NiceLab

Building a community of PROPEL-affiliated programs at UCSF, U. Utah, UCSC, MUSC, U. Iowa, UW/Fred Hutch, OHSU, and Stanford!

There are unprecedented challenges for science, calling for bold action and collective effort. Training the next generation of scientific leaders has never been more important. Join us as we grow National PROPEL to answer this call. Learn more: propelscholars.org @propelscholars.bsky.social 🧪🧬🖥️🧵

A group foto of the MMI department at the 2025 retreat

Last week we had another amazing department retreat, expertly organized by @laurenrodda.bsky.social and @jnpruneda.bsky.social . Thank you to our fantastic invited speaker @harmitmalik.bsky.social and all the trainees for a day of wonderful science discussions.

We propose that TGFb and other barrier cytokines enable production of IFNL that acts on epithelium thereby shaping the IFN type profile of recruited pDC for maximum benefit.

We found that upon recruitment to the gut pDC ‘open’ their IFNL gene locus and express other marks of TGFbeta response. Remarkably, treatment of a pDC cell line with TGFb amplifies its otherwise meager IFNL production

We were surprised to find an abundance of pDC associated with the gut epithelium and even more surprised that some of them were stimulated by microbiota to produce IFNL but not type I IFN

@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social TGF-β triggers IFN-λ from intestine plasmacytoid DCs at homeostasis, contributing to tonic localized innate immune responses
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share the most recent work from our lab! In which we seek out the cellular source of homeostatic IFNL in the gut and find that gut pDC are ‘rewired’ to produce IFNL over type I IFNs.

Come be my boss! We’re looking for a passionate and supportive leader for our Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. Research in MMI spans diverse models and systems of host-pathogen interactions. Come join us in the beautiful Pacific NW!

facultycareers-ohsu.icims.com/jobs/35624/c...

Abstract deadline extended to Monday, June 30! And travel grants are still available to student and post-doc members. Don't miss out - REPOST to share the info with others.

Environmental stress drives clearance of a persistent enteric virus in mice - Nature Microbiology Cage change of mice with persistent murine astrovirus infection triggers stress responses marked by corticosterone fluctuation, which is followed by CD8 T cell activation and induction of epithelial a...

Excited to share with you my postdoctoral work published today in Nature Microbiology!

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

We have known for a while that stress can impact the outcome of infectious diseases; however, we reveal in our paper that it is not always detrimental.

Cytokines 2025: Submit your abstract for an oral or poster presentation by June 30th! Student and post-doctoral travel grants are still available. Don’t miss out!
seattle.cytokinesociety.org
#Cytokines #Immunology #innate #adaptive #conferences #Seattle

Drawing of a cell showing mitochondria in the cytoplasm, with murine norovirus virions exiting the cell through damage to the plasma membrane. Image credit: Valerie Rodriguez Irizarry

Photo of Valerie Rodriguez Irizarry

Valerie Rodriguez Irizarry’s tour de force paper on murine norovirus adaptation/egress is now out in peer-reviewed form ‪@plosbiology.org‬. It highlights the power of forward genetics in virology research. 🧵 1/10 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

This cool study on compounds that can kill Plasmodium inside mosquitoes and can be applied to bed-nets was contributed to by the Riscoe lab at MMI!

Congratulations Xiaomin Yao and Eugene Rudensky for publishing this story @cp-immunity.bsky.social! Big thank you to NIH for making this work possible. Here’s a brief summary of this 🤯 finding about a gene variant that YOU 🫵 most likely have 1/n

Left: Based on electron microscopic (EM) imagery, this three-dimensional (3D) illustration provides a graphical representation of a ingle norovirus virion, set against a beige background. The different colors represent different regions of the organism’s outer protein shell, or capsid (credit: Unsplash user CDC). Right: BV2 or BV2ΔTMEM30a cells were infected with MNVCR6-HiBiT at an MOI 0.5 in the presence of DMSO, 500 µM GCDCA, or 50 µM C2 ceramide. Sixteen hours post-infection cells were lysed and infection was measured using Nano-Glo HiBiT Lytic Detection System (Promega) post-lysis. Samples are normalized to BV2 cells treated with DMSO.

Norovirus tropism depends partly on entry receptors, but what is the role of cellular #lipids? @orchardlab.bsky.social &co show that TMEM30a-mediated lipid asymmetry is crucial for murine #norovirus infection, influencing membrane fluidity, viral binding & entry @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4409MtI

💐 To NIH and NSF program officers, and anyone else trying to keep those institutions alive:

Thank you for trying to do an impossible job in an impossible time. I’m sorry for all of us that this is the world we’re living in. 1/n

Co-Chairs, Michael Gale, Jr. and @ramlabuw.bsky.social invite abstract submissions for Cytokines2025. Topics include adaptive immunity, cytokine signaling, interferon stimulated genes, structure- function, and more. Submit: seattle.cytokinesociety.org/call-for-abs...
Deadline is May 18, 2025.

