Tom Peacock

A banner in a Charles Rennie Mackintosh style showing and influenza virion and reading 'Influenza Update Meeting'

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Influenza Update 2025
University of Warwick, 15th - 16th December
warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/...
Registration from £50 - £120
DEADLINE: 7th November
We hope you can join us there!

Human MX1 orchestrates the cytoplasmic sequestration of neosynthesized influenza A virus vRNPs | PNAS Interferon-inducible Myxovirus resistance 1 (MX1) proteins are known to restrict influenza A virus (IAV) transcription/replication process. Herein,...

After years in the making, Joe McKellar @viroscope.bsky.social’s final PhD paper is finally out today in PNAS! 🎉 🎉🎉
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Mechanisms for cross–neutralisation of diverse bat sarbecoviruses The continuing evolution of SARS–CoV–2 variants of concern, and the increasing spillover potential of sarbecoviruses into the human population presents an important and urgent need to discover cross-r...

And the sister paper from collaborator and good friend Katie Doores ... A deeper dive into how some of these broadly neutralising #sarbecovirus #coronavirus #sars2 #covid antibodies actually work www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Understanding the future risk of bat coronavirus spillover into humans: correlating sarbecovirus receptor usage, host range, and antigenicity. Sarbecoviruses interact with their receptor, angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), via the receptor binding domain (RBD) of Spike, the immunodominant target for neutralising antibodies. Understandin...

Our first post on here and it's a doozy 😍🤩. Our epic piece on #sarbecovirus host range. #virology #sars2 #covid #vaccines. Enjoy and please repost. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Understanding the future risk of bat coronavirus spillover into humans: correlating sarbecovirus receptor usage, host range, and antigenicity. Sarbecoviruses interact with their receptor, angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), via the receptor binding domain (RBD) of Spike, the immunodominant target for neutralising antibodies. Understandin...

Really excited to have been a small part of this work investigating sarbecovirus host range, receptor usage and antigenicity!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.673949v1

Near real-time data on the human neutralizing antibody landscape to influenza virus to inform vaccine-strain selection in September 2025 The hemagglutinin of human influenza virus evolves rapidly to erode neutralizing antibody immunity. Twice per year, new vaccine strains are selected with the goal of providing maximum protection again...

In new study led by @ckikawa.bsky.social, we provide near real-time data on human neutralizing antibody landscape to influenza by measuring ~26,000 titers to >100 recent viral strains

Data can inform vaccine selection & evolutionary/epidemiological modeling
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Aminopeptidase N is a receptor for hedgehog merbecoviruses Merbecoviruses, closely related to the highly pathogenetic Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), circulate in hedgehogs throughout Europe and Asia, raising concerns about zoonotic t...

New preprint! If some merbecoviruses use DPP4 and others use ACE2, what do those hedgehog merbecoviruses use?! As it turns out, neither! In our latest study, we uncover the "missing" receptor for the MERS-related viruses in hedgehogs. [These findings were first shared at ASV this year] (1/6)

The cow udder is a potential mixing vessel for influenza A viruses The incursion of high pathogenicity avian influenza A virus (IAV) into US dairy cows is unprecedented in the era of molecular diagnosis and pathogen sequencing. This raises questions over the likeliho...

The cow udder may be a mixing vessel where different strains of influenza can recombine--"underscoring its potential role in generating novel influenza viruses with pandemic risk." [Preprint] www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Children offered chickenpox vaccine on NHS All young children in England and Wales will be offered a free chickenpox vaccine by the NHS from January 2026.

Finally!

from a wildlife perspective its incredibly difficult to put the genie back in the bottle, but from a poultry perspective this work might help inform seasonal biosecurity recommendations - e.g. coastal farms need to consider minimising exposure to gulls in spring/summer due to risk of H5N1?

Genetic reassortment and diversification of host specificity have driven evolutionary trajectories of lineages of panzootic H5N1 influenza Since 2021, subclade 2.3.4.4b A(H5N1) high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) viruses have undergone changes in ecology and epidemiology, causing a panzootic of unprecedented scale in wild and domes...

Really excited to have been a part of this study, lead by @willharv.bsky.social on how reassortment of H5N1 in birds has lead to a 'specialist' genotype that thrives in seabirds and drives summer/spring (rather than winter) waves of poultry outbreaks www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Come work with us👇

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

Stabilization of H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza hemagglutinin improves vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibody responses Transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza from H5 clade 2.3.4.4b has expanded in recent years to infect large populations of birds and mammals, heightening the risk of a human pandemic. Influe...

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨

Here we show that stabilized influenza hemagglutinin HPAI H5 immunogens improve the quality of elicited antibody responses. Thank you to @open_phil for funding this work! bit.ly/4lgr0rM

Preexisting immunity to the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus reduces susceptibility to H5N1 infection and disease in ferrets Prior infection with the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus confers protection against H5N1 infection and disease in ferrets.

Exciting new work from my @ciddpsu.bsky.social colleagues showing that pandemic H1N1 immunity reduces susceptibility to H5N1 infection and disease in ferrets.

Synchronized seasonal excretion of multiple coronaviruses coincides with high rates of coinfection in immature bats - Nature Communications Bats harbor diverse coronaviruses but temporal dynamics are less well studied. Here, the authors analyzed coronaviruses in Australian flying foxes over 3 years showing peak shedding and co-infections ...

🦇 NEW RESEARCH: Our 3-year study of Australian flying foxes identified six co-circulating coronaviruses, with highest rates of infection and co-infection in young bats, and evidence of circulating recombinants 🧪🌏 🧵

Available open access in @natcomms.nature.com

📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Epistasis in the receptor-binding domain of contemporary H3N2 viruses that reverted to bind sialylated di-LacNAc repeats Liang et al. shows how contemporary H3N2 viruses reverted to bind sialylated di-LacNAc at the molecular level. Using complex symmetrical and asymmetric N-glycans, major epistatic interactions were rev...

