With great interest I read about the new insights regarding the role of type I interferon in severe COVID-19 disease. Diminished IFN-I production, inborn errors in regulation of the IFN-I response and the production of neutralizing IFN-I autoantibodies could play a role in severe COVID-19 disease in patients outside of the typical risk group.
I briefly highlighted these new findings in a breaking news item on Immunopaedia, a website promoting immunology education worldwide.
We great enthusiasm I report that our initiative to start the Journal of Life Sciences (JoLS) is featured in Nature.
The idea was that, in addition to publishing scientific articles, JoLS would give postdocs an opportunity to acquire some essential skills in reviewing and editing.
The yNVVI is the Dutch Society of Young Immunologists
Our goal is to bring together all early career immunologists within the Dutch Society of Immunology. We’ll focus on how to improve early career researchers (ECR) research culture and ultimately their science.
Feel free to share this new and exciting initiative
– Twitter
– Linkedin
Found our pitch at the annual NVVI conference here:
Our initiative of the Journal of Life Science (JoLS) is highlighted by the US National Postdoc Association
JoLS is the first of its kind—a journal entirely run by postdoctoral scholars from universities and research institutes across the world.
Together, JoLS members have built a unique and independent platform to support and enhance the postdoctoral experience in the life sciences. In addition to publishing high-quality articles, the journal offers abundant learning opportunities to new postdoctoral trainees, promising graduate and undergraduate students—including participation in scientific writing, peer-reviewing and editing—that wish to build a compelling scientific resume
Part 1. Undergraduate Research Fellowships & Writing Recommendation Letters / Developing Research Projects with Undergraduates/Diversity and Inclusion
Part 2. Mentoring Undergraduates: Handling Challenges,/Celebrating Successes/Diversity and Inclusion/Supporting Student Science Writing
Part 3. Undergraduate Researcher Panel Q&A
Workshop info – link
Excited to be selected to join the team of eLife early career peer reviewers. Looking forward to advance and accelerate scientific discoveries.
Click the eLife logo or here for more information about this important eLife initiative.
Article by lab colleague Cees van der Poel entitled “Follicular Dendritic Cells Modulate Germinal Center B Cell Diversity through FcgRIIB” is published in Cell reports (open access).
Highlights:
• Stromal FcγRIIB deficiency causes increased germinal center diversity
• Absence of FcγRIIB on Follicular Dendritic Cells (FDCs) supports persistence of low Somatic HyperMutation (SHM) B cell clones
With great interest I’ve read the recent publication in Immunity that alters our current understanding of when class switch recombination (CSR) occurs. It was always believed that CSR and Somatic Hyper Mutation (SHM) occurred within the germinal center, but Roco et al. show that CSR actually occurs prior to germinal center formation and extrafollicular plasmablast induction. Signs of CSR can be detected as early as 1.5 days following immunization. This result explains why many IgM memory B cells can be found, as if CSR occured in the germinal center they would likely be skewed towards the same isotype. Overall, this new insight alters our current dogma of when we believe CSR occurs and opens up a specific window of when we could specifically intervene with CSR.
I briefly highlighted this new finding in a breaking news item on Immunopaedia, promoting immunology education worldwide.
Our article “INNO-LiPA DNA line probe assay misidentification of M. smegmatis as Mycobacterium fortuitum complex” is now online in the ‘Article in Press‘ section of DMID.
Theo van den Broek 