Ben Varco-Merth

Here is a link to Rebecca Denison’s CROI 2025 Martin Delaney presentation “40+ Years of HIV: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, What Shouldn’t, What Must”

youtu.be/UOW2hF2fBqI?...

CROI chair Prof Havlir reaffirm the commitment of CROI to support scientific gatherings with free exchange of ideas, and condemns the censoring of science.

She also highlights the response to US federal policy changes.

#CROI2025

House cuts to NIH (to fund billionaires) would cut the Cures Act (passed with bipartisan support) by ~$300 million or 70%. Scientific loss includes cancer research, adult stem cell research, brain/dementia research, and a critical data collection project to study rare diseases, among other topics.

A powerful talk by Rebecca Denison, founder of WORLD and woman living with HIV.

We can't go back to the days without treatment access.

Silence is death.

And courage is a decision.

The hall erupted in a standing ovation.

#CROI2025

Comparison of Research Spending on New Drug Approvals by the NIH vs the Pharmaceutical Industry This cross-sectional study examines National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical industry investments in recent drug approvals.

99% of new medicines developed by the pharmaceutical industry depend on NIH research jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Chris Beyrer, describing the current state of the HIV/AIDS pandemic reminds us that of the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu that “everyone is welcome in my father’s house” and this is central to our work as biomedical scientists

Adeeba Kamanarulzaman offering the N’Galy-Mann lecture, describing the importance of human dignity and social justice in addressing human health

On a similar theme, CROI N’Galy-Mann lecturer Adeeba Kamarulzaman reminded us of the importance of human dignity and social justice in addressing human health

She also reminds us that silence; in the face of pandemic, in the face of oppression, and in the face of authoritarianism; will not save us

Very moved by CROI 2025 Martin Delaney lecturer Rebecca Denison, who reminds us of the importance of the HIV community in advocating for science, which has enabled so many fundamental discoveries about human health and disease.

I hope so

Rubio terminated 5800 USAID contracts – more than 90% of its foreign aid programs – in defiance of the courts.

Here’s a list of just some of the lifesaving awards that were terminated. Nearly all were Congressionally mandated. They’ve saved millions of lives. 🧵

The inevitable cost. Not only people eventually dying of HIV-associated diseases, but that along the way there will be a massive explosion in antiretroviral drug resistance as some of those living with HIV skip doses to help out friends.

Excited to present our work “AZD5582 inhibits vaccine-elicited CD8+ T cell responses in SIV+ RM on ART” at CROI 2025 (Poster 0530)

A single mutation in bovine influenza H5N1 hemagglutinin switches specificity to human receptors In 2024, several human infections with highly pathogenic clade 2.3.4.4b bovine influenza H5N1 viruses in the United States raised concerns about their capability for bovine-to-human or even human-to-h...

While the risk of human-to-human transmission is still low, the pervasive reservoirs and appearance of new, concerning mutations or those identified as a threat science.org/doi/10.1126/...
demand a very high level of vigilance and preparedness

Potential of a blood test to determine how long a vaccine-induced antibody protection will last, via a platelet signature
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How are durable antibody-responses to vaccines induced? News & Views paper discussing excellent new work by Cortese et al in Nature Immunology: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Megakaryocytes promote long-lived plasmablasts via direct and indirect interactions. #ImmSky #HumanImmunology

Science’s 2024 Breakthrough of the Year is lenacapavir, an injectable drug that demonstrated remarkable success at preventing HIV infection with one shot every 6 months. The drug attaches to the lattice-like capsid proteins that shield the virus’s genetic material—a mechanism that could inspire other antivirals. Lenacapavir could help end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but that will hinge on access for those who need it most.

Science’s 2024 Breakthrough of the Year is lenacapavir, an injectable drug that demonstrated remarkable success at preventing HIV infection with one shot every 6 months.

Learn more about this year's #BOTY and other big advances in science: scim.ag/3BrCtUn

Nutrient-driven histone code determines exhausted CD8+ T cell fates ACLY-deficient CAR T cells targeting the tumor-associated antigen disialoganglioside GD2 (GD2 CAR T cells) also resisted acquiring TEX-like properties, exhibiting reduced CD39 expression when co-cultu...

Nutrient-driven histone code determines exhausted CD8+ T cell fates
ACLY-deficient CAR T cells targeting the tumor-associated antigen disialogangliosi

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Academic Journals & News
(Upadated Dec 7, 2024)

go.bsky.app/hCfhqn

Reminder for newcomers that bioRxiv has Bluesky accounts in every subject category - great way to keep up (please re-skeet) connect.biorxiv.org/news/2023/09...

The raw milk that tested positive for bird flu is from Raw Farm LLC in Fresno. Here's what Raw Farm has posted on IG.

It would be nice to know how long the viruses survive in raw milk. It would be nice to do more than hope that people aren't infected.

REVIEW: Next-generation combination approaches for immune checkpoint therapy
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@pamsharmamdphd.bsky.social

Nutrient control of growth and metabolism through mTORC1 regulation of mRNA splicing Ogawa et al. show in Caenorhabditis elegans that the essential growth regulator mTORC1 extensively reprograms gene expression and alternative mRNA splicing. This splicing regulation is critical for gr...

Nutrient control of growth and metabolism through mTORC1 regulation of mRNA splicing 🧪
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

A spatial human thymus cell atlas mapped to a continuous tissue axis - Nature A quantitative morphological framework for the human thymus reveals the establishment of the lobular cytokine network, canonical thymocyte trajectories and thymic epithelial cell distributions in...

Couldn't wish for a better BlueSky debut post:
Our spatial atlas of the developing thymus is now published in Nature! 🥳
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Also check out the other papers in the new Human Cell Atlas collection: www.nature.com/collections/...
#singlecell #spatial #multiomics

Single-cell atlas of the human immune system reveals sex-specific dynamics of immunosenescence, including a female-specific cytotoxic CD8+ T cell subpopulation @martamele.bsky.social @mariasopenar.bsky.social
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Opinion: The immune–endocrine interplay in sex differential responses to viral infection and COVID-19
www.cell.com/trends/immun...

Check out our updated database of 189 PhD fellowships and funding opportunities.

For each fellowship, we provide a description, $ amount, deadline, link to funder and eligibility criteria (such as citizenship).

Good luck!

Download freely here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

Joint Meeting of the Martin Delaney Collaboratories for #HIV Cure now broadcasting on NIH Videocast: videocast.nih.gov/livew.asp?li...

So nice to see more people joining Bluesky.

#HiSciSky, I’m a physician-scientist focused on airway diseases. My lab studies T cell responses to inhaled, non-infectious antigens, but I love all experimental biology.

For those interested in immunology, here’s a Starter Pack

go.bsky.app/PY5tCas

Interested in #Immunometabolism? Here's a small starter pack of some great people to follow here on Bluesky!

If you'd like to be added, please let me know :)

go.bsky.app/MvxkA4Q