I’m excited to see our paper posted @medrxivpreprint showing that older folks have higher levels of antibodies that recognize H5N1 viruses compared to younger individuals. Finally some good news for old people. 1/12 medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
You may be asking: how the heck do humans have immunity to H5N1 since these viruses have not circulated widely in humans? As it turns out, there are some rare epitopes that are conserved between H5N1 and certain seasonal influenza viruses that have circulated in the past. 2/12
Jan 9 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Check out our new manuscript on
@medrxivpreprint. We show that ‘immune imprinting’ with ancestral SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines is beneficial for priming neutralizing antibody responses against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. 1/n medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
We first evaluated BA.5 ‘breakthrough infections’. Similar to other studies, we found that these infections elicit strong BA.5 neutralizing responses that are completely cross-reactive to the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 spike (check out absorption data on right). 2/n
Nov 25, 2022 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
We developed a new multivalent mRNA vaccine against all known influenza virus subtypes. Our study describing the vaccine was just published in @ScienceMagazine. 1/n science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
We created an mRNA vaccine expressing HAs from all 20 flu types. First, we vaccinated mice and found that this multivalent vaccine elicits robust antibody responses reactive to every HA. 2/n
Sep 29, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
@biorxivpreprint just posted our new manuscript showing that IgG3 antibodies are much better than IgG1 antibodies at recognizing flu and SARS-CoV-2 variants. This is a story of basic research having immediate clinical implications. (1/8)
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
We started by cloning a bunch of flu antibodies that had the same variable domain with different constant domains. Conventional wisdom says that antibody constant domains do not affect antigen recognition. (2/8)
Jul 8, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Our manuscript evaluating mRNA-based H3N2 vaccines in mice was posted on bioRxiv. Most of these studies were completed before the pandemic, and it is nice to finally get this one out. 1/6
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
Most human influenza vaccine antigens are produced in fertilized chicken eggs. Recent H3N2 egg-based vaccine antigens have limited effectiveness, partially due to egg-adaptive substitutions that alter the antigenicity of the hemagglutinin (HA) protein. 2/6
Jun 17, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
This is a really interesting paper tracking Omicron immune response in health care workers with different SARS2 exposures. This is an amazing cohort and great study but I disagree with some of the conclusions of the paper... 1/7
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
The most interesting data in the paper are in Figure 4. This figure includes samples from HCWs infected with Omicron who were (pink) or were not (black) previously infected with the original strain of SARS2. All of these people were vaccinated 3 times with an mRNA vaccine. 2/7
May 31, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Our @CEIRRNetwork funded study reporting an H3N2 antigenic mismatch during the 2021-2022 Northern Hemisphere season was published today @CellReports. This provides an immunological explanation for the ineffectiveness of this year’s flu vaccine.
1 of 4 cell.com/cell-reports/f…
Thank goodness for preprints. We were able to make these data public via @medrxivpreprint in mid-December before H3N2 took off.
2 of 4
Unfortunately, there will likely be an H3N2 antigenic mismatch with the 2021-2022 Northern Hemisphere influenza vaccine. Our manuscript describing this has been posted on @medrxivpreprint. 1/10 medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
Influenza viruses have circulated at low levels during the COVID-19 pandemic, and population immunity against these viruses is low. As COVID-19-related restrictions are eased or lifted, we expect wide circulation of influenza viruses. 2/10
Nov 19, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I’m a scientist and I have 2 kids that are between 5 and 11 years old. I respect that some parents have concerns about COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for their young children. Here is a short thread why my wife and I decided to vaccinate both of our kids last week. (1/8)
A lot of my thoughts have been captured by my great colleagues Jeff Gerber and @DrPaulOffit from CHOP in this short editorial published yesterday in Science. Please read this if you haven’t already: (2/8) science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Oct 2, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Check out our new preprint: SARS-CoV-2 infections elicit higher levels of original antigenic sin antibodies compared to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccinations 1/ medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
We found that both SARS-CoV-2 infections and mRNA vaccinations elicit antibodies that bind to the S1 and S2 regions of the SARS-CoV-2 spike. 2nd doses of vaccine primarily boost antibodies reactive to S1. 2/
Apr 19, 2021 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
Our new study evaluating the relationship between common coronavirus antibodies and SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility using a cohort of >2,000 health care workers is now up at @medrxivpreprint. (1/n) medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
We collected serum samples from 2,043 health care workers during the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 activity in Philadelphia, PA. We identified a subset of health care workers who went on to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 after we collected serum samples. (2/n)
Feb 9, 2021 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Our paper showing that ~20% of humans possessed non-neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic was published today @CellCellPress.
cell.com/cell/fulltext/…2/ I described this study when we released this as a preprint in November:
There has been recent discussion of how this influenza virus mouse study that I completed as a postdoc potentially relates to current SARS-CoV-2 evolution, so I thought I would write a short thread about it. 1/ @trvrb@LauringLab
Our new paper showing that some humans possessed non-neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic is now up at @medrxivpreprint. Importantly, we find that these antibodies are not associated with SARS-CoV-2 protection. 1/7
