Gemma Moncunill

👋 Hi Bluesky!

We are the Malaria Immunology Lab at @isglobal.org

Our research focuses on understanding immune responses not only to malaria but also to COVID19, long COVID, helminth infections and other infectious diseases 🦟💉🦠🪱

Follow us for updates on our projects, publications and lab life!

This week our PhD student Silvia Ruiz Rius led our Journal Club session with an excellent presentation on recent findings about Tfh cells and their associations with antibody responses in malaria.

💬 What papers or topics have sparked interesting conversations in your journal clubs lately?

Pre-print alert! And this one really is a must read for anyone that does spectral #flowcytometry. It is a complete, fully-automated spectral unmixing pipeline that reduces error up to 9000-fold.

Want to get a tough sample, like lung, looking like this? Read more!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Greetings from the #WORMVACS annual meeting in Siena! 👋

🪱💉We are discussing the past year’s progress in the search for a #helminth vaccine and agreeing on the next steps in tackling #NeglectedTropicalDiseases.

Learn more ➡️ wormvacs.org

#HaDEA @ec.europa.eu @isglobal.org

END-VOC Issues Strategic Recommendations to Strengthen Cohort-Based Research for Future Health Threats The recommendations call on researchers, authorities and funders to ensure consistent protocols, robust infrastructure, and flexible ethical and funding mechanisms Longitudinal cohort studies, which track individuals over time, have proven invaluable for understanding disease progression, identifying risk factors, and evaluating interventions such as vaccines. During the COVID-19

Longitudinal cohort studies are essential to understand diseases, identify risk factors and guide #PublicHealth action.

During #COVID19, #ENDVOCproject united 33 cohorts from 24 countries to study emerging variants and the burden of #LongCovid.

@horizoneu.bsky.social

Innate immune responses to Plasmodium falciparum disrupt the blood-brain barrier Plasmodium falciparum accumulation at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a hallmark of cerebral malaria, a life-threatening complication. Conversely, the contribution of the immune response to vascular ...

Pre-print alert 🚨
We answer a longstanding question in the field. Do immune cells cause cerebral malaria?

The answer is YES!!!! And independently of P. falciparum accumulation in the brain.

www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Just hot out of the press! Rory developed a 3D microvessel model that recapitulates physiological pericyte coverage. We found that Plasmodium falciparum egress products disrupt the barrier and halt ang-1 secretion. The activator AKB-9778 could rescue barrier disruption! Congratulations, Rory!

Noma, the forgotten disease that remains invisible - ISGLOBAL An ISGlobal study confirms the presence of noma disease in Mozambique and warns that the problem is global

#Noma has been reported for the first time in Mozambique, revealing an incidence similar to Ethiopia & Nigeria.

Despite being preventable and treatable, this devastating disease still affects children living in extreme poverty and remains overlooked by health systems.

La ferroviària basca CAF, entre les còmplices del govern d'Israel segons Amnistia Internacional La publicació del seu darrer informe coincideix amb la fi del termini que l’ONU va establir fa un any a Israel per deixar els territoris ocupats. Durant el dia hi ha convocades mobilitzacions per denunciar l'incompliment i els crims a Palestina

La ferroviària basca CAF, una de les empreses "responsables de sostenir" un govern genocida que apareixen documentades en un nou informe d'Amnistia Internacional

Ciència contra el genocidi L’Estat d’Israel utilitza la seva posició dins del món científic i acadèmic per blanquejar la colonització del territori palestí. Alhora, en molts casos, la seva recerca i innovació acaba al servei de la tecnologia militar o bé es fa servir per desenvolupar unes capacitats que sostenen genocidi

Els científics Europeus hem de demanar que Israel sigui expulsat amb efecte immediat de l’Àrea de Recerca Europea

L'opinió de l'investigador Javier del Campo

Ciència contra el genocidi L’Estat d’Israel utilitza la seva posició dins del món científic i acadèmic per blanquejar la colonització del territori palestí. Alhora, en molts casos, la seva recerca i innovació acaba al servei de...

La comunitat científica ha de sumar-se a la pressió a Israel per aconseguir aturar el genocidi a Gaza.

Mantenir-se neutral és ser-ne còmplice.

🍉

Feu una ullada a l’opinió que em publiquen les companyes de @ladirecta.bsky.social 👇

directa.cat/ciencia-cont...

Explaining the risks of illness vs vaccine side effects

@peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social offers this nice example of measles vaccines in @plosglobalpublichealth.org article [Artwork by Fahim Akbar]

journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

ISGlobal obté la certificació ISO 9001:2015 per a la Plataforma de resposta immunitària i biomarcadors - ISGLOBAL El reconeixement internacional avala l’excel·lència operativa i el compromís amb la qualitat en el disseny i l’anàlisi de respostes immunitàries i biomarcadors

La Plataforma de Resposta Immunitària i Biomarcadors d’#ISGlobal rep la certificació ISO 9001:2015.

Un reconeixement internacional a la qualitat i eficiència en l’àmbit de la recerca biomèdica.

We just published a piece about the participation of people deprived of liberty in #tuberculosis vaccine trials. Should they be protected from research, or through research?

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

@thelancetinfdis.bsky.social @isglobal.org @mtbi.bsky.social

‘I don’t want my boy to be positive’: pregnant women face sky-high viral loads as cuts hit HIV care in Africa As the withdrawal of US funding disrupts treatment and halts crucial research in South Africa, clinics fear the resurgence of mother-to-child transmission of the virus

We are travelling back in time! So tragic!!

