Very disturbing news at work today..

Hey friends. I’m looking for a postdoc interested in studying host-pathogen interactions and immunology of tuberculosis. Send me some good people! We have a great group here! Email me joanne@pitt.edu. Thanks!

A Threat to Evidence-Based Vaccine Policy and Public Health Security at the FDA | NEJM Twelve former commissioners of the FDA express concern that the agency’s recent moves will undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure vaccine safety, effectiveness, and availability.

Important and timely read in the New England Journal of Medicine:

Twelve former commissioners of the FDA express concern that the agency’s recent moves will undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure vaccine safety, effectiveness, and availability.

Check out our new paper with @nelson-lab.bsky.social. We used scRNAseq to profile the function of Mtb peptide-specific T cells from NHP and human lung granulomas. Beyond IFNγ, Mtb-specific T cells make a bunch of unexpected stuff, and human and NHP cell are really similar.

The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article) A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.

New York Times article on science funding with some depressing but familiar curves with interactive graphics.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The antigen-presenting molecule MR1 binds host-generated riboflavin catabolites, say Mohamed Abdelaal, Nicholas Gherardin, Jamie Rossjohn, Wael Awad @waelawad.bsky.social and colleagues @monashuniversity.bsky.social @unimelb.bsky.social: rupress.org/jem/article/...

#InnateImmunity #MAIT

Well this is not good..

It's awful that the world we live in is capable of causing so much suffering.

One of many reasons the department of education is being gutted.

YouTube video by KeystoneSymposia Tuberculosis Meeting Promo

📢 Early-Career TB Researchers: Submit short talk abstracts & scholarship apps by Nov. 24! Join us Mar 23-26, 2026 in Cape Town for cutting-edge TB & global health. 🎥Highlights: youtu.be/YcKVeGWqXSM
Submit: keysym.us/KSTB26
@maxgg.bsky.social @breealdridge.bsky.social #KSTB26 #tuberculosis #TB

Battling Infectious Diseases in the 20th Century: The Impact of Vaccines The number of infected people, measured over 70-some years and across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, generally declined after vaccines were introduced.

I have posted about this before, but...

Researchers at Pitt School of Public Health (with NIH funding) developed Project Tycho where they digitized reportable disease data from across the country going back to ~1900.

graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d...

1/6

Global Approaches to Abortion as Health Care - O'Neill The O’Neill Institute believes that the law is a fundamental tool for solving critical health problems.

By characterizing abortion as health care, international orgs have pushed back against abortion exceptionalism. The World Health Organization recognizes that “[a]bortion is a simple health care intervention.” Numerous countries have adopted laws and policies to align with WHO recommendations.

Interleukin-17A Mediates Cardiorenal Injury In Oxalate Nephropathy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.17.687153v1

2025, a timeline…

1) this is gonna be our year
2) fuck
3) Thanksgiving

Graph missing some confidence intervals, but the trend holds.

Are we really surprised?

This is so alarming.

Revolutionizing immunization: a comprehensive review of mRNA vaccine technology and applications - Virology Journal Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have emerged as a transformative platform in modern vaccinology. mRNA vaccine is a powerful alternative to traditional vaccines due to their high potency, safety, and eff...

This is a very comprehensive review for those of you who are interested in vaccines and the use of mRNA in vaccines.

Today, we start one of the most advanced virus discovery & metagenomics workshop in the world in Stellenbosch. Experts from Australia, America, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Italy, Nederlands, Japan, U.K and Sweden come together to teach participants from 20 countries.

Happy Friday! We're so thrilled to share our review on #trainedimmunity out in @elife.bsky.social today. We had a great time writing this. Honored to be included in the special issue of trained immunity. Always an absolute treat to write with @khannakm.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/108...

Epstein-Barr virus–mediated B cell reprogramming may initiate systemic lupus erythematosus
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social @shady-myounis.bsky.social

I won't talk about NMeth @natmethods.nature.com forever (probably), but I do want to brag a bit about the November focus issue on cell segmentation and tracking, which is many ways is my last hurrah (and final editorial) for the journal. I am so proud of these papers!! www.nature.com/nmeth/volume...

Working at the CDC Is a Living Hell Gaslighting, surveillance, and layoffs under the RFK Jr. regime.

New York magazine: Working at the CDC Is a Living Hell /Gaslighting, surveillance, and layoffs under the RFK Jr. regime

bit.ly/3WQhdPh

Discovery Stack Pilot: Feasibility and Outcomes of a Scientist-Designed Peer Review Model Separating Quality and Impact Peer review serves as the cornerstone of scientific quality control. Yet, the current journal-centric system is hindered by long timelines, high publication costs, inconsistent review quality, systemi...

A great project and potential alternative for our current publishing model, by @maxkrummel.bsky.social and folks at Solving for Science, specially Maureen McGargill and Beiyun Liu www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Today is #WorldScienceDay! AAI celebrates the vital role of science in advancing peace & development. By strengthening scientific collaboration and awareness, we drive progress in global health, sustainability, and the understanding of the immune system, for the benefit of all societies.

YouTube video by TVO Today How Did Measles Make a Comeback in Canada? | The Rundown

Canada has lost its status as a measles-free country: www.canada.ca/en/public-he...

How did measles get to Canada and how do we move forward? @jeyantvo.bsky.social asked Nathan VanderKlippe (@theglobeandmail.com) and @msmacrophage.bsky.social (@mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social)

You and the text you need to trim in order to meet the word limit

In the midst of all that we are facing, I want us to think about who we are being told to look to for understanding in this moment, who is being propped up as the voice of wisdom, and ask how right were they in predicting this, a year ago, 5, 8 years ago, and then ask why they are being centered now

Unveiling genetic signatures of immune response in immune-related diseases through single-cell eQTL analysis across diverse conditions - Australia News Beep Overview of cohort and single-cell RNA-seq data

Unveiling genetic signatures of immune response in immune-related diseases through single-cell eQTL analysis across diverse conditions

https://www.newsbeep.com/au/44646/

Overview of cohort and single-cell RNA-seq data Totally, 325 healthy volunteers were included in the 300BCG vaccination …

Modeling heterogeneity in single-cell perturbation states enhances detection of response eQTLs - Nature Genetics Modeling of per-cell perturbation states in single-cell RNA sequencing datasets enhances detection of response expression quantitative trait loci and helps prioritize genetic regulatory effects in dis...

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

So, NIH seems to have opened some high-level, director-of-institute type positions today, with a window of only two weeks. During a shutdown. Hm.