iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

MRC-UofG Centre for Virus Research @cvrinfo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

🐄🦠 New paper from the @cvrinfo.bsky.social! H5N1 avian flu has unexpectedly jumped and established in US dairy cattle. Could it infect other cattle breeds too? 🧵

A photo of a black Aberdeen Angus Cow standing in a misty field.

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Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

🚨New paper!🚨 As H5N1 #influenza continues to spread among dairy cattle in the USA, we've published a new paper with @prmurcia.bsky.social's group looking at the ability of these viruses to infect bovine mammary epithelia www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Immunohistochemistry image showing a section of mammary gland with the epithelial cells stained brown (indicating influenza virus infection) and highlighted with many arrows.

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Sarah K Walsh @sarahkwalsh.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I’m so excited to share that I’ve been awarded a @wellcometrust.bsky.social Early-Career Award to start building my independent research programme at @cvrinfo.bsky.social 🎉 The project will look at how genetic exchange between influenza A viruses affects viral evolution and emergence 🧵1/4

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Thelonevirologist @thelonevirologist.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Africa CDC chief says ‘no magical solution’ for intensifying deadly Ebola outbreak www.cidrap.umn.edu/ebola/africa...

cidrap.umn.edu

Africa CDC chief says ‘no magical solution’ for intensifying deadly Ebola outbreak

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Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

Chris Illingworth @chrisillingworth.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

We have been thinking about the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius. Preprint now out: Rapid modelling of the 2026 Andes virus outbreak predicts limited transmissibility and low mainland outbreak risk. A brief thread follows 1/9 zenodo.org/records/2053...

zenodo.org

Rapid modelling of the 2026 Andes virus outbreak predicts limited transmissibility and low mainland outbreak risk

In May 2026, an outbreak of Andes virus infection was reported among passengers and crew of the cruise ship MV Hondius. As of 27 May, 13 linked cases and three deaths have been reported, with ongoing ...

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Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

Michelle Wille @duckswabber.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Mammary gland explants from both beef and dairy cattle [Aberdeen Angus, Holstein Friesian, Limousin cattle] permissive to infection with avian-adapted and mammalian-adapted H5N1 viruses 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Sarah K Walsh @sarahkwalsh.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Really pleased to have this project out - a nice collaboration between @socialinfluenza.bsky.social and @prmurcia.bsky.social looking at the risk of H5N1 spillover into commonly used cattle breeds 🦠 🐮

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Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

🚨New Pre-Print🚨 Although H3N2 subclade K has multiple mutations in HA, neutralisation assays with pre-epidemic human sera show only moderate antigenic drift, and vaccines used in the 2024/2025 flu season induced cross-neutralising immunity www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

A data figure showing a phylogenetic tree of H3N2 with 2025-K highlighted, the structure of the HA trimer with mutations characteristic of K highlighted, and box and whisker plots showing % neutralisation of the 2022 H3N2 vaccine strain, and of 2025 clade K, by various human antisera

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Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

I wrote a festive little piece for @uk.theconversation.com about the invisible but beautiful world of viruses, our fight against viral diseases, and how you can explore all of this, and more, by making paper snowflakes ❄️🦠🤓❄️ #scicomm #sciart theconversation.com/the-twelve-v...

Three blue boxes containing white snowflake-like silhouettes of viruses

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Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Feeling festive? Why not deck the halls with @cvrinfo.bsky.social's papercraft #VirusSnowflakes and celebrate the science of viruses and the fight against viral diseases. Download for free: cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl... #scicomm #sciart #decorations

A poster with branding for the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre fo Virus Research, labelled 'Virus Snowflakes.' The poster shows snowflake-like virus designs and song lyrics reading:
On the twelfth day of Christmas, a virus gave to me,
Twelve fights worth winning,
Eleven Christmas dinners,
Ten lunar landers,
Nine childhood vaccines,
Eight tools for teaching,
Seven dogs a-barking,
Six wasps a-laying,
FIIIIVE TIIINY RIIIIIIINGS,
Four vaccine platforms,
Three genome segments,
Two twinned capsids, and
A world that is too small to see

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Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

H5N1 in bats - what should we think about this? @itingtu.bsky.social explains her recent preprint (a collaboration with multiple @cvrinfo.bsky.social groups) in a really nice interview with @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

Vampire bats may have contracted H5N1 bird flu in Peru, raising worries about further spread

Bats could form a bridge between marine and terrestrial mammals, scientists say

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Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

If you'd like to celebrate the biology of viruses - or the fight against viral diseases - this winter, try out our free and updated #VirusSnowflake designs. Please share, and if you have any photos of Virus Snowflakes in your area it would be lovely to see them! cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl...

