RT @jbloom_lab: In new study led by @timcyuu, we measure how mutations to H3 flu HA affect cell entry, stability & antibody escape. We find….

RT @jbloom_lab: In study led by @CKikawa & Andrea Loes, we use new assay to measure ~10,000 neutralization titers to recent influenza strai….

RT @jbloom_lab: In new study led by Andrea Loes, we develop sequencing-based neutralization assay that measures replicate curves for hundre….

Thanks to awesome mentors Jesse and Leslie, collaborator @mateoinnyc, super lab mates Catiana, Jackson, @maya_contr, @LisaLevoir. Excited for the rest of grad school!.

Overall, we found broad antibodies are harder to escape than targeted antibodies. We hope these data and further efforts to characterize Zika and dengue antigenicity aid vaccine/drug design. Here are some other highlights from our paper. If you get a chance, please check it out!

Many antigenic effects were conserved - concordant with a model of antibody interaction at conserved residues across divergent antigens. Other antigenic effects of mutations were only conserved w/in Zika virus strains

We next wondered if antigenic effects were conserved across different flaviviruses. To this end, we tested single mutations in other viruses and summarize these data as heatmaps -- antibody escape is indicated by red, antibody sensitization indicated in blue

We saw single mutations had large effects on narrow antibodies, but minimal effects on broad antibodies. Example below. We validated these effects in traditional neutralization assays, and saw magnitudes of effects corroborated by DMS predictions

We used deep mutational scanning to identify viral mutations that escape antibodies with broad and narrow specificities. Our libraries (previously described in are made in Zika virus envelope (E) protein.

Rare few antibodies can broadly neutralize all dengue serotypes and Zika -- high protective potential, and eliciting these antibodies by vacc would be great! But what is effect of viral single amino acid mutation, ie the most evolutionarily accessible form of antigenic variation?

Mosquito-borne viruses, like Zika virus and dengue virus serotypes 1-4, are transmitted across the globe. Their endemic range is spreading with climate change.

My first, first-author research article was published yesterday in @JVirology! .Excited to share our work measuring the effects of single flavivirus mutations on antibody neutralization, led by me w/ @jbloom_lab and @lesliegoo_lab guidance. 🧵. .