Alexander Price

Alexander Price

@pricelesssci.bsky.social

Assistant professor at the Wistar Institute studying Gene Regulation | Virologist interested in all things RNA and DNA.

763 followers469 following37 posts

Alexander Price reposted

Jason Nomburg
@jnoms.bsky.social

Happy to share the first preprint out of the Nomburg lab! Many aspects of cellular immunity are shared across the tree of life. Here, we show that some of these conserved aspects of cellular immunity are mirrored by conserved effectors of immune antagonism. Thread below! 1/15

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social

Conserved folds enable immune antagonism across the tree of life https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.21.739742v1

Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

RNA splicing was discovered in adenovirus almost 50 years ago. In our lab's first pre-print we have turned that relationship around, showing that viruses dependence on the cell's splicing machinery leads to a hidden vulnerability that can be targeted with drugs already in human clinical trials.

Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

We tested four distinct splicing inhibitors across human adenovirus, herpes simplex, and influenza A. All three viruses showed profound drops in infectious virus production — even at doses that don't harm normal cells, don't activate interferon, and spare viruses that don't use cellular splicing.

Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

The more a virus depends on complex RNA splicing, the more vulnerable it is to these drugs. One compound (H3B-8800) is already in Phase I trials for cancer! Our data suggest it's time to test whether it can fight viral infections too. Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgInhibition of RNA splicing is a novel therapeutic strategy for disruption of nuclear replicating virusesRNA splicing is a fundamental feature of eukaryotic gene expression that is co-opted by many nuclear-replicating viruses to produce viral transcripts. Recent clinical development of spliceosome-target...

Alexander Price reposted

Katherine Aird
@airdlab.bsky.social

It's time to rewrite reviews-aKG doesn't just regulate demethylation. Work from my lab and @mzspectrum.bsky.social demonstrates a new role for aKG in promoting histone acetylation and DNA repair through regulating carnitine synthesis. Congrats Apoorva Uboveja! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comαKG-mediated carnitine synthesis drives DNA repair via histone acetylation - NatureThe metabolite αKG promotes carnitine synthesis and increases site-specific histone acetylation, thereby promoting homologous recombination-mediated DNA repair, which has potential implications f...

Alexander Price reposted

Michael Baym
@baym.lol

The wobble-skip mechanism of matching two-of-three bases is wildly cool. Most synonymous mutants can’t escape

Kenneth Loi@kenjmloi.bsky.social

Excited to share our discovery of a new programmable RNA-guided DNA-targeting system hiding inside bacteriophages that predates CRISPR. We call it VIPR (Viral Interference Programmable Repeat), and it uses an entirely new logic to find its targets. Thread + link below.

Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

Our previous amazing research technician published their own first-author paper, has been a co-author on every manuscript in preperation, and ultimately received multiple graduate school offers from top PhD programs around the country. If this sounds like a good career move to you please inquire!

Alexander Price reposted

Charlotte Houldcroft
@virologyhouldcroft.bsky.social

Have you ever wondered why children starting nursery/daycare pick up so many germs? I certainly did, and with a crack team of parent-scientists/clinicians, we set out to answer that question. Is childcare a germ factory or an immune bootcamp? journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

journals.asm.orgGerm factories or immune boot camps? Infection and immunity in childcare settings | Clinical Microbiology ReviewsSUMMARYChildcare outside the home is a common experience for many children in high-income countries. It is associated with an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases—not just for the child bu...
Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

Very excited to announce that the Price Lab has received a first major NIH award! In this five year NIGMS R35 MIRA we will be exploring fundamental processing and recognition of nuclear double-stranded (ds)RNA.

Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

Essentially all dsRNA sensing is thought to occur in the cytoplasm, so how a human cell can tease apart truly pathogenic RNA from endogenous repetitive elements is important for both cell biology and the pathogenesis of nuclear viruses.

Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

Very elegant microscopy and in depth interpretations!

