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Walther Mothes

@wmothes.bsky.social
346 followers 442 following 27 posts

Virologist, Yale University medicine.yale.edu/lab/mothes Opinions are my own.

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Reposted by Walther Mothes
shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
this seems specifically designed to break mail-in voting (where deadlines are defined by postmark)
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Sen. Adam Schiff @schiff.senate.gov · 24/07/2025
Republicans just blocked an amendment to require the release of the Epstein files. Wonder why.
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
first time at Wayne State University in Detroit, great meeting, learning a lot about SNAREs, and takes place at an amazing place, building by Minoru Yamasaki
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Mark D. Levine @marklevinenyc.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
There is currently an NWS flash flood warning in effect for all five boroughs of NYC. But no City agency has posted it on this platform. Please help spread the word. “If you live in a basement apartment or low-lying area, be ready to move to higher ground.”
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 15/07/2025
The 1 train on the NYC subway tonight
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El Norte Recuerda @elnorterecuerda.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
The entire Latino population in the U.S. is 65 million. She means all of us.
Laura Loomer‘s tweet: Alligator lives matter. The good news is, alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now.
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Ian Weissman, DO @drianweissman.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
To many, it is the next best thing to an HIV vaccine. The FDA approved a new way to prevent HIV infection: the antiretroviral drug lenacapavir, which provides almost complete protection for 6 months with a single injection in the abdomen. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Always ‘one atom away’: The long, rocky journey to an HIV prevention breakthrough
Developing lenacapavir, the drug newly approved to protect against HIV for six months in one shot, took basic science, sophisticated chemistry, and perseverance
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Congratulations Michael Grunst for receiving the John Addison Porter Prize, considered to be one of Yale University’s most prestigious awards. I am proud of what you accomplished! Wish you all the best for your next steps! gsas.yale.edu/qa-michael-g...
gsas.yale.edu
Q&A with Michael Grunst PhD ’25
Grunst received the university's John Addison Porter Prize for his dissertation on viral Spike proteins.
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Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
(🚨) MAJOR BREAKING NEWS: TRUMP DECLARES L.A. RESIDENTS TO BE IN “REBELLION AGAINST THE AUTHORITY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES” This declaration may well be a prelude to martial law. He’s illegally federalized the Guard in California and this looks very like the pretext he was waiting for.
whitehouse.gov
Department of Defense Security for the Protection of Department of Homeland Security Functions
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE                THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
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Pete Buttigieg @petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
We should be investing in rural communities and making them better places to build a life & raise a family - not shutting down rural hospitals by choking off their funding. Saving rural hospitals is one more reason to call your Representative and speak out against this GOP attempt to cut Medicaid.
cbsnews.com
Hundreds of rural hospitals are at risk of closing, threatening critical care
Hospital officials told CBS News the closure was driven by the same factors that have closed other rural hospitals: low reimbursement rates.
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Briana Mills, LMFT ♿️🏳️‍🌈 @brianamillslmft.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
When RFK Jr says that “only really sick kids should die from measles” if unvaccinated, this is eugenics. Not only is that completely untrue since we had eradicated the virus thanks to the vaccine, but he’s saying that sick and high risk kids are expendable. This is eugenics, plain and simple.
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Beta-propiolactone (BPL) inactivated virus is no "gold-standard" vaccine. BPL inactivated SARS-CoV-2 causes aggregation and its Spike protein is largely in the post fusion. This will not give you a good vaccine. www.nih.gov/news-events/...
nih.gov
HHS, NIH launch next-generation universal vaccine platform for pandemic-prone viruses
These vaccines aim to provide broad-spectrum protection against multiple strains of multiple viruses.
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
"... we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding.” www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c... 1/2
aacu.org
A Call for Constructive Engagement | AAC&U
A Call for Constructive Engagement
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Spring in CT
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Lisa Jarvis @lisamjarvis.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
In terminating hundreds of NIH grants, the Trump administration dumped years of investment down the drain. In my latest @opinion.bloomberg.com column, we analyzed the cancelled projects & talked to scientists to understand just how much the public loses out. It's a lot: tinyurl.com/bdey86su
A beeswarm chart of canceled NIH grants showing the years into each project when the funding was pulled. Each dot represents a terminated grant and is colored by the number of publications associated with the project: none, one to four or five or more. The grants are separated into thee rows based on the award type (R01, U01, U54). RO1 research projects had the most terminations, which occurred at all stages of research, from the project onset to 7+ years in. Most grants were canceled short of the 4-5 year lifespan of a typical grant, and 40% of R01s had no publications at the time of termination. Projects that had been active for longer had more publications, suggesting that more findings are disseminated in the later stages of these grants.
