Ed Hutchinson
LightNews LightNews
banner
socialinfluenza.bsky.social
Ed Hutchinson
@socialinfluenza.bsky.social
3.3K followers 3.8K following 210 posts
Virologist | Professor of Sneezy Diseases | studies influenza @ MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research | occasionally draws things | (he/him)

https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infectionimmunity/staff/edwardhutchinson/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
nataliajagielska.bsky.social
Did you know. That the meme-explosion that was the wooden model of Sacabambaspis (an Ordovician jawless fish) held at a Museum in Helsinki, was created by a pioneering Estonian fish paleontologist and palaeoartist, Elga Mark-Kurik. 🧵
Valentina Karatajute-Talimaa and Elga Mark-Kurik on Kreuzritter lake (Kryzhiuochiu ezheras), under an umbrella, north of Vilnius,Lithuania, 1977 (photo H.-P. Schultze). Model of sacabambaspis helsinki
November 11, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
slavov-n.bsky.social
The protein concentration in the cytoplasm is so high that the average protein has a water hydration shell with a thickness of only ≈ 10 water molecules separating it from the adjacent protein hydration shell.

1/2
November 10, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
admirablewomen.bsky.social
Dr. Florence Sabin | Immunologist and educator, born #OTD in 1871.

The first woman to hold a full professorship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (where she graduated from in 1900) and the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences. #WomenInSTEM
November 10, 2025 at 4:03 AM
socialinfluenza.bsky.social
BBC News - Experts say this could be the worst flu season for a decade - here's why
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Will a new mutated flu strain cause a rough winter?
Leading flu experts say they will not be surprised if this year's is the worst flu season for a decade.
www.bbc.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
ncdominie.bsky.social
This is good (and see also the replies).

If you're appalled by Watson's dreadful opinions, it's worth learning how science works so you have some idea how to tackle the injustices. Great Man Did Great Thing is a very bad model of science, but Bad Man Did Bad Thing is not an awful lot better.
November 8, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
I hope he lived long enough to change his mind on some topics.

If nothing else, his life showed that even the deepest legacies of science & discovery do not overcome personal accountability in word and deed.
November 7, 2025 at 7:53 PM
socialinfluenza.bsky.social
Still time to register for #MicroBio26! Abstract submission for the @microbiologysociety.org annual conference closes on Tuesday 11th November. Worth pointing out that short registrations are now back (by popular demand) for people who can't attend the whole conference but still want to take part
microbiologysociety.org Microbiology Society @microbiologysociety.org · 6d
One week to go! Abstract submissions for Annual Conference 2026 close at 23:59 GMT on Tuesday 11 November. If you study microbes, there’s a home for your work at #Microbio26
Submit your work to one of >20 available sessions at: microb.io/AC26Abstracts
Night view of Belfast City Hall illuminated with colourful lights, promoting abstract submission closing for Annual Conference 2026 at ICC Belfast from April 13-16.
November 7, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
What an opportunity
November 7, 2025 at 1:07 PM
socialinfluenza.bsky.social
Fantastic opportunity (available for both UK and international students) to do a PhD on the assembly of RNA viruses with @artisplicer.bsky.social - please share (and/or apply)!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Funded PhD SWBio DTP- (STANDARD) Genome packaging as a driving force of RNA virus assembly at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Funded PhD SWBio DTP- (STANDARD) Genome packaging as a driving force of RNA virus assembly at University of Bristol, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
sheencr.bsky.social
Really great results in this early phase 1 trial of a nasal vaccine (mucosal vaccine) for avian flu- great to see evidence of strong immune memory and robust antibody response
Early-stage clinical trial demonstrates promise of intranasal influenza vaccine in generating broad immunity
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) reported encouraging results from an early phase clinical trial that found a...
www.eurekalert.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
boghuma.bsky.social
As reflected in the price of a dozen free range eggs being back to costing 10.99$
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
Bird flu surges among poultry amid a scaled back federal response
Migrating wild birds are spreading the virus to domesticated flocks, increasing the risk of eventually seeing a human outbreak. Scientists are troubled by the muted federal response.
www.npr.org
November 6, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
boghuma.bsky.social
If you read and watch one thing today it should be this pice accompanying @agawande.bsky.social documentary.
"As of November 5th, it estimated that U.S.A.I.D.’s dismantling has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children."
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
www.newyorker.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
colincarlson.bsky.social
🚨 NEW: The majority holder of the world's genetic sequence data is a bad actor who can cut off access to critics and competing services. We've tolerated this for years, and now it threatens the pandemic treaty. Time for WHO to step in. With @ctrlalttim.com: www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/to-f...
To Finish the Pandemic Agreement, WHO Needs a Trustworthy Viral Database | Think Global Health
Online platforms for sharing virus sequences are in disarray. The World Health Organization has a chance to build something new
www.thinkglobalhealth.org
November 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
merz.bsky.social
One of the most useful resources for anyone who uses fluorescence methods.
fpbase.org FPbase @fpbase.org · 6d
The FPbase spectra viewer just had it's biggest software refactor in 6 years. It *should* be largely invisible to the end user (hopefully just faster and less buggy). Please let me know if you find any issues as you use it!

