MRC-UofG Centre for Virus Research

Happy International Women’s Day!

We are proud of the women of #TeamUofG, past and present. Here are just a few who have shaped our community over our 575-year history.

Learn more: Gla.ac.uk/explore/575

@cvrinfo.bsky.social Clinical Viral Epidemiology Group & Usher Institute PhD students, @hbsci.bsky.social & Milly Young presenting their work at #rti2026! 🫁🦠

We’re hosting the @cvrinfo.bsky.social coffee morning 🍰🍩, celebrating the Lunar New Year 🧧🐎 #YearOfTheHorse

The relationship between Connexin 43 (Cx43) and partner protein, human discs large homologue-1 (Dlg1) during wound closure in keratinocytes - Cell and Tissue Research Plasma membrane gap junctions, formed by connexin proteins, are responsible for direct intercellular communication between adjacent cells by allowing the exchange of ions, metabolites, secondary messe...

NEW | Complexities of wound healing at a cellular level

New research from Harry Scott & colleagues found that reducing Dlg1 protein levels lowers Cx43 levels - but surprisingly slows wound closure. Dlg1 seems vital for cell division, not just Cx43 regulation.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Do you work in #GlobalHealth?

The International Pandemic Sciences Conference 2026 wants to hear from you.

🗓️ 1–3 July
📍 Singapore & online
🗣️ Hosts: @PSIOxford and PREPARE
📚 Bursaries for LMIC delegates

Submit your abstract and register: cvent.me/2mMBwn

📢 EVENT | Coming to Singapore: #PandemicSciences2026

1–3 July @psioxford.bsky.social and PREPARE will host the International Pandemic Sciences Conference to explore how to build pandemic resilience.

Bursaries for LMIC delegates.

Register and submit an abstract ➡️ cvent.me/2mMBwn

Sarah doesn't really like photographs, so here is a linocut of a golden cube of the main CVR building, labelled 'Sir Michael Stoker Building' (Image: Ed Hutchinson)

Some Glasgowversaries today.
Our omnicompetent lab manager Sarah Cole started working at what is now @cvrinfo.bsky.social 20 years ago, and our lab group started up almost exactly 10 years later. Huge thanks to Sarah - and to the CVR and everyone who makes it such a great place to study viruses 🦠🥳🦠

A study funded through a partnership with CSL Seqirus has been published in Scientific Reports. The research maps #BirdFlu risk across Europe using environmental AND wild bird data. Read more: www.thepandemicinstitute.org/news/study-u... @liambrierley.bsky.social #AvianInfluenza #H5N1

Avian influenza cases of H5N1 are at a record high in European birds again. Last winter saw a significant increase in cases.

Data from European Food Safety Authority ⬇️

Ecology and environment predict spatially stratified risk of H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza clade 2.3.4.4b in wild birds across Europe - Scientific Reports Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) represents a threat to animal and human health, with the ongoing H5N1 outbreak within the H5 2.3.4.4b clade being one of the largest on record. However, it rem...

🦅 What’s driving the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) across Europe?

Using machine learning and wild bird ecology, a new study from @L_Brierley & colleagues reveals a shift towards year-round risk in cold, low-lying regions of NW Europe.

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

Bright Club Glasgow - The Stand Comedy Club Bright Club is the thinking person variety night. Bright Club’s unique blend of comedy, academia and music has won support from New Scientist, The Guardian, ...

🎤 TONIGHT | Join us for tonight's Bright Club event!

📍The Stand Comedy Club, Glasgow
📆 Mon 2 Feb 20:00

Laugh and learn as researchers from Scotland’s universities, including the CVR, take to the stage for your enlightenment, engagement & entertainment!

www.thestand.co.uk/performance/...

A data figure showing a phylogenetic tree of H3N2 with 2025-K highlighted, the structure of the HA trimer with mutations characteristic of K highlighted, and box and whisker plots showing % neutralisation of the 2022 H3N2 vaccine strain, and of 2025 clade K, by various human antisera

🚨New Pre-Print🚨
Although H3N2 subclade K has multiple mutations in HA, neutralisation assays with pre-epidemic human sera show only moderate antigenic drift, and vaccines used in the 2024/2025 flu season induced cross-neutralising immunity
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

We’re excited to announce our 9th Introduction to Viral #Bioinformatics course, starting 15 June 2026! 🧬
@cvrinfo.bsky.social
Course information👉 tinyurl.com/yc8285zd

Subclade K influenza A (H3N2) viruses display partial immune escape with preserved cross-neutralisation in a UK population We examined whether the recent emergence of influenza A(H3N2) subclade K, associated with an unusually early influenza season in the Northern hemisphere, was accompanied by a reduction in human popula...

Preprint measuring immune response to the A/H3N2 K influenza virus using human sera from May 2025. Some immune escape but vaccine was protective. Not really a super-flu. @cvrinfo.bsky.social @prmurcia.bsky.social www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

NEW | Cysteines tell you about protein activity & druggability, but lysates lose the biology.

Researcher team lead by @rosfrankinst.bsky.social developed nickel chemistry cells can tolerate, enabling deep cysteine mapping in living cells and host–pathogen systems.

