Dr Danika Hill

Uncovering bacterial pseudaminylation with pan-specific antibody tools - Nature Chemical Biology Pseudaminic acids (Pse) are a family of carbohydrates found within bacterial lipopolysaccharides, capsular polysaccharides and glycoproteins. Now, monoclonal antibodies have been developed that recogn...

🚨 Our new paper is out today in Nature Chemical Biology:
“Pan-specific antibodies to uncover bacterial pseudaminylation”
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

This is the product of a collaboration between many teams, led by @nickescott.bsky.social, @payneresearch.bsky.social and myself.

1/6

I’m really excited to begin this next chapter for my research at @wehi-research.bsky.social later this year.

I also want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all my colleagues from @monashuniversity.bsky.social for their support these past 5 years.

Wow! @drnicolecampbell.bsky.social that is truly incredible!

Divergent cytokine and transcriptional signatures control functional T follicular helper cell heterogeneity - Nature Immunology Dalit, Tan and colleagues provide a multiomic profile of T follicular helper (TFH) cells responses to diverse pathogens, revealing a blueprint for transcriptional flexibility and new tools to interrog...

Thrilled to have our latest research @wehi-research.bsky.social published in @natimmunol.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This work was an outstanding partnership between talented PhD student Len Dalit (now postdoc, no 🦋) and bioinformatician @chinweetan.bsky.social

Thread below...

It is such fantastic work Lauren! Congrats.

🎓 PhD positions available @MonashUni
Join our lab to explore how neurons and immune cells shape gut immunity!
🧬 Single-cell RNAseq
🔬 3D imaging
🧠 Neuro-immune interactions
👥 Great mentoring & collaborations

Apply now 👉 tinyurl.com/Seilletlab

Congrats @linterman.bsky.social @smguillaume.bsky.social and team for this nice study about B cells fighting on the front lines (the 🫁)

It seems these sugar-specific B cells don’t follow some of the “rules” for selection, which could in theory mean differences for tolerance checkpoints too!

Many anti-sugar Abs are unmutated IgM’s, including those that recognise host-glycans. So this may be a restricted phenomenon.

That’s an interesting question, particularly as the Strep A glycan has also been implicated as an autoantibody involved in rheumatic fever.

Right now, it’s still unclear.

Congrats to first authors @hollyfryer.bsky.social and Cathy Pitt, and all my co-authors many of whom provided the amazing clinical samples that powered this research.

@joshosowicki.bsky.social @njmoreland.bsky.social @melanieneeland.bsky.social (and many more not on 🦋)

These findings reveal how age and infection history can influence the quality, quantity, and isotype use of sugar-specific B cells. This work has important implications for the design and schedule of glycan-containing vaccines.

We conclude that mucosal pathogen encounters elicit glycan
responses that class-switch, evolve and diversify through the GC.

📖🥊 take that textbook!

We found that Strep A infection induced sugar B cells to enter the Germinal centre where they became highly mutated.

How were they doing this? By comparing to protein responses (SpyCEP) we found that sugar B cells had a molecular signature consistent with receiving reduced T cell help.

By studying human blood, spleen and tonsils, including samples from a Strep A human challenge model, we show that sugar B cell responses shift from IgM
towards IgG and IgA memory with age and antigen exposure.

We asked - is this dogma correct when sugar-specific B cells could engulf whole bacteria? (that contain proteins for T cells to recognise).

We focussed on Strep A, where the sugar (GAC) is a leading glycoconjugate vaccine candidate.

Image: Natalia Korotkova

As T cells can’t “see” sugar molecules via their T cell receptor, text books say that antibodies to sugars occur without T cell help. T cell help is critical for germinal centres (GC), the structure in which the antibody sequence on B cells gets mutated with the aim of increasing binding strength.

New preprint alert 🚨

My team and I are pleased to share our most recent story about how bacterial pathogen (Streptococcus pyogenes, Strep A) exposure induces antibody responses against glycan and protein antigens.

For paper: SSRN ssrn.com/abstract=519...
biorxiv : doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

I’m so excited to be a chief investigator for this $10M Wellcome Trust grant, and for all the important things we’re going to learn about immunity against Strep A with researchers spanning three continents.

Research Officer Job Title Research Officer Job Description An excellent opportunity is available for a Research Officer to join the Groom Laboratory in the Immunology Division at Australia’s pre-eminent biomedical re...

Kicking off the new year searching for a postdoc to join our team @wehi-research.bsky.social
Apply now and spread the word

I would love to see this 📖 one day!

Really important #ImmunoSky findings from @jenjuno.viralvaxlab.com and co-authors about the pitfalls of using activation markers to detect antigen-specific T cells.

Good news is they’ve found a marker combination that gets rid of bystander activated cells! Check out the preprint and 🧵 below 👀

8/9 In short, we suggest in vitro stimulation activates ag-specific T cells, which secrete cytokines and activate Treg and Th17/22 cells. Without careful phenotyping, all of these cells can get picked up as AIM+, accounting for the Th17-like memory cells found in many virus-specific AIM datasets.

My n=1 experiment confirms that this scientifically tested recipe makes a delicious Cacio e Pepe, and the pre-print is surprisingly thorough!

This is phenomenal!! What a creative bunch!

I’m loving these! Keep them coming!

Thanks Tri!

Finally jumping into 🦋 - and what better way to do than highlighting this super thread. Wonderful to have been involved in this study with our Strep A friends across the Tasman

@rhcmcg.bsky.social my fantastic co-author Reuben McGregor from University of Auckland is on 🦋 too!

Thanks @drnatsampaio.bsky.social ! I believe can’t do great team science without caring about the individuals.
It’s such a privilege to be able to nurture and support trainees and ECRs and so fulfilling to watch them kick science goals!

Thanks @alexjkeeley.bsky.social !

I think there’s so much we can learn by comparing human challenge to surveillance studies. Looking forward to reading your story when it comes out!