Cornelius Lee

A 3x3 grid of coloured images of influenza virus particles in the style of an Andy Warhol screen print. Image credit Naina Nair / Ed Hutchinson (MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research)

🚨New Influenza Tool🚨
Interested in IAV mutations?
Looking for markers of mammalian adaptation?
Frustrated by converting between IAV numbering systems?
The #Flu-MutationExplorer, a new tool from @cvrbioinfo.bsky.social and @royalvetcollege.bsky.social, is here to help:
flu-gdb.cvr.gla.ac.uk
(1/n)

Also extremely happy to see work finally published! Kudos to @yushuchen.bsky.social's tenacity and hard work! Read our previous thread and the paper itself for details/updates! Happy to chat if you find our findings interesting! #MicroSky

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Finally had the time to look through and process more photos I’ve taken in Senegal. Here’s some of my favourites!

Top: A representative modeling example from Chimpanzee CPEB3 HDV-like ribozyme (PDB ID: 7QR3), with models predicted by four better-performing methods (blue cartoons) overlaid on experimental structure (gray cartoons). Left to right: DRFold2, DeepFoldRNA, AlphaFold3, RhoFold. Bottom: Structural visualization of the example from coxsackievirus B3 cloverleaf RNA (PDBID: 8DP3), showing experimental structure (left), AlphaFold3’s best prediction from 100 models (middle), and 5th model of DRfold2 (right), respectively. Structures are rainbow-colored from 5′ (blue) to 3′ (red) end.

Accurate RNA structure prediction remains a challenge, despite recent computational advances. This study presents DRFold2, a #DeepLearning framework that significantly enhances accuracy of de novo #RNAstructure prediction by increasing contact prediction precision @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4aoOQiX

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life Giant DNA viruses encode a cap-binding complex homologous to eIF4F, the defining translation-initiation complex of eukaryotes. The viral cap-binding complex is required for viral protein synthesis and enables an unusual degree of replication plasticity under altered host conditions.

Now online! Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller?

Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase.
1/n

From sequence to function: Bridging single-molecule kinetics and molecular diversity Biological function is fundamentally determined by nucleic acid and protein sequence. Beyond encoding genetic information, nucleic acids also display complex physicochemical parameters that shape stru...

Great to see our Science Review on emerging multiplexed single-molecule methods that use libraries to link sequence to dynamics. A fun collaborative writing project! From sequence to function: Bridging single-molecule kinetics and molecular diversity | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Decoding influenza virus: From polymerase mechanisms to translational therapeutics
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cryo-EM structure reveals how influenza A virus NEP binds the viral polymerase at a regulatory hotspot, coordinating RNA synthesis and nuclear export. Fantastic collaboration with @loiccarrique.bsky.social and Jon Grimes. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Regulatory hotspot on the influenza A virus polymerase revealed through the structure of the NEP-polymerase complex Structural studies reveal how influenza virus switches between making new RNA genomes and exporting them from the host nucleus.

Beautiful work from @efodor.bsky.social and Jonathan Grimes' labs - the first full structure of the influenza A virus NEP protein, and a clear indication that its role in viral replication is more nuanced that first thought
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Decided to head to Senegal for a photography trip! Here’s some photos I’ve taken 📸!

Shots I took in Portugal! Decided to use pastel style edits since the city is filled with colours 📸

Giving Oxmas formal speech two
months into arriving to Oxford is not in my bingo card 🎄. (Because the MCR President has fallen to the seasonal plague.) What a term.

