At #MCIDdynamics/#HumanViruses conference:
- Everyone tested on arrival
- All masked (except speakers while speaking) in sessions
- All breaks/lunch/posters outside
- Sewage monitoring in the housing

The most comfortable I've been at a conference recently. Organizers take note!
Doing things outside is much easier in San Diego than, say Texas 🥵 (where I am now) or many places in Europe 🌧️.
But requesting tests, masking, & ventilation are things that can be done anywhere. With cases rising in many places, we deserve to make conferences safer for all.
In particular, poster sessions - historically crowded, hot, & full of people drinking & talking loudly - are worth a rethink. Can we move them outside? To a much, much larger room? Open all doors/windows? Space them out? Encourage masking?
Worth considering creative solutions!
Sorry, first hashtag in first tweet should be #UCSDdynamics - Getting my acronyms mixed up!🥴

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More from @firefoxx66

Jun 22
After 2 long virtual years, *so happy* to be back at #UCSDdynamics Dynamics & Evolution of Human Viruses in person in beautiful San Diego! Brilliant sessions on everything from #HIV to #SARSCoV2 & many viruses in between, with fantastic global scientists & experts! Image
Opening the conference, @manonragonnet shows the relationship of drug & antibody treatment for #SARSCoV2 on the appearance of resistance mutations, as well as their ability to escape. These mutations are rare in the general pop; mostly assoc with treatment.
#UCSDdynamics ImageImage
@sarehchimeh gives an interesting talk on how & whether we can detect increased selection on surface-exposed areas of #HumanViruses - since these are exposed to the immune system, might we expect to see them evolving faster?
#UCSDdynamics ImageImage
Read 7 tweets
Jun 11
I'm honoured to have been part of the global & African-anchored group working on a new, non-stigmatizing naming scheme for #monkeypox.

We propose renaming 'Congo Basin' to Clade 1, & 'West African' to Clades 2 & 3 - to stop using harmful, geographical-based names.

1/4
These clades reflect deep diversity from years of circulation in the animal reservoir.

Additionally, we propose a placeholder name for the recent group which has likely been circulating in humans, hMPXV1.
Within that are further labels; the most recent outbreak clade is B.1

2/4
This wouldn't have happened w/o the leadership of @Tuliodna & @christian_happi, coordination w @WHO & @AfricaCDC & the Africa-based contributors: Ifedayo Adetifa, Placide Mbala, Richard Njouom, Emmanuel Nakoune, Anise Happi, Nnaemeka Ndodo, Oyeronke Ayansola, Gerald Mboowa.

3/4
Read 7 tweets
May 30
A change in mutation rate? 40 mutations in 4 years? After SC2, these things sound really scary for #monkeypox. So why are scientists saying that there's a good chance these mutations aren't adaptive? How could we know?
A layman's follow-up on @richardneher's great thread.

1/14
40 mutations sounds like a lot - & it is more than we would expect from the slower-evolving #monkeypox. But the *type* & *location* of these mutations - which are very specific - gives us a hint about how they may have come to be. 🔍🤔

2/14

We have a lot of defences against viruses (many of which we've become familiar with recently!), but one that is less well-known is an in-built sabotage system to try and trip up viruses as they replicate.🕵️
One example of this is 'APOBEC', which you might be seeing around.

3/14
Read 15 tweets
May 30
I'm going to keep repeating this until the world starts taking it seriously:

Without equitable global sequencing *all* of our pandemic preparedness is half-blind. We don't know what's circulating now, & we don't have eyes for the future.

Equitable👏 Global👏 Sequencing👏 Now👏
#Monkeypox is making many of us wish there were more sequences available. There's nothing wrong with that sentiment - more data = better understanding.
But this is another chance to reflect on *why* it might be that we don't have more data. And *how* we fix this in the future.
@HelenBranswell's (as always) fantastic article digs into this for #monkeypox:

"[T]here’s no interest in working together with the country from which the cases are coming to try and understand it a little bit more,” Ihekweazu said.

statnews.com/2022/05/26/war…
Read 4 tweets
May 23
This morning's session at the #Nobel Symposium starts with Michael Farzan explaining ACE2 binding in #SARSCoV2 & #SARSCoV1, including a great timeline comparison between how long steps took between the two (much faster in SC2) & asking if we can improve vaccines.
@MichaelWorobey follows, speaking to the importance of digging into the evidence of #SARSCoV2 outbreak sources & Hunan market.
He opens with a remark about how this beautiful location with so many great people to talk to is pretty close to heaven - he's not wrong!
Hyeryun Choe closes the first session with a great talk on how #SARSCoV2 adapted to humans, and the importance of the D615G mutation, to stabilizing the protein. With a great graphic reminder of how quickly G614 dominated.
Read 12 tweets
May 22
🎉VERY excited🎊 to share news of the shiny new #monkeypox @GenSpectrum (previously CoV-Spectrum) website & API - allowing lightning-fast ⚡️ queries to get info on metadata & sequence information.
As more #opendata sequences come in, this will be incredibly powerful!
To give an example of a couple of queries:

Number of #monkeypox sequences per country as JSON:
mpox-lapis.gen-spectrum.org/v1/sample/aggr…

Nucleotide mutations of #monkeypox sequences from this year as CSV:
mpox-lapis.gen-spectrum.org/v1/sample/nuc-…
I hinted at this coming a little earlier today 😉 - but want to really emphasize: this is what truly #opendata looks like.
Enabling development of tools that are able to benefit everyone to do fast & effective research to underpin response & understanding

Read 4 tweets

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