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Sarah K Walsh @sarahkwalsh.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Fascinating multi-disciplinary study from @itingtu.bsky.social showing that vampire bats are being exposed to H5 HPAIVs 😄 Really excited to have been a small part of this story and cannot wait to see where it goes next 🦇🦠🦭

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Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

We talked about this back when the first trial for lenacapavir first said the magic words everyone wants to hear, "halted for efficacy"(*), so a recap: this is not a vaccine or a treatment. It's PrEP aka "pre-exposure prophylaxis": you take the drug so if exposed to the virus, you will not catch it.

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Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

MRC-UofG Centre for Virus Research @cvrinfo.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

📢 We’re delighted to announce that Professor Emma Thomson has been appointed as the new Director of the CVR. An internationally recognised expert in emerging infectious diseases, Emma will continue to lead the CVR in its role in national and global pandemic response. www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

gla.ac.uk

Professor Emma Thomson appointed Director of the CVR

We are delighted to announce that Professor Emma Thomson has been appointed as the new Director of the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR), having taken up the post as Interim Di...

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Sarah K Walsh @sarahkwalsh.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Important work from the Flu-TrailMap-OneHealth Consortium demonstrating that unpasteurised milk poses a risk of transmitting H5N1 - great to see this out there to help people make informed choices about raw milk consumption (…basically, don’t…)🥛🐄 🐑 🦠

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Nick Loman @pathogenomenick.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Absolutely thrilled to announce the launch of ARTIC2 - a £5.5M 5 year project funded by @wellcometrust.bsky.social to build on the ARTIC approach of low-cost, globally accessible genome sequencing for surveillance of outbreaks, epidemics and endemic diseases: www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/am...

birmingham.ac.uk

Ambitious project to develop low-cost genome sequencing for pathogens known and unknown - University of Birmingham

Project will build on research that helped diagnostic labs to adopt sequencing capacity for COVID-19 and permit characterisation of future infectious threats

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Ryan M. Imrie (he/him) @ryanmimrie.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Very excited to be at my first #microbio2025 conference! If emerging infectious diseases, coronaviruses, adaptive immunity or epidemiological modelling interest you come see my talk in the Viruses: Adaptive Immunity session on Wednesday 👨‍⚕️🦠🔬

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Sarah K Walsh @sarahkwalsh.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Excited to be at my first @microbiologysociety.org annual conference with the Hutchinson Lab @socialinfluenza.bsky.social! Please come and find me at poster 005 (block A) if you want to talk about biosafe methods to study HPAIV H5N1 🦠

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S Otto @sarperotto.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

1/3 How long do you think it takes for highly pathogenic avian flu H5N1 sequences to be uploaded to GISAID after collection? How long should it be? In this commentary, we find a median delay of 228 days, with half the countries taking more than 6 months. rdcu.be/eeZGU @naturebiotech.bsky.social

rdcu.be

Lengthy delays in H5N1 genome submissions to GISAID

Nature Biotechnology - Lengthy delays in H5N1 genome submissions to GISAID

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Reposted by Sarah K Walsh

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

I’ve now been asked about the USDA H5N1 action plan quite a few times, so maybe I should say a few things about it. There are a few things I like about it, more things I don’t, and some things about it that are completely WTAF. This is the 5 step plan:

Depiction of USDA 5 step plan (available in link in next skeet)

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Sarah K Walsh @sarahkwalsh.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Exciting new preprint from Imrie et al looking at how changes in population immunity after the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced the potential emergence of ‘SARS-CoV-X’ (with classically beautiful data vis) @cvrinfo.bsky.social

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