Dorian McILROY

I want this one next autumn

RNase L regulates the antiviral proteome by accelerating mRNA decay, inhibiting nuclear mRNA export, and repressing transcription Watkins et al. show that RNase L dampens the expression of interferon-stimulated genes by accelerating mRNA decay, inhibiting nuclear mRNA export block, and repressing transcription.

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Skin androgens regulate Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity via quorum sensing Nature Microbiology, Published online: 27 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02261-2Testosterone produced by skin cells enhances Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity by activating quorum sensing, and a stereoisomer of testosterone that blocks this interaction inhibits bacterial cytotoxicity towards human cells.

Out Now! Skin androgens regulate Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity via quorum sensing #MicroSky

Human LFA-1 governs T cell immune surveillance of the skin Human inherited integrin αL (CD11a) deficiency selectively impairs skin homing of T cells and surveillance of commensal papillomaviruses.

Human inherited integrin αL deficiency selectively impairs skin homing of T cells and surveillance of commensal papillomaviruses @sciimmunology.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @casanovalab.bsky.social

Alternatively, you could read the teaching material and try to figure it out using your brain.

Junior Research Groups (m/f/d) in the field of Infection Biology Junior Research Groups (m/f/d) in the field of Infection Biology

Junior Research Groups (m/f/d) in the field of Infection Biology

Fighting for their freedom, and ours.

"Cancer rates decreased in states with the highest HPV vaccination rates" Of course they did, cos vaccines don't care what you think. They just work.

Almost 250 years after we broke with George III, the question must now be faced: Are we a monarchy or a nation of laws? [Cartoon by Bill Bramhall]

The Trump Administration Is Ending Aid That It Says Saves Lives The State Department will let lifesaving projects expire because “there is no strong nexus between the humanitarian response and U.S. national interests,” according to an internal email.

Seven countries are losing all U.S. humanitarian aid: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Somalia, and Zimbabwe.

these projects are being canceled because “there is no strong nexus between the humanitarian response and U.S. national interests.”

www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

#NatMicroPicks

Aerobic archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor? 🦠🫁

The ancestor of eukaryotes may have combined hydrogen metabolism with aerobic respiration, shaping early cellular complexity.

#MicroSky

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

We have posted data providing real-time measurement of human neutralizing antibody landscape to seasonal influenza.

Data explain spread of subclades K (H3N2) & D.3.1.1 (H1N1), identify subclade K subvariants w reduced neutralization, & can inform choice of strains for next vaccine.

Monocyte-derived IL-10 drives sex differences in pain duration Peripheral monocytes and IL-10 are associated with shorter pain duration in males in both mice and humans.

Sex differences in pain duration
Finding interleukin-10 from monocytes as an/the explanation (in the experimental model and people
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Great idea - go fishing for antiviral antibodies in the only professionals who have repeated exposure to childhood infections.

Never thought I'd live to see this happen

Ancient Treponema  Ancient DNA reshapes our knowledge of the pathogen Treponema pallidum.

Ancient Treponema 

Ancient DNA reshapes our knowledge of the pathogen Treponema pallidum.

It is almost five years since I first applied AlphaFold to a handful of viral proteins.

Today, hundreds of thousands of predictions and many discoveries later, we are delighted to announce the integration of our Viro3D dataset into the @ebi.embl.org and Google DeepMind AlphaFold Database.

📣new preprint from the phagefoundry.org team 🎉 Jessica Trinh and Catherine Mageeney (Sandia National Laboratories)!!

Systematic analysis of prophages from ~1000 Acinetobacter baumannii isolates, induction & screening. We found this 😎 looking phage with bunch of 💍💍

PhD & Postdoc Positions at the Dept of Microbial Population Biology of the MPI for Evolutionary Biology (Plön, Germany) to work on jumbo phages & HGT of genomic islands. An amazing research team led by the one and only Paul Rainey, one of the most hard-core evolutionary micro/biologists of our time!

Marburg 2024: Origin disinformation found its audience Conspiracy theorists often describe themselves as critical thinkers or skeptics, but they seem to lack these qualities when presented with obviously fabricated materials aligning with their beliefs. T...

Conspiracy theorists often see themselves as critical thinkers, yet they may fall for obvious disinformation when it aligns with their beliefs.
It happened last Spring with a claim that the origin of the 2024 Marburg virus disease outbreak in Rwanda was a lab leak. ▫️1/6 🧵

Beautiful and tragic.

Now this is really interesing, but also too complicated for a 10-minute skim!

if you want 100% nonfictional stories from measles patients and their families, follow voices for vaccines! more: voicesforvaccines.org/resources/blog/

This ruling shows that proscribing Palestine Action was a grave misuse of terrorism laws.

Labour must accept its mistake, drop its appeal and stop wasting taxpayers' money suppressing civil liberties.

Degrading counter-terror powers is a genuine threat to national security.

This Is How a Child Dies of Measles When your family becomes a data point in an outbreak

THIS IS HOW A CHILD DIES OF MEASLES

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Please share: I am recruiting a PhD student to join my lab in Oslo!

For this project, we will investigate the role of striatal interneurons during action selection, using a combination of behavior, in vivo voltage imaging, and slice ephys.

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

#NeuroJobs #NeuroSkyence

murder you commit with the machinery of bureaucracy is still murder. someone needs to end up on a pike over USAID. preferably their last name is musk.

Some antibodies against Adenovirus pVII cross-react to platelet protein PF4, and the pathogenic autoantibodies all carry light chain K31E or K31D somatic hypermutation. So only individuals who expand one particular clonotype, and one specific SHM, during their response to AdV infection were at risk.

Oh, I don't know. The better your track record, the more money you can get. But they may well be going down a step or two compared to what they're used to.

Hey, we don't need those talented scientists coming here and hoovering up the grants. The research ecosystem here is already too difficult for people like me!