Amazing example of influenza cheat/cooperator cycles in this recent paper - the repeatability of the oscillatory cycles is so striking

Congrats to @alnajifg.bsky.social , @christopherbrooke.bsky.social , @vignuzzilab.bsky.social & friends

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧪 #socialviruses

Published version up at @natcomms.nature.com

New data with Aspergillus getting into tuberculous granulomas and growing like it's a member of the extended Myco family

doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Got tattooed! Spot the scientific elements! 🧬🪐

This week, my lab, and research institute A*IDL, and A*STAR signed an ideation agreement with Flagship Pioneering Biotech and one of their portfolio companies Apriori to develop self-amplifying RNA vaccines for pandemic Flu threats. (1/3)

Finally, it's up on bioRxiv! It's been a rewarding journey shaping this story. My deepest gratitude to @vignuzzilab.bsky.social and @christopherbrooke.bsky.social for their incredible support, and to the @mcbillinois.bsky.social & @astar-idlabs.bsky.social for enabling this research

Longitudinal analysis of influenza A virus deletion-containing viral genomes reveals key determinants of co-evolutionary dynamics and interference The substantial genetic diversity generated during influenza A virus replication facilitates both evasion of pre-existing host immunity and cross-species emergence. A major contributor to this diversi...

First big piece of research from our SG lab: Fadi's work with Chris Brooke's lab. Flu serially passaged 80X selects a defective genome with improved competition, but is nonviable as a full virus!
Notable improvement & safety for DVGs as antiviral RNA therapies!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

High-throughput single-virion DNA-PAINT reveals structural diversity, cooperativity, and flexibility during selective packaging in influenza Abstract. Influenza A, a negative-sense RNA virus, has a genome that consists of eight single-stranded RNA segments. Influenza co-infections can result in

Our work on influenza genome packaging using high-throughput single-virion DNA-PAINT is out in NAR! Packaging appears structurally diverse and flexible. Big thanks to Christoff & Qing (amazing effort)! A collab with @efodor.bsky.social, @nicolerobb.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Officially starting my DPhil in Condensed Matter Physics with @achilleskap.bsky.social (@kavlioxford.bsky.social) and @efodor.bsky.social (@dunnschool.bsky.social)! A collaborative project to understand influenza dynamics. Excited to see where this project goes!

Hello Oxford!!

The displacement of the σ70 finger in initial transcription is highly heterogeneous and promoter-dependent Abstract. Most bacterial sigma factors (σ) contain a highly conserved structural module, the ‘σ-finger’, which forms a loop that protrudes towards the RNA

What controls how/when growing RNA unblocks the "door" to exit RNA polymerase? Brilliant duo Anna Wang and Abhishek Majumder led a study in my lab - now out in NAR - on this. *Sequence* matters a lot! Read on... Super smFRET/dynamics work as well. Excited! academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Why does the m6A writer complex require so many proteins? Post-transcriptional gene regulation through m6A deposition is dysregulated in many diseases and is catalyzed by a multi-protein writer complex. This Unsolved Mystery investigates why the writer compl...

Post-transcriptional #GeneRegulation through #m6A deposition is dysregulated in many diseases. Samie Jaffrey &co investigate why the m6A writer complex requires multiple subunits and what roles its individual proteins might have in m6A regulation. 🧪
plos.io/3VjfjWI

Amused by cardiac muscle contraction differentiated from IPSCs ❤️ Super cool isn’t it?

Legend David Baltimore died yesterday. He understood the way things should work: "the real contribution of MIT is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It takes ideas seriously, but the people are relatively informal. They are not self-aggrandizing the way academics can be."

Blood, sweat, and beers: investigating mosquito biting preferences amidst noise and intoxication in a cross-sectional cohort study at a large music festival Introduction We live in a world split between mosquito magnets and those lucky enough to remain (nearly) untouched. The reasons why some people attract more mosquito bites than others remain largely m...

Did I just read the best abstract ever? 😁

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Last day at @vignuzzilab.bsky.social ! Leaving in The Office style. Been a fruitful journey and definitely grew me scientifically🧬🔬!

What a dynamic team they make! This was the official send off for Cornelius heading to Oxford University for his PhD!

Found in my photo album. Beneath their family portrait, a boy looking at his younger brother. A quiet moment in the long legacy of Mount Sinai porters.