Mario Peña-Hernández
@marioph13.bsky.social
Virology Ph.D. Candidate in Iwasaki and Wilen Labs at
Yale, studying zoonotic coronaviruses. #LoveVirology. Isaiah 40:31 🦅.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lDljP4kAAAAJ&hl=es
Yale, studying zoonotic coronaviruses. #LoveVirology. Isaiah 40:31 🦅.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lDljP4kAAAAJ&hl=es
Beyond grateful and excited to be invited to speak in one of the JSV meeting symposiums in Japan later this month! Thank you to @shigeru0701.bsky.social and other meeting organizers. 😁🙏
October 3, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Beyond grateful and excited to be invited to speak in one of the JSV meeting symposiums in Japan later this month! Thank you to @shigeru0701.bsky.social and other meeting organizers. 😁🙏
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
New preprint! If some merbecoviruses use DPP4 and others use ACE2, what do those hedgehog merbecoviruses use?! As it turns out, neither! In our latest study, we uncover the "missing" receptor for the MERS-related viruses in hedgehogs. [These findings were first shared at ASV this year] (1/6)
Aminopeptidase N is a receptor for hedgehog merbecoviruses
Merbecoviruses, closely related to the highly pathogenetic Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), circulate in hedgehogs throughout Europe and Asia, raising concerns about zoonotic t...
tinyurl.com
September 4, 2025 at 4:48 AM
New preprint! If some merbecoviruses use DPP4 and others use ACE2, what do those hedgehog merbecoviruses use?! As it turns out, neither! In our latest study, we uncover the "missing" receptor for the MERS-related viruses in hedgehogs. [These findings were first shared at ASV this year] (1/6)
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
Beaming with pride that Jordan Polster, a student in my lab at Yale, was selected for the #Gilliam #Fellowship from @hhmi.org
I look forward to mentoring Jordan and participating in the various mentorship workshops.
Jordan - congrats! And I can’t wait to see your research advance!
I look forward to mentoring Jordan and participating in the various mentorship workshops.
Jordan - congrats! And I can’t wait to see your research advance!
August 7, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Beaming with pride that Jordan Polster, a student in my lab at Yale, was selected for the #Gilliam #Fellowship from @hhmi.org
I look forward to mentoring Jordan and participating in the various mentorship workshops.
Jordan - congrats! And I can’t wait to see your research advance!
I look forward to mentoring Jordan and participating in the various mentorship workshops.
Jordan - congrats! And I can’t wait to see your research advance!
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪
Here’s Your Cheat Sheet for Vaccine Recommendations Backed by Science
These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults
www.scientificamerican.com
June 25, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
Sooo happy to finally have this one published!! (3 years in the making… 👀) A comprehensive investigation into the recency and geographical origins of both SARS-CoVs that spilled to humans in the past few decades, now in @cp-cell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
The recency and geographical origins of the bat viruses ancestral to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2
Recombination-aware evolutionary analyses of the entire genomes of SARS-CoV-1-like
and SARS-CoV-2-like viruses indicate that SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 descend from bat
coronaviruses that circulated as...
www.cell.com
May 10, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Sooo happy to finally have this one published!! (3 years in the making… 👀) A comprehensive investigation into the recency and geographical origins of both SARS-CoVs that spilled to humans in the past few decades, now in @cp-cell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
How could you not be impressed by a bird in your yard? This dude can fly anywhere and it came here to hang out with you
May 10, 2025 at 7:13 PM
How could you not be impressed by a bird in your yard? This dude can fly anywhere and it came here to hang out with you
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
...a “pointless, ill-advised move that will hurt U.S. science and pandemic readiness,” says Charles Rice, a Nobel Prize–winning virologist at Rockefeller University
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Saying ‘pandemic is over,’ NIH institute starts cutting COVID-19 research
Grant terminations halt research on improving vaccinations and preventing future pandemics
www.science.org
March 25, 2025 at 9:47 PM
...a “pointless, ill-advised move that will hurt U.S. science and pandemic readiness,” says Charles Rice, a Nobel Prize–winning virologist at Rockefeller University
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
Human naïve B cells recognize prepandemic influenza virus hemagglutinins www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Human naïve B cells recognize prepandemic influenza virus hemagglutinins
Antibodies targeting the influenza hemagglutinin from potentially pandemic H5Nx viruses can be isolated from naïve individuals.
www.science.org
January 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Human naïve B cells recognize prepandemic influenza virus hemagglutinins www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
Five years ago (Sunday 5 Jan 2020), scientists in Zhang YongZhen's group in Shanghai obtained their first sequence of the new virus, from samples obtained outside of the official national protocol.
They submitted it to GenBank with an embargo. ▫️1/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN90...
They submitted it to GenBank with an embargo. ▫️1/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN90...
January 5, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Five years ago (Sunday 5 Jan 2020), scientists in Zhang YongZhen's group in Shanghai obtained their first sequence of the new virus, from samples obtained outside of the official national protocol.
They submitted it to GenBank with an embargo. ▫️1/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN90...
They submitted it to GenBank with an embargo. ▫️1/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN90...
Really cool work that shows how different spikes from 27 SARS-2 variants behave in the same ancestral backbone. It also really nicely illustrates how other mutations in the CoV backbone might affect replication and other viral properties! 👇
OUT NOW: Phenotypic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 spike during the COVID-19 pandemic
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Phenotypic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 spike during the COVID-19 pandemic - Nature Microbiology
Systematic comparison of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins from pre- and post-Omicron variants in cell lines, primary respiratory epithelial cells and Syrian hamsters show distinct phenotypic trajectories in ...
www.nature.com
January 4, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Really cool work that shows how different spikes from 27 SARS-2 variants behave in the same ancestral backbone. It also really nicely illustrates how other mutations in the CoV backbone might affect replication and other viral properties! 👇
Reposted by Mario Peña-Hernández
Our article is now out in Nature Biotechnology.
Here we outline challenges for developing broad-based mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses. Check it out!
Congrats to Junghwa and Jordan from my lab and to other co-authors!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Here we outline challenges for developing broad-based mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses. Check it out!
Congrats to Junghwa and Jordan from my lab and to other co-authors!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Challenges for developing broad-based mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses - Nature Biotechnology
Nature Biotechnology - Challenges for developing broad-based mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses
www.nature.com
December 6, 2024 at 1:57 PM
Our article is now out in Nature Biotechnology.
Here we outline challenges for developing broad-based mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses. Check it out!
Congrats to Junghwa and Jordan from my lab and to other co-authors!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Here we outline challenges for developing broad-based mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses. Check it out!
Congrats to Junghwa and Jordan from my lab and to other co-authors!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...