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
900 of us signed this letter to the leadership at Yale. yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/04...
yaledailynews.com
Yale faculty urge administrators to defend academic freedom
Around 900 faculty signed a letter to President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel calling for “courageous leadership” in the face of attacks on higher education.
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DrDinD.bsky.social @drdind.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Columbia University capitulated to Trump to get $400M in science funding released. What happened? Not only has the funding NOT been released, but all NIH funding ($700M last year) has been frozen. Giving in to bullies just makes them take more. arstechnica.com/science/2025...
arstechnica.com
Trump administration’s attack on university research accelerates
With billions in grants put on hold, targeted universities will see research crippled.
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Thanks to Paul Bieansz for speaking up! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
We are witnessing the destruction of science in America | Paul Darren Bieniasz
If we stay on this administration’s course, future life-saving medicines may never be invented
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Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Given the low average vaccination rates in a number of states, and the existence of numerous pockets of very low rates, it's pretty much a given that this outbreak get quite a bit bigger.
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Briggs Group @briggsgroup.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Our work on HIV-1 matrix, led by James Stacey and @dhrebik.bsky.social, is in this week's @nature.com. Extended explanatory video from @margotriggi.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
A scientist in Marc Kirschner's lab
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 27/03/2025
They're the same picture.
A side-by-side comparison of two images. On the left, a historical black and white photograph shows emaciated concentration camp prisoners wearing striped uniforms, confined in wooden bunk beds, looking out from their cramped spaces. On the right, a modern color photograph shows a woman wearing a white shirt and a dark cap with an emblem, standing in front of a prison cell filled with tattooed, shirtless inmates wearing white pants and face masks. The prisoners behind the bars are tightly packed, looking towards the camera. The two images are juxtaposed, possibly to draw a visual or thematic comparison.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 27/03/2025
I've seen this before.
A black and white photograph of emaciated concentration camp prisoners wearing striped uniforms inside a wooden barracks. They are looking out from wooden bunks stacked in multiple levels. Some prisoners lean on the edges, while others sit or lie down. The scene is dimly lit, emphasizing the gaunt faces of the prisoners. The image captures a moment from the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.
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Prof Brendan Crabb AC @brendancrabb.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
This summary from the team @burnetinstitute.bsky.social based on a publication in @thelancet.bsky.social HIV that came out today. A very bleak picture. 1/ Foreign aid cuts could mean 10 million more HIV infections by 2030 – and almost 3 million extra deaths theconversation.com/foreign-aid-...
theconversation.com
Foreign aid cuts could mean 10 million more HIV infections by 2030 – and almost 3 million extra deaths
A new modelling study has sought to find out what impact recent foreign aid cuts – particularly from the US – will have on HIV. Here’s what the researchers found.
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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
When scholars of authoritarianism and fascism leave U.S. universities because of the deteriorating political situation here, we should really worry.
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Joachim Frank @joachim123.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
regarding Columbia University, I just learned about this (anonymous) account of negotiations of the Hitler regime in the 1930s with Frankfurt University -- Germany's most prestigious university at the time:
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
"IRS Predicts DOGE Lost Half a Trillion Dollars for the USA" "in about eight weeks DOGE managed to lose the U.S. government — more or less light on fire — more than half of what goes to all non-defense discretionary spending..." talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/irs-p...
talkingpointsmemo.com
IRS Predicts DOGE Lost Half a Trillion Dollars for the USA
The Post reports today that the IRS’ internal projections estimate that the...
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Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA
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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 20/03/2025
Russia kidnaps Ukrainian children and gives them to Russians to erase their heritage and demoralize Ukraine. Over 20,000 so far. And the US just stopped helping track these kids and likely deleted the database of all the research. Pure evil, right maga?
