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Ben Gern

@bengern

Pediatric Infectious Diseases physician-scientist at Seattle Children’s studying spatially-resolved immune responses during tuberculosis - (he/him) - gernlab.com

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03.07.2023
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Latest posts by Ben Gern @bengern

Pleased to see this out now in @jem.org 🔬

We characterise the early immune response during M. tuberculosis infection in mouse models and demonstrate a detrimental role for type I interferon activated neutrophils in TB lesions. Thanks to all involved @crick.ac.uk and i3S, Porto.

24.09.2025 06:10 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

A nice discussion here of our work on the early immune response in M. tuberculosis infection and the great recent paper from @bengern.bsky.social et al

04.11.2025 15:33 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Congratulations on a very nice story, Will! I agree an excellent writeup by Dr. Andrea Cooper. It's been great to learn a ton from your paper, and see so many parallels with our findings

04.11.2025 20:27 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Insights from Andrea Cooper: Mtb drives expression of type I IFN–mediated #neutrophil accumulation, which limits interaction btwn CD4 T cells & macrophages. Failure to limit type I IFN very early in the process allows rapid progression of disease rupress.org/jem/article/...

#Tuberculosis

28.10.2025 16:01 👍 8 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
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Asymptomatic Tuberculosis in Children with Household Exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis

✅ Just Accepted
#IDSky
🔗 https://bit.ly/47csDBA

16.10.2025 17:05 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 10
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Tertiary lymphoid structures support the development of allergen-specific progenitor CD4+ T cells Tissue-resident memory CD4+ T cells (TRM) are key sentinels of the adaptive immune response that provide a rapid, robust inflammatory response upon reactivation in non-lymphoid tissues. While CD4+ TRM...

Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by acute, intermittent, recurrent episodes of airway inflammation. A decade of work developing the tools, techniques and collaborations needed to figure out how CD4+ T cells in the lungs propagate disease can be found here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

10.10.2025 19:22 👍 43 🔁 17 💬 1 📌 1
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We are inviting applications for postdoctoral fellows in immunology of TB at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative, University of Cape Town. For more information see the attached ad:

idm.uct.ac.za/media/739223

09.10.2025 11:28 👍 82 🔁 40 💬 4 📌 3
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Our October issue is here! rupress.org/jem/issue/22...
The cover image shows the lung of a mouse infected with M. #tuberculosis stained for #neutrophils (orange) normal lung parenchyma (blue), collagen (white) and CD4 T cells (green). See @bengern.bsky.social et al. rupress.org/jem/article/...

06.10.2025 14:15 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
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Clinical Pathway Revision Increases Amoxicillin Monotherapy and 5-Day Durations of Therapy for Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia in the Emergency Department and Urgent Care: A Quality Improvement... The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 5-day amoxicillin monotherapy as first-line treatment for pediatric uncomplicated community-acquired pne…

Treat pediatric CAP with 5 days of amox monotherapy. Check out our QI project here in @annalsofem.bsky.social using pre-clicked durations in order sets and an EHR-integrated pathway! #Pedsky #PedsIDSky #AntimicrobialStewardship #EM #PEM #EmergencyMedicine

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

16.09.2025 15:02 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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A recent study from the Gerner and Urdahl labs at UW and @seattlechildrens.org uncovers fundamental determinants of tuberculosis lung pathology. This has important implications for new strategies to prevent or treat tuberculosis.

🧐 See the abstract in @jem.org : https://bit.ly/41IdeHA

09.09.2025 21:36 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Conflict between the innate & adaptive immune system responses determines the kind of damage lungs suffer when infected with TB

Image made with @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social microscopy

📷 @bengern.bsky.social et al @seattlechildrens.org in @jem.org

➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025...

08.09.2025 07:50 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Happy to share our new pre-print, led by PhD student Linh Pham! We examine inhibition of MHC II expression by NRF2 during Mtb infection and its impact on innate-adaptive crosstalk. Special thanks to the Behar lab who helped us set up a T cell co-culture system for the project! #TB #immunology

18.08.2025 20:53 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

We are hiring! The Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics is looking for faculty at the Assistant or Associate professor level (tenure track). Please consider joining our vibrant microbiology and immunology community at the University of Pittsburgh School of medicine

20.08.2025 19:41 👍 106 🔁 106 💬 1 📌 4
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#WomenInSTEM becoming independent: People should feel free to be themselves and do great science. We asked ten women researchers about their science and the process of setting up a lab as an independent researcher: rupress.org/jem/article/...

