Vidhi Dholakia
vidhid.bsky.social
Vidhi Dholakia
@vidhid.bsky.social
Short human and cat enthusiast who studies viruses @ Laboratory of Environmental Virology, EPFL
Previously @ Royal Veterinary College
🐈🦠🧬🧫
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
🚨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
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...
www.science.org
November 28, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
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...
November 26, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
On the first day of Christmas, a virus gave to me...
November 17, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
If you are looking for a PhD in the UK, please check out the LIDo program - www.lido-dtp.ac.uk/apply.
If you are interested in viruses and making genetically edited salmon, please look up my icase project.
International students are welcome to apply!
Please reach out if you have questions.
November 4, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Really excited to have been a part of this study, lead by @willharv.bsky.social on how reassortment of H5N1 in birds has lead to a 'specialist' genotype that thrives in seabirds and drives summer/spring (rather than winter) waves of poultry outbreaks www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Genetic reassortment and diversification of host specificity have driven evolutionary trajectories of lineages of panzootic H5N1 influenza
Since 2021, subclade 2.3.4.4b A(H5N1) high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) viruses have undergone changes in ecology and epidemiology, causing a panzootic of unprecedented scale in wild and domes...
www.biorxiv.org
August 21, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
August 11, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Our lab is looking for a post-doc to investigate the effect of air composition on respiratory virus transmission!
If you're someone with experience in virus inactivation, cryo-EM and fluorescence microscopy, and/or aerosol science, apply here:

careers.epfl.ch/job/Lausanne...
Postdoc to investigate the effect of air composition on the respiratory virus transmission chain 1
Postdoc to investigate the effect of air composition on the respiratory virus transmission chain 1
careers.epfl.ch
August 11, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Something a little different.
If you're looking for interesting science to engage with older school children, I would like to plug my students' work on cow flu - where it came from and what risk it might pose.
doi.org/10.1042/bio_...

PS> Not peer reviewed but was fun to help write!
Cross-species concerns: how worried should you be about cow flu?
In 2024, H5N1 avian flu jumped from birds into cows for the first time. Replicating in cow udders and spreading via milk, the virus rapidly infected dairy cows across the USA. The flu virus also manag...
doi.org
July 8, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Excited to present the first review from my lab!
Which mutations allow H5 influenza to jump into humans or other mammals? How close is H5 to a pandemic? This review has the answers and explains the molecular mechanism behind the mutations.
Led by @fcapelastegui.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1099/jgv....
June 10, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
🚨🔎 Out now in PLOS Pathogens ! 🔎🚨 This project has taken us @cvrinfo.bsky.social @uofgmvls.bsky.social on a wild and wonderful journey. I am excited to share our story of how influenza A viruses (IAVs) exploit cell death to facilitate its covert spread. N/1 journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
Induction of tunnelling nanotube-like structures by influenza A viruses requires the onset of apoptosis
Author summary Influenza A viruses (IAVs) spread efficiently through the respiratory tract in the form of extracellular virus particles, but can be restricted by neutralising antibodies and antiviral ...
journals.plos.org
June 6, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Our analysis of the second incursion of H5N1 viruses (genotype D1.1) into dairy cattle in the US is now posted to virological virological.org/t/timing-and...
Timing and molecular characterisation of the transmission to cattle of H5N1 influenza A virus genotype D1.1, clade 2.3.4.4b
Jonathan E. Pekar, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Thomas P. Peacock, The Pirbright Institute, Woking, UK, GU24 0NF; Department of Infectious Disease, Imper...
virological.org
February 24, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
🎺 PhD studentship available at @lshtm.bsky.social and RVC! @influenzal.bsky.social and I are advertising for a project to investigate the unexpected phenomenon that mutagenic antiviral drugs can give rise to viruses with hundreds of mutations which are still viable. 🧵
www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
2025-26 Bloomsbury Colleges PhD Studentships | LSHTM
The Bloomsbury Colleges group was set up in 2004 and consists of five institutions: Birkbeck, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), the School of Or...
www.lshtm.ac.uk
January 22, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Just out: PhD opportunity with Dr Marie Di Placido, Dr Stephen Dunham, Prof Munir Iqbal, Prof. Janet Daley and myself looking at how different livestock species make antibody responses to H5N1.

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Deepening our understanding of cross-species antibody responses to H5Nx influenza viruses at The Pirbright Institute on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Deepening our understanding of cross-species antibody responses to H5Nx influenza viruses at The Pirbright Institute, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
February 6, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Why can't these viruses be friends?
During her PhD, Anna Sims showed that influenza viruses segregate into genetically-distinct lesion through a process called superinfection exclusion. In a new preprint, she shows that the same process also applies for SARS-CoV-2
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
January 31, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Our study on pasteurising influenza viruses in milk is now out! It's a nice simple story: influenza viruses (including H5N1) are killed really effectively by pasteurisation, but in raw milk they stay infectious - obvious public health implications of both points... (1/2)
rdcu.be/d73te
January 30, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Please share widely!

We are recruiting a 3-year postdoc at the RVC to develop new methodology to infer epidemic dynamics from wild animal viromes sampled across changeable environments.

Further details: jobs.rvc.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

Feel free to reach out with any questions. Deadline Feb 9th
January 10, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Polymerase mutations underlie adaptation of H5N1 influenza virus to dairy cattle and other mammals. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.06.631435v1
January 7, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Reposted by Vidhi Dholakia
Really proud to share our preprint describing early adaptation of H5N1 to US dairy cattle, and showing how these mutations enhance the ability of the virus to infect other mammals, such as pigs and humans.

With @influenzal.bsky.social @vidhid.bsky.social @drclairesmith.bsky.social and many more!
Polymerase mutations underlie adaptation of H5N1 influenza virus to dairy cattle and other mammals.
In early 2024, an unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza was detected in dairy cattle in the USA. The epidemic remains uncontrolled, with spillbacks into poultry, wild birds...
www.biorxiv.org
January 7, 2025 at 7:59 AM