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Franziska Günl

@franziskaguenl.bsky.social

Molecular Virologist @ Fodor Lab Oxford | Negative strand RNA viruses | Treat people with kindness! || (she/her)

113 Followers  |  148 Following  |  10 Posts  |  Joined: 04.12.2024  |  2.2469

Latest posts by franziskaguenl.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Vaccine-Preventable Disease: A Global Tracker | Think Global Health This map is updated weekly and visualizes outbreaks of nine childhood diseases in collaboration with the International Society for Infectious Diseases

I'd love to say lots of nice things about this invaluable preventable disease tracker from @monscience.bsky.social and team at Think Global Health. It's an incredible resource.

But I can't get over my anger & sadness that this resource is even needed.
www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/vacc...

29.10.2025 12:35 — 👍 364    🔁 162    💬 5    📌 2
Dr Jeremy Keown Dr Jeremy Keown

warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa...

I am advertising for a PhD position in my group. We'll be investigating how pathogenic RNA viruses replicate in the nucleus. The project will teach cryoEM/ET, virus culture, and in vitro assays.

If you're interested reach out and I'd be happy to have a chat.

24.10.2025 07:58 — 👍 13    🔁 18    💬 0    📌 1
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Mysteries of trafficking of the vRNP segmented genome and assembly of influenza A virus revealed by in situ cryo-ET!
🔗 rdcu.be/eMmct
We are very excited that our paper is finally out!
🎉 Big congratulations to Moritz Wachsmuth-Melm and to everyone involved.

24.10.2025 08:11 — 👍 72    🔁 29    💬 1    📌 3

This made me laugh! 😅

Great work everyone!

22.10.2025 13:42 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Structural and functional characterisation of the Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Virus RNA Dependent RNA Polymerase Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV) is found across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East where it can cause Haemorrhagic outbreaks with high case fatality rates. Central to the viral life cycl...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Really excited to have our work out in the world. CCHFV has a 450kDa L-Protein, about twice the size of L-Proteins from other segmented RNA viruses. We have used cryoEM and functional assays to begin to understand it this massive multifunctional protein works.

22.10.2025 12:21 — 👍 30    🔁 11    💬 2    📌 1

Structural and functional characterisation of the Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Virus RNA Dependent RNA Polymerase www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683639v1 #cryoEM

22.10.2025 07:10 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 1
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Scientists charged too much to come to work in UK, says Royal Society Combined upfront cost of the five-year Global Talent Visa and the Immigration Health Surcharge stands at £5,941
21.10.2025 08:28 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

08.10.2025 23:29 — 👍 4737    🔁 1840    💬 142    📌 83
Jane Goodall reaches out and touches a small monkey.

Jane Goodall reaches out and touches a small monkey.

Jane Goodall was my first childhood hero, as I loved animals as a kid and was inspired by her story. I still remember the National Geographic specials about her. RIP.

01.10.2025 20:05 — 👍 22916    🔁 2668    💬 369    📌 149
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Dozens of heatwaves linked to carbon emissions from specific companies Nearly one-quarter of heatwaves would have been ‘virtually impossible’ without global warming — and can be attributed to the emissions of individual energy producers.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

11.09.2025 06:31 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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The structure of the mammalian bornavirus polymerase complex - Nature Communications Borna disease virus 1 replicates and transcribes its negative sense RNA genome in the nucleus of infected cells. Here, the authors present the cryoEM structures of the large polymerase protein in comp...

Very pleased to have our new work out where we perform a structure/function study on the bornavirus polymerase complex with fantastic coauthors. Have a read www.nature.com/articles/s41... @warwicklifesci.bsky.social @loiccarrique.bsky.social @franziskaguenl.bsky.social

13.08.2025 12:13 — 👍 38    🔁 13    💬 0    📌 2
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Toward more sustainable research: reducing the environmental impact when working with Drosophila Abstract. The ever-increasing amounts of plastic waste and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide threaten our environment. Biomedical laboratories across the

How can we handle lab waste more sustainably? Saroj Saurya (@dunngogreen.bsky.social) and colleagues just published this interesting new piece! Have a read! 🌿

academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

31.07.2025 08:35 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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New study brings vaccine hopes for deadly Nipah virus Scientists at The Pirbright Institute have taken a major step forward in tackling one of the world’s most dangerous viruses, the

🆕 Study evaluates three vaccine candidates for one of the world’s most dangerous viruses, the Nipah virus.

An international team of scientists led by The Pirbright Institute achieves a breakthrough in controlling a deadly virus with pandemic potential ⬇️

#Zoonoses #Zoonotic #OneHealth

23.07.2025 10:16 — 👍 5    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Oh wow! This is such great news! Very well deserved!
Massive congrats to you. 🥳

18.06.2025 13:12 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Half way through the decade of action for road safety, and I can't say I feel massively safe cycling on Oxford's streets.
Maybe #worldbicycleday should be introduced here to raise awareness and direct our collective energy towards increasing the safety of non-motorized traffic?

