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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Sep 12

Priscilla Kinderman and Nadine van Montfoort at LUMC contributed their expertise in in vivo virotherapy models, validating our findings in a more complex, physiological setting. This was a truly collaborative effort, and I’m very proud to see it come together!

Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Sep 12

Laura Horvathova, during her master’s internship in Toos Daemen’s lab, developed a bottom-up in vitro system to precisely control macrophage frequency and phenotype in co-culture with target tumor cells. This enabled real-time tracking of viral infection and multiparametric immune activation.

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Sep 12

The model predicted, and our experiments confirmed, that even partial tumor infection was sufficient to activate T cells, despite high macrophage presence.

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Sep 12

Using computational modeling with @thijsjanzen.bsky.social & Franjo Weissing), we found that encoding IFN-γ into alphavirus replicons could overcome suppression by macrophage.

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Sep 12

Very glad to share my first last-author paper, now published in iScience! 🎉In this study, we addressed a key challenge in virus-based cancer therapy: macrophage-mediated suppression, which limits viral infection and restricts T cell activation in tumors.
Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Alphavirus replicons encoding IFN-γ enhance cancer virotherapy by overcoming macrophage-mediated suppression

Interference by tumor-associated macrophages may significantly reduce the efficacy of therapeutic viruses designed to infect cancer cells and activate…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Sep 10

This was a meaningful moment of introspection, looking back on 10 years of scientific mobility since I left India. Also fun to share my experience working across labs in France, Netherlands, and Brazil. Read here for the full story: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Scientific mobility in microbiology – 10

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Darshak Bhatt

Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · Apr 7

A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die.

Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Mar 21

Here's the link to access the preprint for those interested

bsky.app/profile/thij...

Thijs Janzen @thijsjanzen.bsky.social · Feb 17

Another great preprint out together with @darshakbhatt.com using OVRI!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Programming alphavirus with IFN-γ overrides the adverse effects of macrophages on oncolytic virotherapy

Virus uptake by tumor-associated macrophages may significantly reduce the availability of oncolytic viruses for cancer cell infection and limit therapeutic efficacy. Through a computational model, we ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Darshak Bhatt

Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · Mar 21

When you grow yeast on yeast extract medium

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Mar 21

Presenting our poster on programming oncolytic alphavirus replicons with immunogenic signals at the Dutch Annual Virology symposium #DAVS2025 in #sunny Utrecht 🌞

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Reposted by Darshak Bhatt

Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · Mar 1

Friends! The science that we love is under threat. World-wide, there're forces seeking to make it corporate-like, focused on deliverables, or even the enemy of society. Take a stand & celebrate science & music! #theconferencetoendallconferences - Registration starts NOW!
woodstock.img.cas.cz

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Mar 1

Thanks for the tag, great to see our preprint being discussed! Any feedback is welcome 👍😄

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Reposted by Darshak Bhatt

John Wallingford @jbwallingford.bsky.social · Feb 19

The embryologist Ernst Haeckel is famous for his maxim that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” and for sketchy imaging. While Haeckel figures prominently in #DevBiol, the Fifth Dalai Lama doesn’t. Perhaps he should, though. He scooped Haeckel by about 200 years.
#LongBibliography 🧵 1/14

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Reposted by Darshak Bhatt

bioRxiv Immunology @biorxiv-immuno.bsky.social · Feb 17

Programming alphavirus with IFN-γ overrides the adverse effects of macrophages on oncolytic virotherapy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.12.637841v1

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Reposted by Darshak Bhatt

Thijs Janzen @thijsjanzen.bsky.social · Feb 17

Another great preprint out together with @darshakbhatt.com using OVRI!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Programming alphavirus with IFN-γ overrides the adverse effects of macrophages on oncolytic virotherapy

Virus uptake by tumor-associated macrophages may significantly reduce the availability of oncolytic viruses for cancer cell infection and limit therapeutic efficacy. Through a computational model, we ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Feb 16

The collaborative project resulted in a publication on the role of extracellular vesicles in cancer virotherapy, with the mentoring of Luciana Andrade, Roger Chammas, and Toos Daemen. A summary of the project can be read here: c2po.usp.br/researcher-w...

Researcher Who Earned a Dual Ph.D. from the Universidade de São Paulo and the University of Groningen publishes Doctoral Research in Scientific Reports – C2PO – Comprehensive Center for Precision Onco...

c2po.usp.br

Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Feb 16

📣🎓Fun time talking to #C2PO about my PhD experience between @uspoficial.bsky.social & @umcgroningen.bsky.social. It was great reflecting on how working in different places shapes one's approach to research, collaboration, & problem-solving. Check the full interview here: c2po.usp.br/c2po-intervi...

C2PO interviews Dr. Darshak Bhatt – C2PO – Comprehensive Center for Precision Oncology

c2po.usp.br

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Jan 6

3/3 This work was carried out at the labs of Luciana Andrade and Roger Chammas at @uspoficial.bsky.social in Brazil, and with Toos Daemen in @umcgroningen.bsky.social . 🎉 Shout out to all the coauthors that contributed to a great team effort!

Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Jan 6

2/3 Key findings:
1. A single-round of infection with a recombinant alphavirus enables EV analysis without extracellular virus interference.
2. Oncolytic virotherapy alters EV cargo, including regulatory microRNAs.
3. EVs from infected cells reduce immune suppression.

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Jan 6

1/3 Happy to share one of the final chapters of my PhD on oncolytic virotherapy! This study explores how oncolytic virotherapy can impact the content and function of extracellular vesicles (EVs) from melanoma cells.

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

Oncolytic alphavirus-induced extracellular vesicles counteract the immunosuppressive effect of melanoma-derived extracellular vesicles - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Oncolytic alphavirus-induced extracellular vesicles counteract the immunosuppressive effect of melanoma-derived extracellular vesicles

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Darshak Bhatt

Amii Illustrates @amiiillustrates.bsky.social · Dec 19

Funny cartoon of a person saying to the grim reaper “I’ve gotta check with work first”. Illustration drawn in simplistic line art style. By Amii Illustrates.

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Reposted by Darshak Bhatt

Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · Dec 4

"Researchers are rewarded if their papers are highly cited or published in prestigious journals (...)

Conversely, developing and maintaining software, even if it supports a wide body of research or meets the needs of broad scientific communities, rarely results in similar opportunities."

Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · Dec 4

'Yet despite their near-universal contributions to research and medicine, open source tools are often underfunded and difficult to support through mechanisms that support research, limiting their true potential'

www.statnews.com/sponsor/2024...

New report highlights the scientific impact of open source software

Two of the scientists who won this year’s Nobel Prize for cracking the code of proteins’ intricate structures relied, in part, on a series of computing

www.statnews.com

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Reposted by Darshak Bhatt

Anna Obenauf @obenaufa.bsky.social · Nov 27

1/23 Big news for the #ObenaufLab! So excited to finally share our new study providing another puzzle piece, why immunotherapy fails in many tumors, now out in @Nature 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Nov 25

A dust bunny 👇 from Studio Ghibli

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Darshak Bhatt @darshakbhatt.com · Nov 23

🎉 Shout out to our awesome supervisors Franjo Weissing and Toos Daemen for their guidance 🙌, and to Thijs Janzen (@thijsjanzen.bsky.social) for developing this amazing computational model 💻👏.

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