www.fpbase.org/spectra/
FPbase Fluorescence Spectra Viewer
An interactive fluorescence spectra viewer to evaluate the spectral properties of fluorescent proteins, organic dyes, filters, and detectors.
www.fpbase.org
November 4, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social
PS he's 78. Got his scholarship to Oxford a few years back in open competition against >50 other applicants. Recruited ballet dancers from around the world. Wrote a thesis that's going to improve how clinicians care for injured dancers. A privilege to work in a job where I meet people this good.
trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 6d
Congratulations to Snow Scholar Jeremy Leslie-Spinks passed DPhil ‘Damaged Dancers’. Thanks to examiners Sue Ziebland and Moira McCormack. Over to the Royal Oak!
Jeremy looking great!
November 4, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
influenzaupdate.bsky.social
Last chace to register for this year's Influenza Update Meeting - and places are going fast. Don't miss out!

Looking forward to seeing you there, flu people
influenzaupdate.bsky.social Influenza Update Meetings @influenzaupdate.bsky.social · Oct 11
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Influenza Update 2025
University of Warwick, 15th - 16th December
warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/...
Registration from £50 - £120
DEADLINE: 7th November
We hope you can join us there!
A banner in a Charles Rennie Mackintosh style showing and influenza virion and reading 'Influenza Update Meeting'
November 5, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
sheencr.bsky.social
I am SO looking forward to reading @matthewcobb.bsky.social latest book on Crick - it sounds fascinating! Crock sounds quite the *cough* character which is not shied from. Do look at this review 🧪
Sex, drugs and the conscious brain: Francis Crick beyond the double helix
A thoroughly researched account of the history and relationships that shaped the scientist who co-discovered the structure of DNA.
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
pvanheus.bsky.social
This made me go down a rabbit hole on the history of biosafety and the modern pipette... fascinating stuff! South Africa's BSL-4, opened in 1979, was quite an early one from what I gather: journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.1...
November 3, 2025 at 5:04 PM
socialinfluenza.bsky.social
what the actual hell, arbovirology
isabelott.bsky.social Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 8d
now, I love my mother very dearly & she has been instrumental in supporting my career to date, but I am not sure I could ever ask this of her, nor that she would agree to it even if I did,
November 3, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
boghuma.bsky.social
Again LLMs spit out whatever information is used to train them. In this instance sexism in, sexism out 🤷🏽‍♀️.
They amplify all pre-existing biases which is why pervasive unregulated use of AI is so dangerous.
November 3, 2025 at 2:48 AM
socialinfluenza.bsky.social
😱
isabelott.bsky.social Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 8d
From the chapter in Sonja Buckley’s autobiography detailing her (& the first ever) isolation of Lassa virus, a terrifying viral hemorrhagic fever, in the “bare hands and mouth pipetting” era of virus isolation. Jesus christ.
Spring 1969 was approaching bringing in its wings new vigor. The world and Max Theiler, from a front seat, were about to witness the isolation of Lassa virus, the cause of an apparently highly fatal West African disease. It was Thursday afternoon, March 6th. I was involved in a large study of tick-borne arboviruses, having been invited to participate in an international symposium on tick-borne viruses to be held in the fall of the same year in…Czechoslovakia. There was an urgent phone call from Wilbur G. Downs from the Head Office of The Rockefeller Foundation. The director of the Yale Arbovirus Research Unit. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, had just returned to New York from an extended field trip undertaken in the line of duty as the associate director of the Division of Medical and Natural Sciences of The Rockefeller Foundation. He was asking me to stay at work until his arrival with some important specimens obtained from three American missionary nurses stationed in northeastern Nigeria. All three had been afflicted in succession during the dry season with a severe febrile disease of unknown origin. Two of them had died on January 26th, and February 13th, respectively. The third nurse had been stricken on February 20th, 1969. had been flown to New York and was now in critical condition at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. I called John, my pathologist husband, and informed him that I would be delayed. Jordi Casals, his section adjoining my tissue culture section on the 7th floor of the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Public Health of Yale, had been summoned to remain at the Yale Arbovirus Research Unit also. Wil Downs arrived carrying a thermos bottle filled with specimens by 4:00 p.m. We had a conference in Jordi Casal's laboratory as to the methods of procedure and strategy. What to do? Wil Downs decided to include my tissue culture section in the isolation attempts. He said: "We have to inoculate adult …the disease is not typical for an arbovirus, and we better inoculate also some cell cultures." I had not one single "spare" cell culture available on that evening. On the following day -Friday -Elinor Gilson, my skillful cell culture technician, prepared 240 Vero cell stationary tube cultures and 70 Vero cell French square bottles…In the sixties [vero] was a commonly used continuous cell line in many laboratories for the study of viruses. In the