Vishal Rao
vishalnrao.bsky.social
Vishal Rao
@vishalnrao.bsky.social
PhD student in immunology, @camilahcoelho.bsky.social lab IcahnMountSinai | Studying B cell responses to viruses and vaccines | BS-MS IISc Bangalore
Reposted by Vishal Rao
🚨 New Publication!!!

I’m thrilled to share our latest study, “Clonotype-Enriched Somatic Hypermutations Drive Affinity Maturation of a Public Human Antibody Targeting an Occluded Sarbecovirus Epitope”.
www.cell.com/cell-reports... [1/4]
Clonotype-enriched somatic hypermutations drive affinity maturation of a public human antibody targeting an occluded sarbecovirus epitope
Rao et al. demonstrate that convergent somatic hypermutations in the light chain, enriched within a sarbecovirus-specific public antibody clonotype, drive affinity maturation. This antibody targets a ...
www.cell.com
August 12, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Had a great time presenting my PhD work so far in @camilahcoelho.bsky.social’s lab at the Keystone Vaccinology meeting! Grateful for the chance to share and learn alongside such an inspiring community of scientists!
#KSVaccines25
June 7, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Vishal Rao
Find me at Poster Board 1012 on May 6th, Tuesday from 13:15 - 14:30 at #AAI !
April 29, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Reposted by Vishal Rao
One of our obsessions in the Crotty lab is to better understand B-cell immunology in the context of vaccines. Rare B cells can have antibody specificities particularly important for protection against some diseases. In our most recent paper…
@cp-immunity.bsky.social
www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
Diverse priming outcomes under conditions of very rare precursor B cells
B cells that give rise to neutralizing antibody responses can be extremely rare in the naive B cell repertoire. Madden et al. show that delivery strategy and adjuvant selection affect the recruitment ...
www.cell.com
April 7, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Vishal Rao
The labs of Krammer, @wchnicholas.bsky.social, Ellebedy et al. identify a neuraminidase-targeting human monoclonal antibody (mAb-297) induced by seasonal #influenza vaccination that broadly protects against multiple influenza A & B strains, incl. avian #H5N1. rupress.org/jem/article/...
April 3, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Vishal Rao
Cool germinal center acrobatics from Juhee Pae et al, check it out!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com
March 19, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Vishal Rao
Convergent and clonotype-enriched mutations in the light chain drive affinity maturation of a public antibody https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.07.642041v1
March 11, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Reposted by Vishal Rao
Today @natmedicine.bsky.social published our study showing the older individuals born prior to 1968 have more antibodies that cross-react to #H5N1 relative to younger individuals. If H5N1 causes a pandemic, children will likely be the most susceptible. 1/2

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Immune history shapes human antibody responses to H5N1 influenza viruses - Nature Medicine
H5N1 strain-specific antibodies are higher in older individuals and correlate more with birth year than with age, suggesting that younger individuals are potentially more likely to benefit from H5N1 v...
www.nature.com
March 13, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Glad to share our work from @camilahcoelho.bsky.social’s lab on identifying affinity-enhancing somatic hypermutations in public antibodies based on convergence and clonotype-enrichment!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Convergent and clonotype-enriched mutations in the light chain drive affinity maturation of a public antibody
Public antibodies that recognize conserved epitopes are critical for vaccine development, and identifying somatic hypermutations (SHMs) that enhance antigen affinity in these public responses is key t...
www.biorxiv.org
March 11, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Vishal Rao
Our long-awaited study in collaboration with the Schmidt lab on H5Nx influenza recognition by naive B cells is out! #antibody #bcell #flu #avianflu #cryoEM

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 24, 2025 at 10:06 PM