Very happy that our paper on the receptor binding properties of contemporary H3N2 viruses is now published @CellReports # glycotime www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is quite late but our lab has a preprint out about a SARS-CoV-2 situation we had in mink in Lithuania back in 2021. It's a doozy with re-emergence of extinct lineages, a country-wide test of all mink farms in Lithuania & some interesting dynamics in mink. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/5🧵

Coronavirus causes fatal disease outbreak in cats | The Roslin Institute | The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies A harmful strain of coronavirus has caused a fast-spreading outbreak of a harmful feline disease.

A hybrid coronavirus, formed of cat and dog coronaviruses, caused a severe outbreak of disease among cats in Cyprus, researchers found.

Their work, in Nature, showed how this new virus was able to cause widespread cases of Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) among the island’s cats.

I am paw-sitively thrilled to say that out latest work is out in Nature today!

#Virology #Genomics #Coronavirus #AnimalHealth #InfectiousDisease #Sequencing #FIP #FCoV23

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

Loss of FCoV-23 spike domain 0 enhances fusogenicity and entry kinetics - Nature The molecular mechanisms of cell entry for the recently identified highly pathogenic feline coronavirus FCoV-23 are characterized in detail.

Our paper describing how in-host evolution of a recently emerged, highly pathogenic coronavirus modulates entry into cells, membrane fusion and likely pathogenicity has now been published in its peer-reviewed form!

Led by Ale Tortorici!

@hhmi.org

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

Research assistant (postdoc level) in molecular virology, EU-funded project APPEAL (Montpellier, France) The research assistant with a PhD in molecular virology (RA, 'ingénieur de recherche' in French) will work on the Horizon Europe-funded APPEAL project involving 13 partners from 6 countries, including...

New job offer in the team! If you're an experienced virologist (with a PhD), join us to work on Horizon Europe-funded APPEAL project in the vibrant city of Montpellier, South of France! euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/359640

Rare postdoc opportunity to study the emergence and evolution of pandemic viruses in the lab of Dr. Martha Nelson in the Division of Intramural Research (DIR) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

www.training.nih.gov/jobs/pdf-cb-...

The furin cleavage site is required for pathogenesis, but not transmission, of SARS-CoV-2 | Journal of Virology The presence of the furin cleavage site (FCS) within the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 distinguishes it from other sarbecoviruses found in nature. While prior works have deleted the FCS, these mutant viruses also shortened the S1/S2 loop, which is known to ...

Our new paper on SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site is now out at JVI.

Study examines disruption (rather than deletion) of the FCS & maintains the longer S1/S2 loop found in #SARS2.

FCS disruption attenuates pathogenesis, but not required (but helps) transmission.

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A beautiful figure. Global detections of A(H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b in mammalian species, split by sporadic detections (black) and detections which are associated with an outbreak (orange) alongside key mammalian adaptive mutations. Taken from Capelastegui & Goldhill 2025.

Excited to present the first review from my lab!
Which mutations allow H5 influenza to jump into humans or other mammals? How close is H5 to a pandemic? This review has the answers and explains the molecular mechanism behind the mutations.
Led by @fcapelastegui.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1099/jgv....

An art-deco inspired logo reading 'Influenza Update Meeting' in a Charles Rennie Mackintosh format

SAVE THE DATE!
The 2025 Influenza Update Meeting will be held ‪@uni-of-warwick.bsky.social on the 15th and 16th December - ‪@nicolerobb.bsky.social‬ is leading the organisation for this year's event.
We hope you'll join us there - please repost!
www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

Induction of tunnelling nanotube-like structures by influenza A viruses requires the onset of apoptosis Author summary Influenza A viruses (IAVs) spread efficiently through the respiratory tract in the form of extracellular virus particles, but can be restricted by neutralising antibodies and antiviral ...

🚨🔎 Out now in PLOS Pathogens ! 🔎🚨 This project has taken us @cvrinfo.bsky.social @uofgmvls.bsky.social on a wild and wonderful journey. I am excited to share our story of how influenza A viruses (IAVs) exploit cell death to facilitate its covert spread. N/1 journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Darkened image of a mosquito on a white background sits behind a pink hexagon containing white text that reads"postdoctoral scientist; engineer mosquitoes with reduced ability to transmit viruses; location Woking; salary range £38,500 to £40,000; closing date 12 June 2025." In the bottom right of the photo is the pirbright institute logo.

JOB: Our Viral Gene Expression research group is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join a project examining virus-host interactions between arboviruses and their mosquito vector.

Full details and to apply ➡️ www.pirbright.ac.uk/careers-and-...

Woodcut of a Highland Cow (Ed Hutchinson, 2025). The highland cow is staring rather pugnaciously through a square frame, possibly because it is very keen to inform you that it is a member of a predominantly Scottish breed of cattle and that the bovine H5N1 outbreak under discussion is, in fact, currently confined to the mainland USA

If you don't pasteurise it, how long can H5N1 influenza viruses stay infectious for in milk?
We had a look at this in a new preprint with ‪@cvrinfo.bsky.social‬, @roslininstitute.bsky.social‬, ‪@pirbrightinst.bsky.social‬ & the APHA (1/N)
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

ACE2 from Pipistrellus abramus bats is a receptor for HKU5 coronaviruses - Nature Communications This work shows that receptor use in merbecovirus is clade-specific by clustering them into clades based on the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of their spike proteins. While MERS-CoV and its close rela...

Our study screening the majority of all published Merbecovirus RBD’s for cell entry phenotypes is now published in Nature Communications!
(1/5)
shorturl.at/gYz4E