Viral Immunologist, science enthusiast. Lab focuses on adaptive immunity against CMV and SARS-CoV-2. My views are my own, not necessarily of my employer.
Joined December 2021
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Auch zu beachten: Mittlerweile sind die einzigen Menschen ohne COVID Grundimmunität die es noch überhaupt gibt, die Kinder die inzwischen (z.B. in 2023-24) geboren sind. Für sie gibt es auch keine Impfempfehlung. Sie sollen sich einfach anstecken und wir schauen was passiert.
I am thinking very seriously to delete this account and move to Blue Sky. I will keep this for a few more weeks, but engage ever more often over there. You can find me there using the handle:
@cicin-sainlab.bsky.social
Luka Cicin-Sain (cicin-sainlab.bsky.social) retweeted
Der #Vogelgrippe-Erreger #H5N1 wurde erstmals bei Schweinen nachgewiesen. #Influenza-Viren neigen zu "Spillovers" und springen von einer Spezies zur anderen. Das zeigt, wie wichtig die Überwachung potenziell pandemischer #Viren bleibt. via @ConversationUK theconversation.com/bird-flu…
I'm traveling to Italy to attend this year's edition of EU Seminars in Virology. I will be sharing our newest data on CMV as vaccine vector in a meeting that actually focuses on viral vectors. Thanks to the organizers for the invitation, I'm looking forward to the discussions. 🧪
Yesterday, Isabella Eckerle from the Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases (@gcevd) was my guest in the @Helmholtz_HZI seminar series. She shared newest data on immunity preventing COVID transmission, beyond her previous publications (e.g. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3539…).
Very cool work🧪
Yesterday I gave a talk about viruses, how small they are, and yet how dangerous they can be, to an audience full of kids.
Incredibly rewarding moments, as the kids listened raptly and asked their questions after my show&tell.
Children give so much meaning to all of our efforts🙂
Auch Kinder kommen bei unserem Tag der offenen Tür voll auf ihre Kosten! Sie können bspw. um die Wette pipettieren, Mikroben basteln & Stempel sammeln für einen Preis. Zudem hält @CicinSain_Lab einen Kindervortrag zum Thema "Was ist ein Virus?" #HZIOpenDay
helmholtz-hzi.de/media-cente…
I don't have herpes, but I am working on it!
So many people who can proudly say this have joined us in Braunschweig at the Mini-Herpesvirus Workshop. We got guests from all parts of Germany, UK, Israel, Croatia & more. I hope to see you at the next edition in a year in Freiburg.
My best thanks to @Helmholtz_HZI for providing us the venue, the Friends of HZI & RESIST EXC for the support, Lars Dölken & Hartmut Hengel as scientific co-organizers. A big thank to Claudia Munzel and the team from the VIRI lab who worked behind the scenes to make this happen.
My fav talk in the first session @ mini-herpesvirus workshop was by Noam Stern-Ginnossar. A library of HCMV mutants expressing guide RNAs against host genes was used to infect Cas9 cells and select for host genes that impact virus growth. Partly publish: nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
What a session!
Each presentation in the morning session at the Mini-Herpesvirus workshop feels like a quantum leap in our understanding of #virus replication, host-cell restriction factors and methods to study them.
Our mechanistic understanding of virus biology is accelerating.
We are very excited about the mini-herpesvirus workshop that starts tomorrow on the @Helmholtz_HZI campus in Braunschweig. Some 120 delegates and more than 50 abstracts show the huge interest in #herpes #virology. Many thanks to my team, working so hard in making this possible.
This commentary in J. Virol should touch a nerve with everyone who cares about facts, science and the search for truth. @Ayjchan and @nytimes should take a strong look at their choices and reconsider how their actions harmed #science in general and #virology in particular.
Got data? It matters, @NYT. #covid #lovevirology The harms of promoting the lab leak hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 origins without evidence | Journal of Virology journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128…
A very interesting interview with Anthony Fauci on "Pivot":
podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/p…
The interview starts at Min. 27, & touches on subjects that were seldom asked, including the timeline of Fauci's falling out with DJTrump & strategies for coping with personal attacks/defamations.
We have a new paper out:
frontiersin.org/journals/imm… Firstly, we show that a #cytomegalovirus expressing the #Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 can elicit not only lasting anti-spike #antibodies & T-cells, but also protection against multiple antigenically distant #COVID variants. 1/3
Thirdly, we observed a broadening of antibody repertoires over time. Antibodies #neutralizing
#Omicron variants emerged by 3 Mo upon immunization & increased in titer by 6 Mo. Very interesting! Kudos to Kristin, Henning and Yeonsu, who led this study. I'm very proud of you. 3/3🧪
Our paper on the ARMATA assay is now formally out. frontiersin.org/journals/imm…
More details on its content and message are in the thread below.
Our paper on a new assay to measure antiviral activity of human T cells is provisionally accepted in Frontiers in Immunology. frontiersin.org/journals/imm…
This work by Fawad Khan and numerous lab members before him allows us to improve on vague antiviral correlates of protection. 1/n
Our paper on a new assay to measure antiviral activity of human T cells is provisionally accepted in Frontiers in Immunology. frontiersin.org/journals/imm…
This work by Fawad Khan and numerous lab members before him allows us to improve on vague antiviral correlates of protection. 1/n
...which are developed for use in immunotheraputic settings. This ensures that T-cells recognize only the relevant viral antigen in the context of the desired HLA molecule (in our case, the A02-NLVPMVATV complex) and identify the TCR clones that work best against the virus. 5/n
In turn, this means that we can predict if a cell preparation will work against the #virus before using them as an immunotherapeutic in a patient.
Kudos to Fawad, who worked very diligently on this.
I will post here once the final version is formally accepted and published.
/fin