Vijay Dhanasekaran
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vjlab.bsky.social
Vijay Dhanasekaran
@vjlab.bsky.social
Infectious diseases, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
Our lab's paper describing the North American H5N1 epizootic is out now in Nature! So thrilled to have this out, and congratulations to @lambod50.bsky.social for all the fantastic work on this: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ecology and spread of the North American H5N1 epizootic - Nature
The panzootic of highly pathogenic H5N1 since 2021 was driven by around nine introductions into the Atlantic and Pacific flyways, followed by rapid dissemination through wild migratory birds, primaril...
www.nature.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
Now out in @nejm.org :
Between 2023–2024: Sixteen human infections with A/H5N1 in Cambodia. Six deaths. Most in children. All exposed to sick or dead poultry.

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Resurgence of Zoonotic Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus in Cambodia | NEJM
In this report from Cambodia, 16 human cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection that occurred from February 2023 through August 2024 are described.
www.nejm.org
October 23, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
Our lab's first paper is out! Led by Jordan Ort, we developed NextClade datasets that enable rapid H5 clade assignment via NextClade. We deployed these during the start of the H5 cattle outbreak, and we finally published the paper in Virus Evolution academic.oup.com/ve/article/1...
Development of avian influenza A(H5) virus datasets for Nextclade enables rapid and accurate clade assignment
Abstract. The 2022 panzootic of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) viruses has led to unprecedented transmission to multiple mammalian species.
academic.oup.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
We would love feedback on a new NCBI-BLAST service we are launching today: sky-blast.com

Under the hood it's the same BLAST executable and databases provided by NCBI, with a replica of the NIH's interface - providing an alternative to the US gov service that's less congested, faster & more reliable
March 11, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
I received a surprising and disturbing request from NIH on Friday. They wrote to cancel a subaward to Hong Kong on one of my grants. (This was disturbing but not surprising.) They also ordered us not to interact with our collaborators in Hong Kong on any work under the award:
April 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
Cambodia reports second fatal human #H5N1 case in 2025 in a 2 y/o child from Prey Veng province on Feb 25. Exposure to sick and dead chickens near his home.

#Avian #influenza remains a serious threat. Strengthening #OneHealth surveillance and response is critical. #BirdFlu
February 25, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
Seems population immunity should be useful for forecasting flu, right? Using cross-sectional, age-representative neutralizing titers measured in the summer of 2017 in Philly, we find that the clade to which we infer the greatest susceptibility dominated the next season. Even more, we found...
October 27, 2023 at 4:06 PM
Our article 'The episodic resurgence of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 virus' has been published in Nature. Please read the paper here: rdcu.be/doT6Y.
October 19, 2023 at 4:23 AM
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
Really excited to see our perspective piece on the different ways Omicron lineages have evolved over the last 1.5 years is out now! Really nice collaboration between variant trackers and academics (including a lot of the Pango team).
SARS-CoV-2 evolution in the Omicron era - Nature Microbiology
Evolution of Omicron lineages and future evolutionary trajectories of SARS-CoV-2 are discussed.
www.nature.com
October 17, 2023 at 8:41 AM
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
Are you interested in SARS-CoV-2 evolution but struggle to recall the huge Omicron family tree (reminiscent of the Bible/Silmarillion: ‘HK.1 son of EG.5 son of XBB son of BA.2’)

Check this gorgeous Sankey diagram in @UKHSA bi-weekly variant update 🤩
www.gov.uk/government/p...
October 8, 2023 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Vijay Dhanasekaran
Excited to see our investigation into the evidence that global sequencing data contains evidence of molnupiravir usage (including potential clusters of onward transmission) published today!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Nature - Not Found
www.nature.com
September 25, 2023 at 4:03 PM