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

🦟 New project | Mosquitoes, their viruses and associated disease risk in NI

MosquitoNI will be co-led by a multi-institutional team including @UofGlasgow's CVR (@emipondeville), @QUBelfast & @UK_CEH.

www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

👥 Open to Master’s & PhD students and early-career researchers from diverse disciplines
💰 Scholarships available
🗓️ Applications will open in January 2026 – Stay tuned!

#OneHealth #SummerSchool2026 #ClimateChange #InfectiousDiseases #NatureBasedSolutions

This 2-week immersive programme will explore the links between climate change, vector-borne diseases and nature-based solutions, combining fieldwork, lab and modelling sessions with stakeholder engagement and communication training.

📢 Save the date! One Health Summer School 2026

Attend the One Health Approaches to Study Climate-Sensitive Infectious Diseases Summer School, taking place 17–28 August 2026 in Rotterdam (ErasmusMC) and Heidelberg (Heidelberg
University).

More info: onehealthsummerschool.eu

MMRV: what families need to know about the UK’s new chickenpox vaccine

Prof Ed Hutchinson has written an insightful article for The Conversation which explores the new childhood vaccination which also protects against VZV, the cause of chickenpox and shingles.

theconversation.com/mmrv-what-fa...

🎉 Congratulations to Dr Daniel Weir for recently passing his Viva!

Daniels research explored how influenza A virus infection moves directly between cells, independently of virus particles, focusing on how infection induces the formation of tunnelling nanotube-like structures.

Congratulations to @cvrinfo.bsky.social Clinical Viral Epidemiology Group @emcat1.bsky.social student @elenvink.bsky.social who graduated from her PhD in Virology yesterday!! 🎓🎉🍾🙌

What does it mean if I get flu after the jab? Do COVID boosters increase the risk of side-effects? Key flu vaccine questions answered This year’s flu season started early and is expected to be severe. Here’s what you need to know about getting vaccinated, from timing and side-effects to how well it works.

If you live in the northern hemisphere, there's still time to get vaccinated for this year's troubling flu season. Cat Wilson, a Clinical Research Fellow @cvrinfo.bsky.social explains a bit more about the flu vaccine here:
theconversation.com/what-does-it...

Two individuals are standing outdoors in front of a gray brick wall. One person is wearing navy blue medical scrubs with a visible ID badge clipped to the waist, while the other is dressed casually in a light striped shirt over a white t-shirt and jeans. They are shaking hands on a paved surface.

👏 Well done to Patawee Asamaphan for winning the prize for best oral presentation at the recent Glasgow Paediatric Research Open Day.

Flu: Children hit hardest as cases in Northern Ireland surge Paediatric emergency medicine consultant Dr Julie-Ann Maney says it is a particularly virulent strain of influenza.

BBC News - Flu: Children hit hardest as cases in Northern Ireland surge - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A poster with branding for the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre fo Virus Research, labelled 'Virus Snowflakes.' The poster shows snowflake-like virus designs and song lyrics reading: On the twelfth day of Christmas, a virus gave to me, Twelve fights worth winning, Eleven Christmas dinners, Ten lunar landers, Nine childhood vaccines, Eight tools for teaching, Seven dogs a-barking, Six wasps a-laying, FIIIIVE TIIINY RIIIIIIINGS, Four vaccine platforms, Three genome segments, Two twinned capsids, and A world that is too small to see

Feeling festive?
Why not deck the halls with @cvrinfo.bsky.social's papercraft #VirusSnowflakes and celebrate the science of viruses and the fight against viral diseases.
Download for free: cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl...
#scicomm #sciart #decorations

Avian-origin influenza A viruses tolerate elevated pyrexic temperatures in mammals Host body temperature can define a virus’s replicative profile—influenza A viruses (IAVs) adapted to 40° to 42°C in birds are less temperature sensitive in vitro compared with human isolates adapted t...

🚨New Paper!🚨
Some like it hot: Matt Turnbull and @samjwilsonphd.bsky.social collaborated with groups from @cvrinfo.bsky.social, @cam.ac.uk and beyond to show that, while our fevers are hot enough to control human flu, they don't protect against avian influenzas adaptd to the hotter bodies of birds

FindAPhD : The MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) PhD Funded Programme at University of Glasgow Apply for a PhD: The MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) PhD Funded Programme at University of Glasgow

Are you fascinated by viruses? Would you like to design your own original research project in the UK's largest virology centre? Why not come and do a PhD @cvrinfo.bsky.social - application deadline 6th Jan 2026 (1/1): www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

H5N1 in bats - what should we think about this?
@itingtu.bsky.social explains her recent preprint (a collaboration with multiple @cvrinfo.bsky.social groups) in a really nice interview with @science.org
www.science.org/content/arti...

An image of six members of the Streicker Group conducted research in the field at night. They are huddled together around a table and under a canopy, with the dark night lit my artificial light.

🆕 | Professor @danielstreicker.bsky.social and his team at @cvrinfo.bsky.social were recently featured across BBC television, radio, & online coverage, showcasing their work on vampire bat-transmitted rabies in Peru.

🔗 More: www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infe...

📰 BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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