Lab studying evolution of proteins and viruses. Affiliated with @fredhutch @HHMINEWS @uwgenome. Opinions are my own and do not reflect those of my employer.
Seattle, WA
Joined June 2014
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In new study, we show that SARS-CoV-2 has evolved decreased inherent antigenicity in humans, as quantified by a ~3-fold decrease in the number of naïve human B cells that can bind the spike RBD.
doi.org/10.64898/2026.10.15.…
This study was led by Catherine Jacob-Dolan in collaboration with @JimBoonyaratan1
Given some follow-up posts about this study, I am pasting as image below last paragraph of Discussion.
To elaborate, multiple studies (eg, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article…, thelancet.com/journals/lanin…) show primary exposure to new SARS-CoV-2 variants still elicits neutralizing antibodies, albeit w somewhat different specificities. I'm unaware of head-to-head quantitative assessments of human post-primary exposure homologous titers to newer vs older variants, but primary exposure to new variants still elicits decent homologous neutralizing antibody titers.
More generally, reduced inherent antigenicity to naive B cells is one mechanism (alongside glycan masking and positioning of RBD in more down conformation) by which evolution of human endemic coronaviruses can affect antibody elicitation. Understanding these mechanisms can improve vaccine / antibody development, and is scientifically interesting. However, newer viral variants remain immunogenic, albeit probably at modestly reduced levels--so this work does not support alarmist interpretations about the immune system no longer recognizing SARS-CoV-2. The human antibody response has an amazing ability to recognize highly diverse antigens, although it can certainly recognize some more easily than others.
We have measured 47,851 neutralization titers of current human sera vs current influenza strains to inform vaccine update & analyses of viral evolution.
New H1N1 strains (eg, D.3.1.1 + G155E) have reduced neutralization, as do some H3N2 subclade K descendants.
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
The work was led by @CKikawa , @aw_butler, and @huddlej.
Thanks also to S Turner, H Peck, J Englund, K Lacombe, M Busch, M Lanteri, M Stone, B Spencer, @GreningerLab, D Smith, S Wallace, H Marshall, S Tosif, @SCOTTeHENSLEY, & Ian Barr.
See also this recent Nature News article for a very early update on how the influenza season is going so far: nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
Here is a link to slides I will present today at Options XIII Conference for Control of Influenza meeting: slides.com/jbloom/options202…
Slides describe using sequencing-based neutralization assays to characterize human neutralizing antibody landscape to seasonal influenza virus in near real time.
Measurements are informative for vaccine strain choice.
Our latest data from last few weeks identifies emerging variants of seasonal H3N2 & H1N1 to which current human sera has reduced titers. These include H3N2 subclade K variants w V223I, and H1N1 subclade D.3.1.1 variants including w G155E.
All raw data along with interactive visualizations are available at links in the slides. The section on our latest unpublished data starts on slide 19.
In new study led by Bernadeta Dadonaite, we show many influenza HAs (H5, H7, H9, H1, H2, H3) can use avian or human MHC-II to enter cells.
We then use novel combo of deep mutational scanning & cryoEM to define how H5 HA binds tufted duck MHC-II
Preprint: doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.17.…
Please see the preprint for additional details: doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.17.…
Thanks to Bernadeta Dadonaite for leading study, and @anniedosey, @Jenny_Ahn0, @timcyuu, Sara Sunshine, Ariana Farrell, and @KingLabIPD for valuable contributions.