@msmacrophage.bsky.social
Professor of Medicine, McMaster University Executive Director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health Board of Directors Lung Health Foundation #macrophages #aging #respiratoryinfections #vaccinations #immunity #inflammation #scicomm
Almost forgot... thanks to Nicole Shaver, Julian Little and team for putting this together. Happy to have contributed and will keep it bookmarked for the next pandemic (sigh).
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
... and follow a ROSES (Reporting of Seroepidemiologic Studies for Influenza) type guideline so others could reproduce our work and we could see what others were doing 5/5 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#olderandwiser #pandemicpreparedness
And immunologists have opinions - lots of them. Nonetheless, if there were two things I'd do differently, I would included open-ended questions for symptoms (we really didn't believe that loss of smell or menstrual irregularities were a thing in March 2020 as it had never been reported before) & 4/n
Of course on of the challenges is we still don't really know what the cellular immune correlates of protection are and that shifting variants means we still don't have a really level of protection for antibody based assays so even 6 yrs later I'm hard-pressed to pick the 'best' assays. 3/n
One of the challenges is being able to compare immunologic assays done across the world when there is limited/no reference material. You can mitigate that by basic standards in reporting (e.g. level of detection), which we are now including in all our papers. 2/n
I sincerely hope that there will not be another pandemic in my lifetime, but I suspect that's wishful thinking. When it hits we'll need some institutional memory of lessons learned getting serological assay up and running with limited materials and knowledge but a desperate need. 1/n
Just listened - really great job explaining the disease, the gene editing, and the outcome.
Great to talk with Matt Galloway on CBC The Current this morning about successful gene therapy for a human immune defect.
The Current with Matt Galloway - March 9, 2026: How a gene edit gave a B.C teen his life back.
www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...
@mattgalloway.bsky.social @bcchresearch.bsky.social
What's better than an evening learning about the math of #epidemics?
Learning about the science of #measles too!
Another great Royal City Science "Science on Tap" featuring Drs David Earn & @msmacrophage.bsky.social.
Check out the RSC website for upcoming events.
royalcityscience.ca
So looking forward to this - come hang out in Guelph tonight with David Earn & me - his talk is going to be so interesting - he has digitized Seth’s certificates of measles going back to the 16th century! I’ll be all immunology all the time, and the immunology of measles infections is fascinating.
For the record I am spoiled for favourite mathematicians at @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social and don't worry, @jdushoff.bsky.social you are also on the list.
Free public event in Guelph, Ontario. Come hang out with me and (one of) my favourite math/infectious disease modellers -David Earn and talk about measles. Why is it back? Why is it bad? Why is it so much more deadly than other respiratory viruses? Quiz! Beer! Geeky fun will be had.
Delighted to be dropping the next epi of our podcast “No Ostriching Here.” Joining us is @msmacrophage.bsky.social
as we discuss our aging immune systems, the loss of Canada’s vax status, measles outbreaks & why we need a National Vaccine Registry. Stay tuned. #podcastlife @mjnabuurs.bsky.social
Alex, I’m going to need you to give this line of research up.
This is so cool! In my PhD I was peripherally involved in identifying an IRAK4 patient. People with IRAK4\MyD88 mutations take prophylactic penicillin to prevent Spn infections and I always wondered why they didn’t develop AMR. Now I know!
❤️ Happy Valentine's Day! 🧪
“Not explaining science seems to me perverse.
When you’re in love, you want to tell the world.”
— Carl Sagan
Prevention is cheaper & easier than treatment for lung health. My colleague Jessica Buckley (Lung Health Foundation) and I wrote this for @hilltimes.com because chronic lung disease takes decades to manifest and Canada is far behind our comparator countries in smoking/vaping prevention. #pulmsky 🫁
Got it in the second try, which is pretty good. I’m not sure if I am too modest in the way I wrote but i often have people questioning my expertise or ability when even the most cursory glance at my cv would show that I know what I’m doing.
I'm lucky that I remember when people are nice to me and forget when people wrong me, so I had totally forgotten this brutal criticism of my last CIHR grant on studying the immunology of COVID-19 infections & vaccinations. The reviewer didn't seem to think I was qualified to lead it. Implicit bias?
The link isn’t working for me - can you repost? I would love to share with my students
Have you had, or are you considering getting a shingles (or other) vaccine to protect your brain health? Are you 50+ and Canadian? Would you potentially like to be on a podcast? If so, please DM me. A colleague is looking for people interested in speaking about their experience.
Learning lots about #lung autoimmunity as a contributor to severe #asthma from Dr Manali Mukherjee from #TheFirestone. Great reminder that blood is not always the right place to sample for autoimmunity -sputum can be a much more informative marker.
Are female economists treated differently than males in academic seminars?
These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.
So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...
Post-doctoral opportunity @uofguelph.bsky.social to lead a translational program investigating how myocardial infarction drives coupled cardiopulmonary remodeling and neurological dysfunction. If interested, email jeremys@uoguelph.ca with CV, cover letter, by by Feb 27th. Good luck all!
This poster is outside my little lab. There is nothing else like it. Please support this artist! @redpenblackpen.bsky.social
Have you used CPAP, BiPAP or home ventilation? Researchers want to hear from you. Take the survey here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z6B3CGB
En Francais: -https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/IMPORTANCEHMV?lang=fr
I don’t think it’s actually score creep. I think it’s just that there are excellent grants that aren’t being funded. After two, three, or more revisions, the grants are really just excellent. If way more were funded I think the scores would settle back down.
Does the misinformation coming from the US influence Canadian opinions on vaccines? Probably, but we don't have any data to know for sure. I speak to @theguardian.com here.
Happy New Year!
May all your PCRs give you only specific bands of the appropriate sizes. May your gel extraction and miniprep yields be high.
May your cloning always give you at least one correct colony, and your genotyping identify the mutants you are after. ✨
My most enthusiastically received public talk this year was "Is dementia a vaccine-preventable condition?" and the wonderful team at the McMaster Alumni Association, @miramcmaster.bsky.social , and the McMaster Optimal Aging portal have made it available for you if you missed it. Enjoy!