midst of all these preparations Wil Downs came into the tissue culture section, dressed like a surgeon with gown, mask, head cap and rubber gloves. He carried a metal rack holding numerous glass tubes labeled with the names of the three nurses (Laura Wine, Charlotte Shaw & Lily Pinneo) nature of specimens & dates of collection. I removed carefully small amounts of fluids from each tube, just enough material for inoculation of the Vero cell cultures. I had no mask or gloves, only the white laboratory coat as well as the sterile technique ingrained in me by my Swiss microbiology professors. Hermann Mooser and Arthur Grumbach. I handed the samples to my longtime and trusted technical associate, Charles Mullen, trained in bacteriological techniques by Stanhope Bayne-Jones at Hopkins. He stored them temporarily in the deep freeze over the weekend. In what kind of mental frame was I? Quite honestly, I was ever so slightly annoyed. All my experiments with tick-borne viruses were interrupted at the time. But discouraging was the fact that some of the Lassa fever specimens had been frozen and thawed many times during the transit from West Africa to New Haven. I had, therefore, no hope of isolating a pathogen. I had, however, great pride in the Yale Arbovirus Research Unit and in The Rockefeller Foundation. Thus, I was going to give "my very best shot". Moreover, Wil Downs had told me that aliquots of the Lassa fever specimens had also been submitted for isolation attempts to 3 other laboratories. namely to the CDC, to the NY …Thus, the element of competition played definitely a role. All 3 facilities failed in their isolation attempts, coming up empty-handed. I spent the whole day of March 10th 1969 with the inoculation of the Vero cell cultures with the specimens derived from the two deceased missionary nurses…& from the hospitalized missionary nurse. Lily Pinneo, fighting for her life in NY. There were serum samples taken at different intervals following onset of fever, samples taken on the day of death or during the autopsy and also various pleural fluid samples from Lily Pinneo. All materials were inoculated in 10-fold dilutions; control Vero cell cultures were inoculated with diluent only. The Vero cell cultures were then incubated in my large walk-in incubator... I had imposed strict safety regulations in the tissue culture section. Only Charles Mullen and I were allowed to handle the Lassa fever experiments. Every time we would leave the sterile rooms, we would thoroughly scrub our hands with soap. All work was actually done at that time by "mouth-pipetting". a hazardous procedure at that, which invoked in my memory the picture of Arthur Grumbach standing next to me, observing and criticizing my every move, far back in 1946. It was "technique, technique, technique without short cuts!" We carried all the contaminated pipettes and other glassware immersed in special pans to the autoclave ourselves, not leaving the glassware room until the autoclave was in operation. 3 sterile rooms were designated "Reserved for Lassa fever" and scrubbed down at the beginning of the day and again at the end of the day, including benches and floors, and throughout 1969. During the next few days, control and inoculated Vero cell cultures remained normal. In the adjoining section, the serological tests were negative. The inoculated mice appeared to be healthy. On Friday, March 14th, 1969, Charles Mullen and I changed the fluids on all the stationary Vero cell tube cultures and departed for the weekend. …On Tuesday, March 18th 1969, I was told that the mice had remained healthy. I was so disappointed about the Lassa fever experiments that I postponed the examination of my cultures until the afternoon. At 2:00 p.m.. Max Theiler arrived in the tissue culture section for a cup of coffee. said to me: "Do you have anything new?' & I answered: “Oh. I have not even checked the experiments as yet." Right then and there, in the presence of my former director, I started to examine the 240 Vero cell stationary tube cultures under the large Zeiss microscope placed in my office. The control Vero cell cultures were normal. The specimens of Laura Wine, Charlotte Shaw and Lily Pinneo, however, had destroyed the Vero cells in tubes inoculated with undiluted material as well as low dilutions of samples. Max Theiler, always with a prepared mind, said in a very low voice: "African hemorrhagic fever" -- giving the newborn pathogen a tentative name. This name, however, did not stick, because hemorrhages of greater or lesser extent are observed with a great variety of infections… I begged Max Theiler not to mention my positive results to Wil Downs who was at the time in his office on the 6th floor until I had finished examining all the cultures. But within the hour, Wil Downs was in my office. He sald: "I hear you have something." I answered: "Yes, but I have to make a second passage to be sure." He agreed. We also showed the CPE to Jordi Casals. The 3 of us were conscious of the fact that the Vero cell cultures had proven to be sensitive to the unknown agent, while the adult & baby mice had apparently remained healthy. This was indicative of the fact that we were not dealing with an arbovirus. I went home that evening, exeited, but tired. John, my husband, had cooked our main meal, as he was going to do many times during 1969. One week later, March 25th 1969, all the second titer passages were showing cellular damage, evidence of infection and multiplication of the three agents…
November 2, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
asherleeks.bsky.social
@rowancallumg.bsky.social and @liyamiksovsky.bsky.social demonstrating our newest lab tradition - creating virus snowflakes (designed by @socialinfluenza.bsky.social ) out of submitted grants and fellowships.

