelle Aouizerate
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WHO @who.int · 03/05/2026
WHO is aware of and supporting a public health event involving a cruise vessel sailing in the Atlantic Ocean.
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Anahid (Ana) @anahidam.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Looking for a #postdoc outside the US, focusing on gut microbiome, AMR dynamics & phage-bacteria interactions. Bridging wet lab and computational approaches🦠👩‍💻. Hartmann Lab, Northwestern University, defending late 2026. Boosts appreciated 🙏🧫🧪 #microbiome #metagenomics #MicroSky
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
A finding that started to surface in mice 15 years ago. I think it was met with quite some scepticism, yet it doesn't seem to go away. Very interesting. Great consistent work over many years by @danbarberphd.bsky.social lab. I briefly worked on this topic for a while with Jeroen van Heijst.
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Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 29/04/2026
Ok this is hilarious 😂 Be the C diff Watch out Cavs! It’s not gonna be pretty!
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Lis Lowe @lislowe.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
We have a PhD studentship open! (UK only sadly) but if you are or know a student keen to work on some *really* weird mycobacterial enzymes then get in touch! #glycotime Advert below www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
findaphd.com
Uncovering a new class of toxins in pathogenic mycobacteria at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Uncovering a new class of toxins in pathogenic mycobacteria at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com
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Louis Ates @mycolates.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
JOHAN in Paradiso was great! Great to get the chance to see them live in the best venue there is.
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