Apratim (Appy) Mukherjee@mukherja.bsky.social

(1/3) Excited to post our updated pre-print! We show RNAPII clusters are simply collections of polymerase molecules stably engaged at single genes & cluster intensity is strongly correlated with txn output during Drosophila embryogenesis. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgA single cluster of RNA Polymerase II molecules is stably associated with active genesIn eukaryotic nuclei, transcription is associated with the clustering of RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) molecules. The mechanisms underlying cluster formation, their interactions with genes, and their imp...

Alexander Price reposted

Tempera_Lab
@itphilly.bsky.social

Honored and grateful to be promoted to Professor. Thank you to the mentors, colleagues, students, and collaborators who made this possible.

The Wistar Institute@wistar.org

Congrats to Dr. Italo Tempera on his promotion to Professor! After postdoc training in Wistar's Lieberman lab, he launched his own lab at Temple before returning to Wistar in 2020. Since then, he's published in top‑tier journals and had major grant success. 👏 Congrats! bit.ly/49mwnTv

bit.lyItalo Tempera, Ph.D.Italo Tempera, Ph.D. Our Scientists

Alexander Price reposted

Mehdi Bouhaddou
@doctorbou.bsky.social

Thrilled to share the first major preprint from the lab. Viruses are classically viewed as targets of host sensing. Do viruses also sense and respond to the host? We propose viruses may act as “biosensors” of the host signaling state. A thread👇🏾 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgGlobal Landscape of Human Kinase Motifs in Viral ProteomesViruses are classically viewed as targets of host sensing, yet whether they also sense and respond to host cues remains largely unexplored. We propose that host-driven post-translational modification ...
Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

Wonderful opportunity!

Lisa Akhtar@lisanakhtar.bsky.social

The Akhtar Lab @manneresearch.bsky.social and Northwestern University @nufeinbergmed.bsky.social is hiring a full time RESEARCH TECHNICIAN. If you want to study neonatal HSV pathogenesis please send me a message and apply for the position here: luriechildrens.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/externalport...

Alexander Price reposted

Mandy Muller
@mandymuller.bsky.social

🧬 Exciting news from our lab 🧬 The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has approved our project studying KSHV and RNA decay: our first grant since re-launching the lab in Switzerland 🎉 We’re now looking for a Postdoc and a PhD student to join the team (start date January 2026) - please repost!

Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

We believe these tools will be useful to adenovirologists, as well as those that simply use this powerful little virus as a vector. In the manuscript we demonstrate using the E4 region for multicistronic gene expression, as well as a single vector system for doxycycline-induced gene expression.

Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

This work was led by Claire O'Brien, our amazing Research Assistant who has learned every molecular virology technique under the sun in putting this together. I bring it up because she is applying for grad schools this fall and would be an amazing addition to any program!

Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

Using the amazing AdenoBuilder system we have constructed a set of fluorescent and bioluminescent Ad5 viruses. By exploiting the existing transcriptional units of the virus, our single color and dual color (early/late) reporters reflect the staging of the virus with wildtype replication kinetics.

Alexander Price reposted

Lena Steckelberg
@lenasteckelberg.bsky.social

So excited to see our newest study out in print! Led by the brilliant @jgezelle.bsky.social and @sophiekorn.bsky.social, we discovered how viruses from highly divergent families converge on a shared RNA structure mechanism to inhibit cellular nucleases. #RNAsky #LoveVirology

Jeanine Gezelle@jgezelle.bsky.social

Our study from the Steckelberg lab is out now in @narjournal.bsky.social !! We dove into a new nuclease-blocking viral #RNA structure important for viral infection, which provided evidence of similar structure-based strategies across diverse viral families. academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

academic.oup.comA conserved viral RNA fold enables nuclease resistance across kingdoms of lifeAbstract. Viral exoribonuclease-resistant RNA (xrRNA) structures block cellular nucleases to produce subgenomic viral RNAs during infection. High sequence

Alexander Price reposted

Claudia Mimoso
@camimoso.bsky.social

Excited to share that our latest story on Restrictor is out now in @genesdev.bsky.social!! Big thank you to my fellow co-first author Hanneke, Karen @adelmanlab.bsky.social and co-authors Nathalie and Allison!

