Dr Danika Hill

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!

Streptococcus pyogenes pharyngitis elicits diverse antibody responses to key vaccine antigens influenced by the imprint of past infections Nature Communications - Streptococcus pyogenes is a deadly bacteria without a vaccine. Here, researchers measured antibodies in serum and saliva from a strep throat human challenge trial. Baseline...

This #StrepA paper was a LONG labour of love from a great team 😊 Equal first & senior author credits buried at the very end, so I want to highlight the critical contributions of Dr Hannah Frost & @njmoreland.bsky.social & Dr Danika Hill @precisionvaxlab.bsky.social rdcu.be/d2gBV

Thanks Claudine. So far it’s been a wild ride of downs and ups! 🎢

I’ll take this opportunity to announce that I’ll have multiple postdoc positions opening early next year.

Come join us in Melbourne! 🇦🇺🐨🦘
If you’re interested in mucosal immunology, microbiology, parasitology, vaccine design or bioinformatics, get in touch ✉️!
#ImmunoSky #MicroSky #IDSky

Piotr!! So lovely to hear from you after so long!