15.08.2025 14:45 👍 26 🔁 11 💬 1 📌 2
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Early and opposing #neutrophil and CD4 T cell responses shape pulmonary #tuberculosis pathology, say Benjamin Gern @bengern.bsky.social, Michael Gerner, Kevin Urdahl et al. rupress.org/jem/article/...

#TB

06.08.2025 18:25 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Thanks, @alissarothchild.bsky.social!

30.07.2025 22:43 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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In @jem.org, @bengern.bsky.social et al. show that the early interplay between #neutrophils & CD4 T cells is pivotal in determining #TB pathology, and that depleting neutrophils can improve outcomes even at late timepoints, which has therapeutic relevance rupress.org/jem/article/...

30.07.2025 15:45 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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@bengern.bsky.social et al. show that the early interplay between #neutrophils & CD4 T cells is pivotal in determining #TB pathology, and that depleting neutrophils can improve outcomes even at late timepoints, which has therapeutic relevance rupress.org/jem/article/...

30.07.2025 15:23 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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I’m excited to announce that our paper, describing early and opposing roles for neutrophils and CD4 T cells in determining #TB lesion structure, is out at @jem.org ! Huge thanks to my lab, and the Urdahl, @michael-gerner.bsky.social, and Aitchison labs who made this possible

doi.org/10.1084/jem....

30.07.2025 13:54 👍 22 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0

Tuberculosis continues to impair quality of life long after the antibiotics have finished...

Need to work out how to prevent and treat these post-TB sequelae.
#IDSky #TBSky

24.06.2025 17:24 👍 20 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
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The immunometabolic topography of tuberculosis granulomas governs cellular organization and bacterial control Despite being heavily infiltrated by immune cells, tuberculosis (TB) granulomas often subvert the host response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection and support bacterial persistence. We prev...

Happy to share a preprint from the Angelo lab many years in the making. Read on for a saga of multiplexed imaging, immunometabolism, and TB granulomas with some fun side quests into the realms of geographical information sciences and transcriptomics… (1/20) doi.org/10.1101/2025...

24.02.2025 22:15 👍 42 🔁 23 💬 3 📌 7

Congrats on a really cool story, Erin!

28.02.2025 21:44 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Type I IFN-mediated NET release promotes Mycobacterium tuberculosis replication and is associated with granuloma caseation Sur Chowdhury et al. report that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection results in the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that promote Mtb replication and associate with tissue damage. Blocking NET release results in better control of Mtb replication, revealing a strategy for treating these deadly infections.

Very excited for this story to be out!! Check out our dissection of how type I IFN promotes NET release, which contributes to Mtb pathogenesis and is associated with granuloma necrosis. Congratulations to all authors!! www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

05.12.2024 01:30 👍 60 🔁 18 💬 3 📌 3
Graphical summary of our paper.  In mice, prior lower airway exposure to diverse inflammatory stimuli, including chronic bacterial infections such as M. tuberculosis, acute bacterial infections such as pulmonary S. aureus, viral infections such as Influenza A, type-II allergic responses such as the OVA-Alum model, activation of pulmonary TLR9 by CpG or pulmonary TLR1/2 by Pam3CSK4
 leads to reduced viral burden upon subsequent infection with SARS-CoV-2 (SCV2). (2) This SCV2 restriction occurs prior to induction of SCV2-specific adaptive immune responses 
and is mediated through innate immune responses, including the induction of IFN-I, TNFα and IL-1 and sustained changes to the TRM (Tissue resident macrophage) cellular 
compartment and the pulmonary epithelium. (3) Innate cytokine and TLR signaling to both recruited immune cells and the pulmonary epithelium creates a microenvironment in the 
lung that limits early replication of SCV2. IFN-I signaling to pulmonary ECs (epithelial cells) increases expression of interferon-stimulated genes, that likely cell-intrinsically limit viral
 replication. TNF- or IL-1 suppress SCV2 independently of IFN-I signaling. TNF acts exclusively through radio-resistant cell types such as the lung epithelium, whereas IL-1 affords 
control both direct and indirectly, through either stromal and hematopoietic cell types, to restrict overall early SCV2 burden.

