David Hodgson

We've got a new pre-print (spearheaded by @dchodge.bsky.social) on how to reconstruct unobserved antibody kinetics and infections - and use these to estimate correlates of protection: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

And here's the accompanying {serojump} R package: seroanalytics.org/serojump/

Why did neutralising antibody responses vary between the Oxford-AZ and Pfizer-BioNTech SARS-CoV-2 vaccines? And how did changing the duration between first and second dose affect the underlying biological processes?

Our new paper, spearheaded by @dchodge.bsky.social had a look.... 1/

@dchodge.bsky.social and I developed an app using WebR and React, to see how this stack compares to RShiny. Looks quite promising I think!

The app wraps the SeroSim R package by @jameshay.bsky.social for simulating serosurvey data:

serosim.seroanalytics.org

Researcher: "We let the data speak for itself."

Earlier that day:

Popeye, Tintin and more will enter the public domain in the new year The copyrights of thousands of 20th-century films, books, compositions and sound recordings expire on Jan. 1, making them free for anyone to share and adapt. Here are some of the highlights.

Excited to move to the US and incorporate Popeye (but not his affinity with spinach) into all my modelling frameworks www.npr.org/2024/12/26/n...

🎅🌟 CHRISTMAS PRESENT 🌟🎅
Got a flexible reversible jump mcmc R packaged up for those who are keen to explore trans-dimensional spaces when fitting; cmmid.github.io/rjmc, with application to a mixture model here; cmmid.github.io/rjmc/article.... More theory and vignettes in 2025!!

Academic writing is getting harder to read - the humanities most of all

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/12/18/academic-writing-is-getting-harder-to-read-the-humanities-most-of-all

A Multimodal Evaluation of Podcast Learning, Retention, and Electroencephalographically Measured Attention in Medical Trainees Introduction: Podcasts have become popular among medical trainees. However, it is unclear how well learners retain information from podcasts compared to traditional educational modalities, and whether...

Seated podcast, vs treadmill podcast, vs book learning. Also they slapped an EEG on the subjects.

#MedEd

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Prof Gwen Knight and some members of her group outside LSHTM

Many, many thanks to colleagues, collaborators, students, friends and family for being with me on this awesome journey to Professor @lshtm.bsky.social!

It has involved lots of hard but fun work as well as the usual dose of luck. Onwards and upwards to trying to tackle more challenges in #AMR!

Gilead to test once-a-year HIV prevention shot Gilead is going to start testing a drug it believes could prevent HIV infection with just a single shot every year.

Scientists: *develop a once-every-two-months HIV antiviral injection*

Scientists: Hold my beer. *develop a once-every-six-months antiviral*

Scientists: Hold my beer.

Memory B cell proliferation drives differences in neutralising responses between ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2 SARS-CoV-2 vaccines Vaccination against COVID-19 has been pivotal in reducing the global burden of the disease. However, Phase III trial results and observational studies underscore differences in efficacy across vaccine...

Drop me an email (see link) if you have any questions! Link to preprint highlighting the type of modelling: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨 Exciting PhD Opportunity with me and @adamjkucharski.bsky.social at LSHTM (MRC LID)! 🚨

Dive into cutting-edge in-host immunological modeling:
✨ Explore immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 & Influenza.
✨ Develop Bayesian models to analyse immune dynamics.
more info: mrc-lid.lshtm.ac.uk/2025-26-proj...

Have enjoyed early version of seroviz.seroanalytics.org to explore and discuss data - great work by @alexlizhill.com @dchodge.bsky.social

And if you're interested in immunological kinetics for SARS-CoV-2 and influenza, we're currently advertising a PhD project: mrc-lid.lshtm.ac.uk/2025-26-proj...

Challenges for developing broad-based mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses - Nature Biotechnology Nature Biotechnology - Challenges for developing broad-based mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses

For those wondering why we seem to be so behind when it comes to effective mucosal vaccines against respiratory viruses, this really excellent overview from leaders in the field offers a great summary:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

few additional points for those who want a bit more detail🧵:

Two stages of writing:

1) This shouldn't take too long
2) Oh no

8/ We hope this sparks new ideas for exploring how host factors shape immune responses in infectious disease dynamics! 🚀

7/ 🌍 Our work underscores the importance of personalized approaches in vaccination policy, especially as we continue to improve influenza vaccine design and distribution.

📖 Full paper here: [10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.126579](doi.org/10.1016/j.va...)

6/ 📊 **Technical details:**

We applied an **individual-level Bayesian model** to capture the nuances of antibody kinetics post-vaccination. This unified framework provided both population-level trends and individual-level insights.

5/ 🛠 Implications for modeling & public health:

- Pre-vaccine immune status and vaccination history are important when predicting seroconversion or seroprotection outcomes.
- Tailored vaccination strategies could maximise long-term immunity.

4/ Key findings:

📈 Lower pre-vaccine HAI titres = longer **seroprotection** duration.

📉 Frequent prior vaccination (>2 in 5 yrs) reduced the duration of protection compared to infrequent vaccination.

📆 Difference: up to 171 days longer! ⏳

3/ 🔍 We analyzed data from a multi-season cohort study using a Bayesian hierarchical modeling framework. This allowed us to estimate how host factors (e.g., age, sex, vaccination history) and pre-vaccine HAI titre influence antibody boosting and waning. 📊

2/ 💡 Why does this matter? Influenza vaccines are critical for public health, but their effectiveness varies widely among individuals. We aimed to uncover how host factors—like pre-vaccine immune status & vaccination history—shape antibody responses.

1/ 🎉 Thrilled to share our new study: Quantifying the impact of pre-vaccination titre and vaccination history on influenza vaccine immunogenicity 🦠💉 Published in Vaccine! link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kD7x,60n7... with @adamjkucharski.bsky.social

My fan phylogeny from my thesis now ready for the club

Air Quality Stripes have long-term trends of air pollution in many cities across the world.

Here is London.

Nice work @jimmcquaid.bsky.social & @kirstypringle.bsky.social.

airqualitystripes.info/stripes/?con...

h/t @edhawkins.org

Effect of a Reduced PCV10 Dose Schedule on Pneumococcal Carriage in Vietnam | NEJM After pneumococcal disease and colonization have been controlled through vaccination campaigns, a reduced pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) schedule may be sufficient to sustain that control at ...

Very happy to share our new study out today in the New England Journal of Medicine, showing fewer PCV doses are non-inferior to standard schedules in maintaining control of vaccine-type carriage in Vietnam. This could make vacc programmes much more affordable for LMICs.

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Jay Bhattacharya might just be Donald Trump’s most extreme pick. If you don’t know about him, you need to.

8/ Academic life will always have challenges, but by recognising and transforming the samskaras that hold us back and cause we stress, we can navigate life with more ease and self-compassion. Remember, growth is a journey, not an outcome. 💫

7/ Practical Steps:
Reflect daily: Take a few minutes to identify recurring negative thoughts and challenge them.
Create new habits: Maybe a 5-minute break when you feel overwhelmed or journaling
Meditate: A short meditation can help you interrupt negative samskaras and create space for new patterns

6/ We can also start to cultivate positive samskaras in the future, including:
Self-compassion: Practicing kindness to yourself during tough times
Non-attachment: Being present in your work rather than obsessing over the outcome
Resilience: Viewing setbacks as stepping stones rather than failures