As the withdrawal of US funding disrupts treatment and halts crucial research in South Africa, clinics fear the resurgence of mother-to-child transmission of the virus

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

The end of aid: What The Global South needs to do Six key actions countries can take – and should have taken a long time ago – if they are to liberate themselves from dependence on foreign aid.

The end of aid: What The Global South needs to do

Six key actions countries can take – and should have taken a long time ago – if they are to liberate themselves from dependence on foreign aid

@themrise.bsky.social

www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2025...

The Sea Cucumber‐Infecting Parasite Apostichocystis gudetama gen. nov. sp. nov. Expands Marine‐Host‐Specific Clade of Apicomplexans Unknown ellipsoid bodies, later classified as apicomplexan cysts, are prevalent in the ovaries of Japanese sea cucumbers (Apostichopus japonicus), where they can lead to lower fecundity in infected i....

🆕 Out now in JEM (@jeukmicro.bsky.social‬)! Using rrn gene and organelle phylogenies from recovered cysts, we describe 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘢, an apicomplexan parasite found in the ovaries of the Japanese sea cucumber 🥚 🥒 🇯🇵 dx.doi.org/10.1111/jeu.... #ProtistsOnSky

#OPINIÓ | Catalunya, un refugi per a la investigació acadèmica només d’alguns països https://directa.cat/catalunya-un-refugi-per-a-la-investigacio-academica-nomes-dalguns-paisos/ ✍️ Un text de Javier del Campo, Investigador de l’Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC – Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

La inmunología: una ciencia que nos protege hoy y mañana, por Grupo de Inmunología de la Malaria de ISGlobal Escrito por Carlota Dobaño, Gemma Moncunill y Adelaida Sarukhan (ISGlobal) Cuando surgen nuevas amenazas sanitarias, la inmunología ofrece respuestas que salvan vidas.

Cuando surgen nuevas amenazas sanitarias, la #inmunología ofrece respuestas que salvan vidas. ¿Estamos escuchando a la ciencia?

En el #DíaMundialDeLaInmunización, Carlota Dobaño, @moncunill.bsky.social y @sarukhan.bsky.social hablan de ello en @lavanguardia.com:
www.lavanguardia.com/vida/2025042...

Figure showing simulated vaccine efficacy estimates based on the month of vaccination completion using data from the highly seasonal site of Nanoro (Burkina Faso). Copyright: 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved.

Non-biological factors linked to disease transmission can affect vaccine efficacy estimated in clinical trials.

In @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social, authors explore the impact of disease transmission on #malaria vaccine efficacy estimates: tinyurl.com/2dpke6ma #WorldMalariaDay

Since 2000, 2.2 billion malaria cases and 12.7 million deaths have been averted.

It’s #WorldMalariaDay
The good news: 2.2 billion #malaria cases and 12.7 million deaths have been averted since 2000.
The bad news: after years of steady declines, progress has stalled.
bit.ly/MalariaDay2025

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“Vaccines have saved 154 million lives globally since the launch of the Expanded Programme on Immunization by the World Health Organization in 1974 and are one of the great triumphs of medicine”

NIH cancels its first and largest study centered on women The Women’s Health Initiative has produced numerous influential findings

NIH cancels its first and largest study centered on women

www.science.org/content/arti...

Feliç #SantJordi! In Catalunya, today we celebrate love, literature and dragons, exchanging books and roses🐉 🌹 📖 . Honoring the dragon of the legend of Sant Jordi, today’s #Midweekmicrobe is Dracomyxa pallida, a giant ameboid freshwater foraminifer #ProtistsOnSky
📷 Wylezich et al. 2014

So today, let's celebrate all dragons - big, small, from the ones found in old legends to the ones that we find under microscopes🐉 🔬
See the full paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.pr...
And more on the Catalan Sant Jordi tradition:
www.barcelona.cat/culturapopul...
www.barcelona.cat/santjordi/en...

Three doses of mRNA #COVID19 vaccine induce a long-lasting antibody response.

This is the main conclusion of an #ISGlobal-led study in healthcare workers followed for 3 years.

🟠 www.isglobal.org/en/-/vacunac...

“Our data suggest that updated vaccines are key, especially for those previously infected,” says #ISGlobal researcher @moncunill.bsky.social.

The study is part of the Horizon Europe #ENDVOC project, which uses global cohorts to analyse the impact of #COVID variants.

🔗 endvoc.eu

Long-lasting antibody B-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 three years after the onset of the pandemic Molinos-Albert et al. developed an integrative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 antibody B-cell responses in a cohort of 113 healthcare workers followed since the beginning of the pandemic during a 3-year period. The authors report that despite differential kinetics, COVID-19-recovered and -naive individuals developed comparable and long-lasting immunity.

Long-lasting antibody B-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 three years after the onset of the pandemic

President Illa: "Oferirem més de 70 places a investigadors d'excel·lència que puguin veure coartada la seva llibertat acadèmica als Estats Units"

Milers d’investigadors veuen coartada la seva llibertat acadèmica i fins i tot la seva integritat física arreu del planeta. Que farà el Govern?

Seria d’agraïr que la política de #recerca del país no estigués basada en mesures efectistes (i cíniques si em permeteu).

🧵

govern.cat/salapremsa/n...

A Switch to IgG4 Antibodies After COVID-19 Vaccination May Increase the Risk of Breakthrough Infections For over three years, ENDVOC researchers analysed the quantity and function of different antibody classes in a cohort of healthcare workers who received mRNA vaccine booster doses    During the COVID-19 pandemic, a variety of vaccines were developed, with mRNA vaccines leading the way in Western countries. These vaccines

"Booster doses remain essential for protection [against #COVID19], but our findings highlight the need to reassess vaccine formulations and schedules."

#ENDVOC