David Bhella

Microsoft Word really knocking it out of the park today!

Excellent baking delivered by the Bhella and Fletcher groups for our CVR coffee morning. This month the coffee morning raised money for Macmillan Cancer Support - thanks to Will Rooney for organising that.

It’s the time of the year when I get to enjoy watching bats fly around my back garden at dusk - bat detector in hand… wonderful 😊

I am privileged to enjoy a fantastic collaboration with my @cvrinfo.bsky.social colleagues Margaret Hosie, Brian Willett, Lee Sherry and Hagar Sasvari. Lee and Hagar used their reverse-genetics expertise to make some great tools to help us dissect calicivirus entry. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The west coast of Scotland just isn’t the place for observing astronomical events! Just like when we have forecasts of fantastic northern lights - the eclipse is turning into an evening of cloud watching.

Interested in learning about cryo-ET on JEOL microscopes? Sign up for a pre-IMC21 one-day workshop in Liverpool 30/08/2026 here: www.imc21.org.uk/congress/pre...

A great collaboration with Morgan Herod and colleagues in Leeds. Thermally stable murine norovirus shows a delayed uncoating phenotype, with cryoEM led by Lee Sherry and Charlotte Lewis at the @cvrinfo.bsky.social.

We really appreciate the time and work that @orestissavva.bsky.social put into preparing the PreLights article, and his thoughtful questions were a nice avenue for Charlotte to expand on her work. Thanks to BioRxiv for highlighting this resource.

Thanks @juanrv.bsky.social and Denis Ptchelkine for the invitation to visit AFMB and speak at their cryo-EM workshop. What treat to see the beautiful Luminy campus, hear some fantastic science and catch up with @sonia-longhi.bsky.social.

Cats: the ultimate pets and scientific heroes. 🐱 Studying feline viruses to identify innovative solutions to prevent human infections. #preprint by @cb99-lewis.bsky.social, @dbhella.bsky.social & team #microbiology #preLight by @orestissavva.bsky.social: prelights.biologists.com/highlights/i...

Wow - this is just amazing. Hui Guo and colleagues from John Briggs’ lab use cryoEM helical reconstruction to discover how filamentous influenza virion assembly is directed by multiple conformations of M1 - explaining how NA is concentrated at the proximal pole. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

France confines more than 1,700 people to cruise ship over suspected norovirus death

Amazing work from Charlotte Lewis - our latest preprint describes structure guided development of an antiviral peptide, targeting VP2 portal assembly - a strategy that may have broad application to treat or prevent calicivirus disease. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Really happy to see this paper out now in PLOS Pathogens - a really nice collaboration with @alanlparker.bsky.social - led by Kasim Waraich and Rosie Mundy. journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

How to get ahead in academia 1. Creative thinking. French professor investigated for awarding himself fake prize www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

First time out in the woods at Palacerigg this year. Not too shabby groups, although my bow feels very heavy… will take a bit of practice before I shoot a round I think.

🚨New pre-print!🚨 Because influenza virions are highly variable in form no single method can show their molecular architecture in detail. Here, we integrate multiple structural and compositional approaches to identify new features of these beautiful virus particles www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Delighted to share our latest preprint describing an integrative model for influenza A virions. We combined proteomics, lipidomics and cryo-ET to build a comprehensive set of models, using subtomogram averaging we show that IAV filaments package cofilactin. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The abstract deadline for the 21st International Microscopy Congress has been extended to 20th March. Pranav Shah and I will be chairing a one-day session on “Imaging pathogen biology from structure to mechanism” and we would love to hear about your work! www.imc21.org.uk

A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, the Institut Pasteur, and EMBL has shown in a Nature paper how the influenza polymerase, a molecular thief, uses the host RNA to replicate. Check out the MPI press release: www.mpinat.mpg.de/5179649/pr_2...

Abstract submission closes this Friday. If you have a story to tell and have just seen this do apply! @dbhella.bsky.social and myself look forward to your abstracts!