03.06.2025 12:30 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1
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Molecular basis of influenza ribonucleoprotein complex assembly and processive RNA synthesis Influenza viruses replicate and transcribe their genome in the context of a conserved ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex. By integrating cryo–electron microscopy single-particle analysis and cryo–electro...

Excited to share our new @science.org paper! Led by postdocs Ruchao Peng and Xin Xu, we used cryo-EM/ET to reveal the influenza ribonucleoprotein complex structure and its strand-sliding mechanism for RNA synthesis, paving the way for new antivirals.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

15.05.2025 19:51 — 👍 121    🔁 56    💬 7    📌 3
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ANP32 proteins from ticks and vertebrates are key host factors for replication of Bourbon virus across species | Journal of Virology Viral polymerases rely on cellular cofactors to support efficient transcription of viral genes and replication of the viral genome. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of influenza virus, an orthomyxovir...

ANP32 proteins from ticks and vertebrates are key host factors for replication of Bourbon virus across species journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

14.05.2025 15:53 — 👍 2    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
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Trump freezes ‘gain of function’ pathogen research ― threatening all US virology, critics say An executive order suspends the use of federal funds for certain experiments on pathogens with pandemic potential. Critics say low-risk science could be affected too.

“This is what I was expecting — an executive order banning gain-of-function research but defined in such a way that it bans all virology research,” says @ggronvall.bsky.social.

Yup.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

08.05.2025 10:20 — 👍 164    🔁 91    💬 6    📌 4
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Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit.

This cannot be allowed to happen.

09.05.2025 03:42 — 👍 902    🔁 484    💬 12    📌 21
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Exciting job opportunities!

Two postdoc positions are available in the Fodor Lab at
@dunnschool.bsky.social to study influenza virus transcription, genome replication, nuclear export and assembly.

More info: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

07.05.2025 08:26 — 👍 28    🔁 25    💬 0    📌 2
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Can Germany rein in its academic bullying problem? Researchers and administrators are exploring ways to restructure a rigid hierarchy that can breed power abuses.

Super important piece on how structural issues in German academia enable toxic behaviour of only few people — and how that impacts the entire research culture.
Read more: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Support: www.netzwerk-mawi.de/en/

07.05.2025 10:48 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Great to hear! Many congrats Sarah! 😊

19.04.2025 22:21 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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This statement from the NSF is insane.

Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false.

Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.

18.04.2025 20:51 — 👍 2654    🔁 1002    💬 98    📌 110

If you're a scientist at the NIH or another HHS agency who was affected by today's RIF, I'd love to hear about the work you were doing and how important it was for our nation's health! I'm a staff writer at Fierce Biotech, and I can be reached through DM on BlueSky or securely on Signal at dinc.49

01.04.2025 16:49 — 👍 118    🔁 58    💬 0    📌 1
The Terrifying Spread Of The Nipah Virus (1999)
YouTube video by Journeyman Pictures The Terrifying Spread Of The Nipah Virus (1999)

A must watch documentary on the original Nipah outbreak in pigs in Malaysia youtu.be/YyNdOQ-GFCM?...

27.03.2025 12:49 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Structural basis of Nipah virus RNA synthesis - Nature Communications Sala et al. report the first structural snapshot of the Nipah virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase in the actively elongating state, uncovering key mechanisms of RNA synthesis by non-segmented negative ...

The peer-revied version of our paper on the structure of the Nipah virus RNA polymerase in complex with RNA is out in @naturecomms.bsky.social. Congratulations to first-author @salafernanda.bsky.social and many thanks to the reviewers for their constructive comments!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

10.03.2025 11:06 — 👍 63    🔁 17    💬 1    📌 0
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Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks.

"We at Nature denounce this assault on science. And we encourage the global research community, wherever they can, to voice their opposition."

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

26.02.2025 20:20 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

ASM did a spotlight article on me last February and it has also been taken down as “under review”. Other spotlight articles are still up so not sure how else to interpret this besides the obvious. It feels pretty crappy to have been singled out and I won’t be engaging with them in the future.

03.02.2025 00:47 — 👍 272    🔁 117    💬 23    📌 10
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Bluesky’s science takeover: 70% of Nature poll respondents use platform Roughly 6,000 readers answered our poll, with many declaring that Bluesky was nicer, kinder and less antagonistic to science than X.

Personally, I love it here 🦋 - and for science 🧪 its wonderful!

And its also increasingly getting better & better for other diverse and interesting random posts (non-science) as more and more join - lets hope the overall engagement and positivity remains!

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

24.01.2025 15:32 — 👍 168    🔁 28    💬 7    📌 3
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Mapping the complete influenza A virus infection cycle through single vRNP imaging Cell-to-cell heterogeneity is a common feature of viral infection that can generate enormous complexity, complicating understanding of infection progression and interpretation of differences between v...

Our new paper is out: "Mapping the complete influenza A virus infection cycle through single vRNP imaging". Combining newly-developed single-molecule imaging approaches with in situ viral transcriptomics, we identify numerous non-canonical infection pathways.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

21.01.2025 09:56 — 👍 38    🔁 18    💬 1    📌 2

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