🧪 #socialviruses
October 31, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
boghuma.bsky.social
Vaccine stock piles can transform how we respond to outbreaks on infectious disease. These days Ebola Zaire vaccines are deployed within days of a new outbreak being detected. Great to see this partnership strive to do same for Nipah virus
www-expresspharma-in.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.expr...
CEPI, University of Oxford and Serum Institute to establish investigational Nipah virus vaccine reserve - Express Pharma
www-expresspharma-in.cdn.ampproject.org
October 30, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Ed Hutchinson
c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
Let's talk about barreleye fishes in family Opisthoproctidae. Take a minute to take in the image below.

What look like 'eyes' above the tiny toothless mouth are in fact chemosensory organs equivalent to nostrils.

The EYES are the green domes INSIDE THE TRANSPARENT HEAD. And they look *up*...
Photo from Monterey Bay Aquarium site. A tubular-shaped fish with large pectoral fins and a transparent head that seems to be made of thin translucent plastic that encases two green-tinted domes.
November 6, 2024 at 1:08 AM
socialinfluenza.bsky.social
Outstanding work
rspb.bsky.social RSPB @rspb.bsky.social · 11d
Birds but they get spookier each time. 🎃👻

Enter if you dare...🚪
A black background decorated with gold illustrations of branches, stars, swords, ravens, and tiny ghost shapes. In the centre, bold text reads: “BIRDS BUT THEY GET SPOOKIER EACH TIME.” Two ravens perch on bare branches at the bottom, with candles glowing beside them.
October 31, 2025 at 12:20 PM