Repost if you're planning to go.

Rewilding catalyzes maturation of the humoral immune system Releasing laboratory mice into the natural environment enhanced maturation and activation of the humoral immune system.

Congratulations Ying-Han Chen and Kim Zaldana for showing how B cells are altered when lab mice 🐭 are released outdoors! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Here’s some context for the paper followed by how gov’t 💰 + other sources combine to make these types of studies possible 1/n

A purple background with text "Join the Biomedical Research Community and Make Your Voice Heard on Capitol Hill!" in smaller capital letters "PROTECT FUNDING FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH!" and images of blood cells, the US Capitol, and lab equipment. "ACT NOW" button.

Today, immunologists nationwide are making their voices heard! Our AAI Public Policy Fellows are on Capitol Hill, advocating for critical research funding and policies. Join them by participating in our letter-writing campaign: ow.ly/QLvQ50VaY23.

#PPFPHillDay #SciPol #Advocacy

Cancellation of NIH summer internships disrupts ‘vital’ training program for U.S. scientists The NIH cancelled an internship program that gave more than 1,000 college students hands-on research training each summer

NEW: In every way, shape, form, actions being taken say ‘don’t go into science,’ Donna Ginther told me as NIH forced to cancel programs to train future researchers. More than 1,000 students, including one who emailed 60 PIs, now scrambling to find positions. www.statnews.com/2025/03/05/t...

Opinion: Scientists on how NIH cuts will hurt all Oregonians. - Portland Business Journal "These cuts will cripple biomedical research and drug development in the U.S. We should be investing more in science, not less."

@laurenrodda.bsky.social, @nicelab.bsky.social , @jnpruneda.bsky.social and I wrote an OpEd on the impacts of NIH cuts on Oregon: www.bizjournals.com/portland/new...

It was signed by over 450 OHSU researchers!

It’s unfortunately paywalled, DM me if you’d like a gift link or a pdf of it.

Innate immune sensing of rotavirus by intestinal epithelial cells leads to diarrhea Hou et al. demonstrate in an infant mouse model that innate immune sensing of enteric viruses induces IFN-λ signaling, which downregulates an apical chloride exchanger that leads to increased intestin...

First post on Bluesky! Excited to share the first paper from our lab in 2025! cell.com/cell-host-mi.... Our study demonstrates that UV-inactivated replication-defective rotaviruses can cause diarrhea in neonatal mice, suggesting the host response also contributes to diarrhea to flush out the virus.

Today is Rare Disease Day, and a great reminder of the importance of NIH and science funding in driving hope 🧬⬇️

www.rarediseaseday.org

Mark your calendars Cytokines 2025 Westin Seattle! Abstract submission is opening soon. Make sure to note these important deadlines:
-Abstract Submission deadline: Wednesday 18 June
-Early-Bird Registration Deadline: Friday 25 July
Group room rate $236 seattle.cytokinesociety.org for more details

a white cat is sitting on a box with the words `` why why '' written above it . ALT: a white cat is sitting on a box with the words `` why why '' written above it .

The restriction on Federal Register posts appear to be still in effect. This is blocking the (legal) scheduling of study sections and, soon, advisory council meetings. I have heard that some study section meetings that had been scheduled have been cancelled.

4/n

Effective February 10: NIH Federal Advisory Committee meeting notices to the Office of the Federal Registare are now on hold. This affects NIH's ability to move forward with National Advisory Council/Board meetings that were previously noticed as having open and closed sessions and with Scientific Review Group (study sections and Special Emphasis Panels) meetings and Boards of Scientific Counselors that had not yet been noticed with a Federal Register Notice. As such, NIH will cancel those meetings on a day-by-day basis until additional guidance is received. Scientific Review Group meetings and Boards of Scientific Counselors that were previously noticed are moving forward.

Internal NIH guidance updated yesterday. Just canceling stuff each day from here on out I guess, pending new guidance. Killing science off both slowly and incredibly rapidly.

Document Search Results for 'center for scientific review' Search, browse and learn about the Federal Register. Federal Register 2.0 is the unofficial daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as e...

No new NIH study sections have been announced in the Federal Register since Jan 21.

But I hear that colleagues have been asked to serve. Does your meeting appear in these announcements? If this applies to you, please check and reply here with info!

www.federalregister.gov/documents/se...

Understanding how developmentally programmed immune responses such as this one are regulated in early life has implications for resistance to infections, development of the enteric immune system, and susceptibility to inflammatory diseases.