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Russia has kidnapped tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Putin was indicted for this crime. Yale has a unit searching for them. Musk eliminated the funding. inews.co.uk/news/world/m...
inews.co.uk
Musk cuts the team finding Ukrainian children stolen by Russia
Trump’s federal cost-cutting - led by Elon Musk's Doge – has now hit the unit helping rescue Ukrainian children taken by Russia
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Fascism places emotion over reason. Words become just tools to achieve the vision of the Leader. In our post-truth world, this takes the special form of the inversion of meaning: fascists call other people "fascists" and antisemites call other people "antisemites" snyder.substack.com/p/antisemiti...
snyder.substack.com
"Antisemitism" and Antisemitism
The abuse of the word and the spread of the phenomenon
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kzc...
youtube.com
A Dark Day for Our Country
YouTube video by Sen. Adam Schiff
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
I think it’s time for the Dems to have a shadow minister for every Cabinet portfolio to keep the public aware of all the disinformation going on with the administration Eg. A shadow HHS member who has a presser after every RFK Jr edict to get up and say all that is wrong with the edict And so on
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ACLU @aclu.org · 10/03/2025
ICE illegally arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, for his political advocacy. Take action to free Mahmoud NOW.
action.aclu.org
Free Mahmoud Khalil
The Trump administration has illegally arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil in direct retaliation for his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights. This egregious, unprecedented, and illegal abuse of...
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
“A city that is scared is not a city that’s safe. A land ruled by fear, is not the land of the free.” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu at the Congressional hearing www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHsZ...
youtube.com
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's opening statement before Congress on sanctuary cities
YouTube video by CBS Boston
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Ellen Foxman @ellenfoxman.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Inspiring day for scientists in Washington DC #standupforscience2025 Thank you @standupforscience.bsky.social
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Stand up for Science - Hartford, Connecticut
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
The man is human pollution, America's id. The international community is going to rally against this country to make sure we're hurt for decades because of all of this and we'll have deserved it.
Flights in the Caribbean turning away from Starship flight 8 debris.
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Walther Mothes @wmothes.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Pass it on. #StandWithUkraine
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Briggs Group @briggsgroup.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Without SP2, HIV-1 fuses more slowly with target cells. We worked with Kräusslich and Müller labs @uniheidelberg.bsky.social, @wmothes.bsky.social at @yalemicropath.bsky.social, Robert Dick @emorydeptofmed.bsky.social and Kun Qu. Read the full paper @nature.com here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The conserved HIV-1 spacer peptide 2 triggers matrix lattice maturation - Nature
A study reports that the structural maturation of the matrix domain of the Gag protein of HIV-1 is induced by the proteolytic release and binding of the spacer peptide SP2.
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Briggs Group @briggsgroup.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
James Stacey and @dhrebik.bsky.social generated high-resolution structures of matrix within virus particles by #cryoEM, finding SP2 bound to a pocket on matrix (we previously thought the ligand was a lipid):
HIV-1 spacer peptide 2 binds to a pocket on the side of the matrix protein
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Briggs Group @briggsgroup.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Mature #HIV-1 contains >2000 copies of “spacer peptide 2”, but we didn’t know why. We now see that SP2 binds the matrix protein and triggers the change into its mature arrangement. Summary video from @margotriggi.bsky.social
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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Very important story:
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
FFS
media.tenor.com
a man in a suit and tie is making a face
ALT: a man in a suit and tie is making a face
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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
In preemptive celebration of RFK, Jr.'s imminent confirmation as HHS Director, the measles virus is ramping up its efforts to kill children.
cnn.com
Measles outbreak expands in West Texas around county with low vaccination rate | CNN
A measles outbreak is growing in a rural area of West Texas where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level.
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Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Trump “intends to curtail research on infectious diseases, ban a wide swath of virological work, & perhaps even prosecute those who, it believes, created the Covid-19 pandemic.…’There is a vendetta.’” Essential reading from @justinling.ca @wired.com www.wired.com/story/reveng...
wired.com
Revenge of the Covid Conspiracy Theorists
After years of GOP attacks on US health agencies, Trump appointees are poised to bring Covid-19 conspiracies to their leadership of US agencies. Federal workers are scared of what comes next.
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Department of Microbial Pathogenesis @yalemicropath.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Congratulations to Associate Professor Hesper Rego @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social on her award from the Hypothesis Fund! #mycobacteria medicine.yale.edu/micropath/ne...
medicine.yale.edu
Rego receives award from Hypothesis Fund
Associate Professor Hesper Rego, Ph.D. will receive support from the Hypothesis Fund to investigate the connection between M. tuberculosis metabolism and
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 08/02/2025
1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
grants.nih.gov
NOT-OD-25-068: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates NOT-OD-25-068. OD
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