This was a fantastic collaboration and team effort between @pennmedicine.bsky.social, Penn Vet, @fredhutch.org, and the @usdagov.bsky.social. I'm so proud of everyone involved! 8/8
Conclusion: our vaccine has the potential to reduce clinical signs and mastitis in H5N1-infected lactating dairy cattle, while limiting potential viral spillovers into the human and other susceptible wild and domestic animal populations. 7/
The @cbseveningnews.bsky.social visited our farm while we were vaccinated the first animals for this study. 6/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eahv...
Vaccinated animals did not display the same clinical signs as unvaccinated animals following H5N1 challenge. For example, milk production remained stable in the vaccinated animals after H5N1 challenge. 5/
We challenged animals via the intramammary route in a BSL3 facility at the USDA and found that the vaccine reduced peak H5N1 viral titers in the milk by ~1,000 fold! 4/
Most of the antibodies elicited by the vaccine were directed against epitopes on the globular head of HA that have not changed over the past 2 years. 3/
We vaccinated cows twice with 500ug of our H5 mRNA-LNP vaccine and observed very high levels of H5-reactive antibodies in serum and milk following vaccination. 2/
Holy cow! Our new study showing that H5 mRNA-LNP vaccines are safe and effective in lactating dairy cows is now posted on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social!
We found that our vaccine elicits protective responses in 2,000 pound dairy cows! 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Happy to see the peer-reviewed version of this manuscript published yesterday in NEJM-Evidence.
@nejm.org
evidence.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Stanley Plotkin had a major hand in the development of a number of vaccines in use today; he designed the rubella vaccine. He remembers the world before widespread use of vaccines & knows what's coming as vaccine policy is rewritten & vaccine confidence is eroded. www.statnews.com/2026/03/02/s...
This paper highlights how basic science studies can help inform the process of selecting vaccine strains. Great collaboration within @ceirrnetwork.bsky.social including @jbloomlab.bsky.social and Andrew Ward lab. Special thanks to Jiaojiao Liu for leading the studies from our side. 7/
Check out @jbloomlab.bsky.social for full high-throughput data set that was part of our study. 6/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
For example, subclade K viruses with the Q80K HA site E substitution have been detected at relatively high frequencies in some parts of the world, and it is unclear if future subclade K vaccine strains with an Q80 or K80 HA should be selected for the 2026-2027 influenza season. 5/
The observed antibody heterogeneity in our study should be considered when new 2026-2027 influenza vaccines are selected. Vaccines should be matched in major antigenic sites on the top of HA , as well as other antigenic sites on the side of HA that are typically thought to be more subdominant. 4/
In our new study, we found substantial variation in the specificity of subclade K-binding antibodies among different vaccinated individuals. For example, we show that some people mount antibodies against HA antigenic site A while others against site E. 3/
We previously demonstrated that the 2025-2026 influenza vaccine elicits antibodies in many people that cross-react to the antigenically advanced subclade K H3N2 virus. 2/
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
Our preprint examining the specificity of human antibodies that cross-react with subclade K H3N2 viruses was posted this morning on medRxiv. These studies have implications on what vaccine strains should be selected for next year’s influenza season. 1/
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
We have posted data providing real-time measurement of human neutralizing antibody landscape to seasonal influenza.
Data explain spread of subclades K (H3N2) & D.3.1.1 (H1N1), identify subclade K subvariants w reduced neutralization, & can inform choice of strains for next vaccine.
A very few times in my career, I've done an interview that stunned me so much that I've gotten off the phone and walked into furniture. This was one of them. I'm grateful to this mom for her courage and vulnerability in doing this interview. www.cnn.com/2026/01/16/h...
“This isn’t perfect, but if you can decrease your chance of getting flu this year by fourfold, man, that’s a vaccine that I want.”
www.cnn.com/2026/01/07/h...
“Although it’s not a complete match with what’s circulating, this vaccine appears to have the capacity to produce antibodies that will likely provide protection.”
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
We find that subclade K viruses are antigenically advanced; however, this year's flu vaccine surprisingly elicited antibodies in many individuals that efficiently recognized these viruses. The implications are clear: go get this year’s vaccine if you haven’t already!
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
Nice in-depth story on immune memory by @amandabkeener.bsky.social in @nature.com.
“If we can develop multivalent vaccines that have many different flu antigens in them, we can replace original antigenic sin with a blessing of induced immunity.”
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
“There may be less of a vaccine mismatch than many people initially believed.”
More on this very soon from our group...Go get your vaccine if you haven't already!
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/w...
I am excited to share that our work, in which we have dissected the signals driven by the nucleoside-modified mRNA and LNP components of mRNA vaccines that regulate germinal center (GC) responses, is now published in Cell! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
A picture is worth a 1000 words. The birth dose of hepatitis B vaccines in the USA eliminated perinatally acquired hepatitis B infection from over 20,000 cases a year before the vaccine was introduced to <20 cases a year. The gaslighting by the current members ACIP is obscene, unethical and cruel.
BREAKING: Man from Washington state dies after being infected with H5N5 bird flu
“If there’s ever a year to get a flu vaccine, this is the year.”
Even in years with vaccine mismatches, the flu vaccine consistently prevents severe disease and hospitalizations. Now is the time to get a flu shot if you haven't already, because we will likely have a lot of flu activity this year.
CDC FluView is back, and our fears look like reality.
50.8% of circulating H3N2 viruses belong to the 2a.3a.1-K subclade, which have 2 mutations in a very important antigenic site. Our own 2025-2026 vaccine immunogenicity data will be posted in the next couple of weeks.
www.cdc.gov/fluview/surv...
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...
