Clive McKimmie

New PhD opportunity! Can skin inflammation protect us from mosquito-borne viruses like Zika?
Join our MRC PhD project at York exploring how psoriasis and eczema change skin immunity to virus.
Our grads thrive in academia, biotech & beyond.
Apply now 👉 tinyurl.com/bfmd2rf4

NEW SEMINAR - Thursday 16th October, all welcome! 🦟 How do mosquitoes fight infection at the gene level? Using precision nuclear run-on sequencing (PRO-seq), Pascal and team captured transcription as it happens in Ae aegypti, offering new insights into vector biology and host–pathogen interactions.

Itch is a complex response involving host neuroimmune and maybe also vector derived factors, which we didn’t assess per se. We did find some inflammatory responses to bites (eg neutrophil signature) were suppressed by vaccination. Suggesting it skewed bite responses to being anti-viral.

Thanks to first author Liam Barningham and our brilliant collaborators at Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, @NIH and Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, UniOfMaryland who did the trial👏
Special shout-out to our colleagues at ConservBio who developed AGSv-PLUS. 6/6

Together, these results show that vaccination reshapes the skin’s bite response.
This could increase resistance to infection, pointing to a novel, vector-based vaccine strategy.
5/6

What we saw 👇
✔️ Bites triggered strong leukocyte recruitment signatures + Th1/CD8⁺ responses (esp. albopictus)
✔️ Adjuvanted AGS-v PLUS boosted antiviral/ISG pathways but dampened neutrophil-driven inflammatory signatures
✔️ NK/DC signatures elevated in some groups
4/6

In a Phase I trial cohort, we sampled skin 48h after controlled Ae. aegypti & Ae. albopictus bites.
We compared placebo vs AGS-v PLUS (±adjuvant) to ask: does vaccination alter the early immune response at the bite site? 3/6

One genus of 🦟 transmits most viruses that cause dengue, Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever.
Most vaccines target the virus and are pathogen-specific.
We asked whether targeting mosquito saliva could reprogram skin immunity at the bite, a universal strategy with pan-viral potential

We all know vaccines target the pathogen, but can you also target the vector?
📢 in a new paper out today in Vaccines,
we show that a vaccine targeting mosquito salivary peptides, AGSv-PLUS, enhances human skin immune response to biting.
Open access: www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/13...
1/6

Why? Is a flapjack something different where you are?

Farewell, Zahra! Celebrating the end of a successful PhD journey with some well-deserved fun.

Super happy to announce Zahra Alfaheeda has passed her PhD viva. 🥳 She worked hard to combine diverse resources from cancer biology, virology and vector biology for a really unique project. Looking forward to sharing her story soon. Thanks to @maringerlab.bsky.social and Gina Doody for examining.

See you Thursday 18th for our first seminar of the series with the inspiring @priyashah.bsky.social from @ucdavis.bsky.social with her talk
“Harder, better, faster, stronger: integrating virology and engineering to drive discovery”.
All welcome! email us for the zoom link.

Psyched to be co-chairing this great line up of diverse speakers who represent the best in arbovirus research. See you there! Send us your email for a Zoom login. Please help with a re-post :-)

Not just wild fires that follow hot weather, clusters of locally acquired mosquito-borne virus infection in south France, an update on numbers.

Was sad to say farewell to @yoncakeskekturk.bsky.social today. She transformed our understanding of the sandfly-skin interface during virus infection for her PhD, and just finished testing a new Zikv vaccine. She returns home to 🤞start her career as lecturer/PI. Take care Yonca! You will be missed.

RFK Jr cancels $500m in mRNA vaccine development in the US Since taking office, the vaccine sceptic has made a number of changes to how vaccines are regulated.

We knew this deeply misguided man was bad news, but now his actions threaten us all. RNA-based vaccines are safe, effective at preventing disease, and can be rapidly manufactured at scale. Just as the threat of infectious disease increases, we remove our best defence. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fundamental immunology 101: the basics of an immune response Tackling infections

I thought it might be helpful to do a more general immunology explainer which I can then build on for example when I discuss specific papers or political actions. Do let me know if its useful and other topics if so. This first one is a general one about how we tackle infections... 🧪 #ImmunoSky

Metabolic homeostasis favors tolerance to persistent viral infection in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes The mosquito Aedes aegypti harbors a wide range of persistent viral infections, including both medically important arboviruses and insect-specific viruses (ISVs). However, the mechanisms underpinning ...

How can mosquitoes tolerate viral infections?

In our latest preprint we show that mosquitoes that can regulate their metabolism after infection can tolerate viral infections better.

Thanks to all the authors for all your ideas and contributions

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

🧵 Dengue is no longer just a tropical disease - it's showing up in Europe.

This season, France, Italy, and Portugal (Madeira) have already reported locally acquired dengue cases.

Check the latest #CDTR on #dengue here: bit.ly/3TQpDVu

#IdSky #EpiSky #MosquitoBorne #Prevention #PublicHealth

World Health Organization raises concern about spread of mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus The World Health Organization issued an urgent call for action on Tuesday to prevent a repeat of an epidemic of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus that swept the globe two decades ago, as new outbreaks linked to the Indian Ocean region spread to Europe and other continents.

🦟"World Health Organization @who.int raises concern about spread of #mosquito-borne #chikungunya #virus" via @reuters.com #arbovirus #GLAI

www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Fascinating work!

Mosquito immune cells enhance dengue and Zika virus infection in Aedes aegypti Nature Communications - Infection of mosquito immune cells by dengue and Zika virus enhances the spread of virus infection to mosquito tissues, such as the salivary glands, to promote virus...

Despite all the shit going on, we have to celebrate our victories. New publication with @entomososwin.bsky.social and @vectorimmunity.bsky.social showing that hemocytes play a central role in disseminating flaviviruses to secondary tissues potentially functioning as a Trojan Horse(TBD)
rdcu.be/euj4g

These images are just stunning, generated using the largest mirror paired with the largest digital camera ever made. @vrubinobs.bsky.social

Kupffer cell programming by maternal obesity triggers fatty liver disease - Nature In a mouse model, maternal obesity during pregnancy can lead to fatty liver disease in the offspring, driven by aberrant developmental programming of Kuppfer cells.

Nature research paper: Kupffer cell programming by maternal obesity triggers fatty liver disease

https://go.nature.com/4laOA9s

Last seminar in the series with latest insights from Jonathan Abraham's team - #alphavirus-fest 🤓

True, boys always have the most pretty fascinators/headpieces.

Credit to first author @fpahmeier.bsky.social

Antibodies targeting Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus GP38 limit vascular leak and viral spread Glycoprotein GP38-specific antibodies reduce viral dissemination and GP38-mediated vascular leak in Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus infection.

A great talk at GRC on tick-borne #CCHFV #pathogenesis. GP38, a secreted viral protein, drives vascular leak by disrupting the endothelial glycocalyx, similar to DENV NS1. Antibodies blocked leak and protected mice; => GP38 can be considered a viral Toxin; www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

@chatel-chaixlab.bsky.social just gave excellent summary of their paper on a new #zebrafish model
#ZIKV at GRC viruses and cells. Useful new tool for assessing #neuropathogenesis when paired with unprecedented genetic and imaging capabilities. Worth checking out. journals.plos.org/plospathogen...