Watch how the coronavirus nefariously infiltrates the cells of a bat brain in this video, taken by Sophie-Marie Aicher and Delphine Planas, which received an honorable mention in the 2021 Nikon Small World in Motion Competition. nyti.ms/3y6MPl2

COVID-19 surveillance, England. The most recent 5 days (to 28 Nov) show an increase in S gene target failure in community testing data. An explainer follows. 🧵

unsere ersten Daten zur Neutralisation von Omicron versus Delta sind fertig: 2x Biontech, 2x Moderna, 1xAZ/1x Biontech nach 6 Monaten 0% Neutralisation bei Omicron, auch 3x Biontech 3 Monate nach Booster nur 25% NT versus 95% bei Delta. Bis zu 37fache Reduktion Delta vs. Omicron

1/ Using data of different #COVID19 variants from 42 countries in a multilevel multinomial model I compared the growth advantage of these variants. The estimated growth advantage of Omicron compared to Delta (B.1.617.2) is 245%/week (95% credible interval: 205-297%).

First Omicron neutralization data from our lab using primary Omicron isolate from Tyrol with Annika Rössler, PhD Lydia Riepler @doctorflew and Dorothee von Laer Med. Uni. Innsbruck

1) Excellent work from an Austrian team around @janinekimpel and Doro von Laer. Same results as Alex Sigal and Sandra Ciesek for Omicron neutralization but more data from heterologous prime-boost vaccination and convalescent individuals.

5. In summary this work suggests that Omicron does appear to have become more immune evasive, but that properties associated with disease progression *may* be attenuated to some extent. The significant growth of Omicron nevertheless represents a major public health challenge.

Epidemic curve in Johannesburg/Pretoria that was straight up and continues straight down suggests we’re missing something fundamental about variant. Either attack rate is narrowed to sub segment of population, we’re undercounting mild or asymptomatic infections, or something else

83% of cases were Omicron in London for specimens of 15 December. Now causing five times as many cases as Delta, which has remained at similar level levels throughout December

Great way to start the new year, with our platform specific file format for Oxford Nanopore signal data, SLOW5. Better compression, faster analysis, easy to use and read, slow5tools for conversion to and from fast5, and a rich API for devs. nature.com/articles/s4158…

Just leaving the ER. It was a long day. And a stunning amount of Covid. Today I worked in an area that was temporarily converted into a makeshift ICU during the first COVID wave. Here’s what different from then. And also what challenges we’re facing with this surge in NYC: 🧵

NEW: first thread of 2022 is an Omicron situation update, starting with a detailed look at UK hospitals, before going international. Let’s start with severity, and the most important chart: Despite steep rises in cases and patients, the number on ventilators has barely risen.

So if soaring patient numbers is the demand side, the supply side is the number of NHS staff available to treat them. The number of hospital staff absent due to Covid (either sick or isolating) has shot up in the last week or two, setting new records in several hospitals.

Some thoughts on the evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 so far, how it compares to other viruses, and what might happen next... 1/

Here's the latest variant picture for BA.2 (Omicron), the lesser-known sibling of BA.1 (Omicron). It has started to appear at surprisingly high frequencies in several countries - those who shared the most samples are shown here. 🧵

Got an RNA-seq dataset with 50, 100, 200+ samples? Plug it into a differential expression tool and hope for the best? No! You need to consider QC, EDA, and modeling technical variation, or else risk generating spurious results. A thread on papers, methods, and best practices:

The countries at the top sometimes blame the countries at the bottom for climatechange. North Americas climate emissions per person are almost 30 times those of India 🇮🇳.

Krishnan and Tej's groups tell us some of the biological reasons that made Delta variant of coronavirus the most aggressive of the lot. Their study shows this variant could escape our body's immune system and thrive much better than the other variants. business-standard.com/article/curren…

All your hard work is worth when you receive so many wonderful messages and appreciations. Well done team DnA. CCMB @bic_ccmb Divya Tej Sowpati #openday #DnAlab