George Hooper

🧬 New paper explores peptide affinity ligands for scalable purification of VSV-G lentiviral vectors. Researchers tested peptide-functionalised resins & membranes for LVV capture and compared binding, productivity and impurity reduction. aiche.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bt…

Key takeaways: • Strong binding of active LVVs • Cleaner eluates via reduced host-cell impurities • Compatible with standard downstream workflows Promising step toward more reliable large-scale LVV manufacturing. #Lentiviral #Pseudotyping #Virology

🧬 New paper explores peptide affinity ligands for scalable purification of VSV-G lentiviral vectors. Researchers tested peptide-functionalised resins & membranes for LVV capture and compared binding, productivity and impurity reduction. aiche.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bt…

PVNA titres correlated strongly with LVNA results across multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants (r ≈ 0.9–0.96). Pseudotyped virus assays closely match authentic virus assays, making them a reliable, safer, and scalable alternative. #Vaccinology #Virology #PseudotypedVirus #Pseudovirus

🧬 Pseudotyped virus assays correlate strongly with authentic SARS-CoV-2 assays! A recent study compared pseudotyped virus neutralisation (PVNA) and live-virus neutralisation (LVNA) assays. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12… #Virology #Immunology #SARSCoV2 #PseudotypedVirus #Pseudovirus

By binding both viral and host targets, the bsAb pre-positions at the fusion site, enhancing potency, which could be useful for other viruses. #Pseudovirus #Abs

🚨 New research on HIV-1 neutralising antibodies 🧬 A PNAS study reports a bispecific antibody targeting gp41 (NHR) and CCR5 that achieved 100% neutralisation breadth across 119 HIV pseudotyped viruses. 🔗 pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn… #HIV #Virology #Immunology #PseudotypedVirus

🔥Vaccine news🔥 A study of 2,300 women has shown that HPV infections dropped by 98% (!!) in vaccinated women HPV causes cervical cancer This vaccine prevents cancer! jamanetwork.com/journals/jamap…

Viral AlphaFold Database dropped! NCBI RefSeq → 647,000 viral protein seqs MMseqs2 → ~117,000 clusters AlphaFold2 → 26,962 monomers AlphaFold-Multimer → 26,754 homodimers Foldseek → 12,894 structural clusters Enjoy.

Infectivity varies across bat & mammalian cell lines GP–receptor interface differences appear to govern tropism & zoonotic potential. 💡Understanding these mechanisms helps assess spillover risk & guide countermeasure development. #PseudotypedVirus #InfectiousDiseases

Key findings: VLPs assembled from NP, GP & VP40 adopt classic filamentous morphology. Some bat filoviruses are cross-neutralised by Ebola monoclonal antibodies. Use human TIM-1 & C-type lectins for entry (less efficiently than Ebola/Marburg). #VirusLikeParticles #ZoonoticRisk

🚨 New study: compares bat-derived filovirus glycoproteins🦇 (Lloviu, Bombali, Mengla, Dehong) They explored virus-like particles, entry mechanisms, and antibody neutralisation. 🔬 🔗journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jv… #Virology #Filoviruses #EmergingViruses

@lii_elaine Thanks! I think it’s unlikely on the basis of this study alone, as the groups were quite small and from a limited geographical area. But it would be really interesting to see if larger, more diverse studies found the same effect.

@GL_Hooper Interesting study on HPV vaccines! The broader protection from nonavalent vaccines in older adults is surprising. Do you think this could lead to updated vaccination recommendations for older age groups?

New study: HPV vaccines assessed with pseudotyped virus neutralisation assays 💉 Bivalent gave strong HPV16/18 responses, nonavalent gave broader protection (esp. in older groups). 🔗 frontiersin.org/journals/publi… #HPV #Vaccine #Virology #Pseudovirus #PseudotypedVirus

⚠️Measles update US 🇺🇸 1454 cases, 42 jurisdictions, 65% kids, 96% not fully vaccinated, 12% required hospitalisation, 3 kids dead. The US Measles outbreak continues to moderate, although still breaks all records since eradication 2 decades ago.

VelociRAPTR, a platform combining yeast display with virus-like particles, maps T cell receptor interactions with antigens at high throughput. Insights could aid T cell therapy design and immune recognition models. biorxiv.org/content/10.110… #TCR #HighThroughput #VLP #Pseudotype

Out Now! Single-cell image-based screens identify host regulators of Ebola virus infection dynamics bit.ly/46nKLtH #EbolaResearch #Microbiology #CRISPR

A novel nanoparticle vaccine, based on S1-CTD, elicits robust protective immune responses against porcine deltacoronavirus | Journal of Virology journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jv…

Post 29 — Adaptation Underway: H5N1 Is Narrowing the Gap Toward Human-to-Human Transmission The H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b has changed a lot since it circulated only among birds. Since 2010, it has accumulated adapative mutations that increase its ability to infect mammals, 1/10

Is this CHIKV platform a real step forward, or just another point on the pseudotype–replicon continuum? Would love to hear your thoughts 👇 Tanaka & Miyazawa (2025): #R29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">microbiologyresearch.org/content/journa… #Virology #PseudotypedVirus #Replicon

So, alphavirus envelopes alone can drive budding, but doesn't removing capsid move us further from a native virus? For vaccines, yes, less vector immunity. But for pseudotyping, isn't closer to a native virus better?

🚨 New study reports a CHIKV-based pseudotyping system — but is it really a pseudotype, a replicon, or something in between? 🤔