Vivien Shek

📢 Just 1 month to go until our SPPIRIT ECR symposium

📝 Abstract deadline extended to 10 October 2025 - don’t miss out!

Delighted to share this story from my PhD! 🎉 🪱

The end of #EMDS2025 - so much amazing science, and great to meet up in person with so many friends and colleagues (and make some new ones!). Very proud of @vshek.bsky.social and @nwasowska.bsky.social winning poster prizes for the team - well done both!

Hostbusters: SPPIRITed to Roslin Bringing together ECR parasitologists from across Scotland to network and showcase their science.

📢 7 weeks to go until our SPPIRIT symposium

A fantastic opportunity for ECR parasitologists across Scotland to network and showcase their research.

🗓️ 31 October 2025 | 📍 Roslin Institute, Edinburgh
🎟️ Free to attend → tinyurl.com/3yzjnm5h

Secure your spot today!

Save the dates!! @bspparasitology.bsky.social Spring Meeting 2026 will be in Bonnie Glasgow! 7-9 April 2026, with a drinks reception in Glasgow City Chambers on the 6th of April 2026!
Keep an eye on the BSP website for registration and abstract submission!
Logo by @shannaraeilean.bsky.social! 🦟

T cell responses in repeated controlled human schistosome infection compared to natural exposure - Nature Communications In schistosomiasis-endemic regions, the cyclical nature of infection and treatment complicates understanding of host immune responses. Repeated controlled human Schistosoma mansoni infection, designed...

A real pleasure to be a part of this beautiful new study on T cell responses in repeat controlled human infection vs natural infection with #schistosomes, spearheaded by @emmahoulder.bsky.social with many wonderful colleagues #helminths #ImmunoSky #IDSky 🪱 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📣 Open postdoc position in my lab to investigate how Toxoplasma acquires nutrients. Join me at the University of Edinburgh. Closing date 14th August. More details below ⬇️

elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

🚨 Postdoc alert! Amazing opportunity to work on Toxoplasma with @youngtoxolab.bsky.social in Edinburgh. Check it out!

HpBoRB, a helminth-derived CCP domain protein which binds RELMβ https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.27.656348v1

Please consider applying for a post doc in our lab if you have bioinformatics and wet lab skills, and are interested in parasites!

elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Looking for a fully-funded D. Phil. / Ph.D. studentship in structural biology and vaccinology? Come to join our team. Fully and generously funded by a donation from the Kyner-Field family with full fees at overseas level. Join us!
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/studentships

💉🐭🪱

Vaccination against helminth IL-33 modulators permits immune-mediated parasite ejection

🚨 REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!!!

Head to www.emds2025.com to register and submit your abstracts. Full programme is now available.

NB: Spaces are limited, so don't delay, register today!

@britsocimm.bsky.social @efis-immunology.bsky.social
@societymucosalimm.bsky.social @natrevimmunol.nature.com

The spring EIG session is coming this Thursday on 1st of May. Please join us from 13:30 in @edinuni-irr.bsky.social IRR South seminar room 1.05 for fantastic talks by Dr. Elizabeth Mann, Dr. Tovah Shaw and Prof. Hamida Hammad. See you there!

Very excited to share this collaborative work led by Kyriaki Neophytou. An extracellular Argonaute from a nematode parasite is transmitted to host cells and the non-vesicular form is functionally important (and now a vaccine candidate). An Argonaute vaccine... who would have thought.

Welcome to the BSky account for EMDS2025.

Please follow us to hear about updates & deadlines for EMDS2025: Scotland Edition.

Check out www.emds2025.com for full details - registration will open soon.

We look forward to welcoming you all to the wonderful city of Edinburgh in September.

Excited to start this next chapter in the @profandrewmac.bsky.social Lab! I’ll be exploring how Schistosoma mansoni shapes immune responses in the gut. Looking forward to new discoveries, collaborations, and plenty of worm talk! 🪱🐌🔬

Join us in Edinburgh in September for the 38th European #Macrophage and #DendriticCell Society meeting! We have a great lineup of speakers and are looking forward to all the fantastic talks and interactions that make this meeting special. #EMDS #ImmunoSky 🧪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🔬 www.emds2025.com

We're based in the Ashworth Laboratories, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh. Photo shows the main staircase in the entrance to the Ashworth, stone steps from the 1920s, decorated with a series of bright, colurful banners depicting the science that's tackled in the building.

I'm very pleased to have two lab positions open this week, to join our team looking at immune regulation in infection and co-infection. We're especially interested in tissue-based immunity, cytokine regulation and immune metabolism. Join us! Postdoc (3y) and research technician (12mo) posts open.

Our search for a flow cytometry core facility manager for King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh, is finally live. Join us!

Conventional & spectral. Parasites, immune cells, algae, bacteria, yeast and more. Full-time, open-ended.

Apply by 17 March.

elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Christmas biscuits from the lab!! I must get a new red check shirt…

PhD available in the excellent @peronalab.bsky.social of Georgia Perona-Wright. The only downside of the PhD for the student is that I will also be involved. Its a cool project and will be a fun collaboration!

Vivien Shek, her PhD thesis, and Nicole. It is very cold today!

Congratulations @vshek.bsky.social ! First PhD from the Dundee Mcsorley lab, second one will be coming from Nicole (left) very soon hopefully!

Grateful for every moment, every challenge, and every bit of growth. Here’s to new beginnings and all that lies ahead! 🥂📘 #PhD #Graduation #Milestone #Gratitude

This journey wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible support of my supervisors, Henry, Hermelijn, and Al, who guided me through every step of the last four years. A heartfelt thank you also to my examiners, Tara and Mattie, for an engaging and enjoyable viva discussion.

After submitting my thesis and defending it in August, the reality of it all didn’t quite hit—until now! Holding a hardcopy of my thesis in hand and walking across the stage at graduation, it truly feels like the end of an era.

Heparan sulphate binding controls in vivo half-life of the HpARI protein family The HpARI family members can either suppress or amplify responses to IL-33, and also differ in their half-life in vivo due to binding to the extracellular matrix constituent, heparan sulphate.

After a fairly rotten week, some welcome news - our latest paper has been accepted at eLife.

In it, we show that members of the HpARI family either bind (HpARI1 and HpARI2) or do not bind (HpARI3) to heparan sulphate. This binding controls their in vivo half-life.

elifesciences.org/articles/99000

Vaccination against helminth IL-33-modulators permits immune-mediated parasite ejection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.22.609138v1 The murine intestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri powerfully modulates the host immune

Vaccination against helminth IL-33-modulators permits immune-mediated parasite ejection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.22.609138v1

Final PhD experiment done, marking the end of my lab work! I'm due to finish writing by July and would be grateful if you could keep me in mind for future postdocs in immunoparasitology, mucosal immunology and host-pathogen interactions 👩🏻‍🔬🪱🫁