Very excited to share our work, a fish herpesvirus' cryo EM structure. It features a long PVAT tail, with new and host-like proteins discovered using modelAngelo, Dali, and Viro3D, including a host-like macrodomain doi.org/10.64898/202... @dbhella.bsky.social @grovearmada.bsky.social

I am excited to share our latest preprint - An evolutionarily divergent herpesvirus with a giant tail. Featuring symmetry breaking and genome annotation from structure using ModelAngelo. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Thanks to @sjorsscheres.bsky.social and Kiarash Jamali for coming to hear me fan-boy about Relion and ModelAngelo in my talk and bringing more advice on how to do cool stuff even better….

Had a fantastic day visiting the Virology Division in the University of Cambridge Dept of Pathology. Thanks to Myra Hosmillo, Ian Goodfellow, Andrew Firth, Hazel Stewart and Valeria Lulla for great virus- and science-life chat.

The UK cloud cover forecast for tomorrows geomagnetic storm. If there is one guarantee in life it’s 100% cloud cover when there is a forecast of northern lights. www.bbc.co.uk/weather/arti...

Huge congratulations to Emma Davis, the winner of 2025's Early Career Microbiologist of the Year prize! We agree with Emma that all of the finalists' talks were brilliant and a massive well done to everyone involved!

This is the coolest resource - so much more than a repository of predicted viral protein structures. Check it out…

Check out this new BBC documentary on Disease X and pandemic preparedness, broadcast tonight (22/09) and on BBC iPlayer. It features @cvrinfo.bsky.social's work using #AI to investigate #virology and much, much more. 🧪🦠🤖 It was a real pleasure working with Chris VT and the team. Thank you!

I am delighted to share this preprint describing the structure and transcriptomics analysis of adenovirus D10 - a fantastic collaboration - and a lot of hard work by Kasim and Rosie.

Second time in a week - so proud of Charlotte’s achievements. ECR oral presentation prize at the 9th international Calicivirus workshop. So accomplished and just starting year 3 of her PhD.

Our PhD studentship programme is officially open; pass it on If you are looking for a fully-funded PhD in the mechanisms underlying human disease, here are the details... Great science and a great environment! www.path.ox.ac.uk/news-article...

Well this is terrible… honestly the stuff I have to do for science - in Banff for the 9th international Calicivirus workshop.

Proud supervisor moment - congratulations Charlotte Lewis on winning the ECR best presentation prize at the Glasgow Virology Workshop. 👏👏👏👏👏👏

First field archery competition in ~25 years. I was terrible 😀 - but it was lovely being out in the woods again.

Last week we welcomed colleagues from ‪@helmholtzhzi.bsky.social‬ Centre for Infection Research & other project partners for our CVR-HZI Collaborative Development Fund Symposium. We heard about exciting research projects and discussed new opportunities to further our collaborations. cvr-hzi.co.uk

Epseptimavirus phagemcphageface made my day... doi.org/10.1099/jgv....

Please join us if you can for this year's Influenza Update Meeting, and please spread the news! It will be another fun opportunity to meet other influenza researchers, make connections and discuss our ongoing research.

Isn’t it strange how the most ardent capitalists are suddenly very worried about the influence of the profit motive in pharma - while simultaneously screaming about state regulation of eg finance sector. It must be strange being in their heads.

At the international virus assembly workshop in Alghero, Sardinia. This afternoon we took some time out to tour the old town. A beautiful walk with friends.

A nice photo from last week’s ’Celebration of 50 years of Virology’ in St Andrews - marking a milestone in the distinguished career of Rick Randall - a great virologist, colleague and friend - congratulations Rick!

Congratulations on your excellent thesis defence Hollie - @cvrinfo.bsky.social

One of the many lovely things about having a dog is encounters with urban wildlife while out for a walk. Here is a greater spotted woodpecker spotted this morning in our local woods.