Graphical summary of our paper. In mice, prior lower airway exposure to diverse inflammatory stimuli, including chronic bacterial infections such as M. tuberculosis, acute bacterial infections such as pulmonary S. aureus, viral infections such as Influenza A, type-II allergic responses such as the OVA-Alum model, activation of pulmonary TLR9 by CpG or pulmonary TLR1/2 by Pam3CSK4 leads to reduced viral burden upon subsequent infection with SARS-CoV-2 (SCV2). (2) This SCV2 restriction occurs prior to induction of SCV2-specific adaptive immune responses and is mediated through innate immune responses, including the induction of IFN-I, TNFα and IL-1 and sustained changes to the TRM (Tissue resident macrophage) cellular compartment and the pulmonary epithelium. (3) Innate cytokine and TLR signaling to both recruited immune cells and the pulmonary epithelium creates a microenvironment in the lung that limits early replication of SCV2. IFN-I signaling to pulmonary ECs (epithelial cells) increases expression of interferon-stimulated genes, that likely cell-intrinsically limit viral replication. TNF- or IL-1 suppress SCV2 independently of IFN-I signaling. TNF acts exclusively through radio-resistant cell types such as the lung epithelium, whereas IL-1 affords control both direct and indirectly, through either stromal and hematopoietic cell types, to restrict overall early SCV2 burden.

Best #Nikolaus 🎅! Our paper on how the 🫁 microenvironment can shape #innate immunity against #viruses is out @sciimmunology.bsky.social This was a herculean effort brilliantly led by @pauljbaker.bsky.social who singlehandedly established the model in the lab during the pandemic. 🧪 #Immunosky 1/9

06.12.2024 22:37 👍 296 🔁 84 💬 28 📌 9
yellow book cover reading Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection Signed Edition

yellow book cover reading Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection Signed Edition

My new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, explores the history of our deadliest infectious disease. It's also about our horrifying present: TB still kills kills over a million people per year, even though it's been curable since the 1950s.

Signed copies can be ordered at everythingistb.com

22.11.2024 20:37 👍 4073 🔁 455 💬 167 📌 50

Ok, in time for the International Day of Pride in STEM, here's a starter pack of LGBTQ+ immunologists. Since not everyone is open (or able to be open) about their identities, we're only adding people by request, so let me know if you'd like to be added #Immunosky #PrideInSTEM 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ go.bsky.app/7WTavcd

17.11.2024 21:09 👍 59 🔁 18 💬 10 📌 2

Hi! Would you include me in the global health starter pack?

I’m a PI focusing on #tuberculosis immunology at the Seattle Children’s Center for Global Infectious Disease Research and a peds ID specialist.

10.11.2024 16:39 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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We are hiring a technician! This position is a great fit for motivated individuals who plan on going to graduate/medical school and want to study host-pathogen interactions using advanced imaging and immunologic tools. Please spread the word!

seattlechildrens.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...

14.10.2024 18:28 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Absence of c-Maf and IL-10 enables Type I IFN enhancement of innate responses to low-dose LPS in alveolar macrophages bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

So happy to share the latest preprint from our lab, led by grad student @PameliaLim9! Pamelia set out to study alveolar #macrophage innate sensing and found that lack of c-Maf and IL-10 enables Type I IFNs to enhance responses to low-dose LPS. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

28.05.2024 13:03 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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CD4-mediated immunity shapes neutrophil-driven tuberculous pathology bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

I’m excited to share that this collaborative effort with Kevin Urdahl, Michael Gerner, and many others is out!

We show that preexisting immunity-driven CD4 T cells and neutrophils are opposing forces in determining tuberculosis lesion structure and pathogenesis.

#tuberculosis

16.04.2024 16:50 👍 7 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0