Genes & Development@genesdev.bsky.social

In this study, Mimoso et al. show that Restrictor serves as a transcriptional safeguard that suppresses the spurious transcription of non-coding RNAs, while preserving mRNA transcription. Learn more here: ➡️ tinyurl.com/gd352654

Alexander Price reposted

Tempera_Lab
@itphilly.bsky.social

We are excited to share our recent work: EBNA leader protein orchestrates chromatin architecture remodeling during Epstein-Barr virus-induced B cell transformation url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

academic.oup.comEBNA leader protein orchestrates chromatin architecture remodeling during Epstein-Barr virus-induced B cell transformationAbstract. Epstein-Barr virus Nuclear Antigen Leader Protein (EBNA-LP) plays a pivotal role in the transformation of B cells by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), fu

Alexander Price reposted

Christin Herrmann
@christinviral.bsky.social

Excited to share with you my postdoctoral work published today in Nature Microbiology! www.nature.com/articles/s41... We have known for a while that stress can impact the outcome of infectious diseases; however, we reveal in our paper that it is not always detrimental.

nature.comEnvironmental stress drives clearance of a persistent enteric virus in mice - Nature MicrobiologyCage change of mice with persistent murine astrovirus infection triggers stress responses marked by corticosterone fluctuation, which is followed by CD8 T cell activation and induction of epithelial a...

Alexander Price reposted

Nature Microbiology
@natmicrobiol.nature.com

#NewResearch 🚨Out now! Environmental stress drives clearance of a persistent enteric virus in mice 🐀 @christinviral.bsky.social @cadwelllab.bsky.social #MicroSky #VirusSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comEnvironmental stress drives clearance of a persistent enteric virus in mice - Nature MicrobiologyCage change of mice with persistent murine astrovirus infection triggers stress responses marked by corticosterone fluctuation, which is followed by CD8 T cell activation and induction of epithelial a...

Alexander Price reposted

Shannon Righi
@shannonrighi.bsky.social

Excited to share our editorial on peer review, out now in #mBio! This was a mighty group effort with my mBio Early Career Editorial Board peer mentoring group @proctordm.bsky.social and Rachy Abraham. From novice to expert: preparing your peer review | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

journals.asm.orgFrom novice to expert: preparing your peer review | mBioPeer review is the process that academic journals, conferences, and funding agencies use to ensure the quality of scholarly work before it is published, presented, or funded. Reviewers for academic jo...

Alexander Price reposted

Thelonevirologist
@thelonevirologist.bsky.social

Gammaherpesvirus infection triggers the formation of tRNA fragments from premature tRNAs journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

journals.asm.orgGammaherpesvirus infection triggers the formation of tRNA fragments from premature tRNAs | mBioDiverse conditions of infection and cellular stress incite the cleavage of transfer RNAs (tRNAs), leading to the formation of tRNA fragments (tRFs) that can directly regulate gene expression. In our s...

Alexander Price reposted

Stand Up for Science!
@standupforscience.net

🚨 URGENT RESPONSE CALL 🚨 Trump’s Fool’s Gold Science EO is a dangerous sham. It gives his appointees the power to dismiss entire bodies of research and punish researchers who fail to fall in line with his agenda. We’ve launched an open letter. SIGN & SHARE NOW: actionnetwork.org/petitions/op...

actionnetwork.orgSign The Open Letter to Stand Up For Science Now!Science is under siege. Trump’s latest Executive Order calls for politically appointed science commissars to evaluate research. Join us in adding your name to our open letter condemning Trump’s escala...

Alexander Price reposted

Nature Microbiology
@natmicrobiol.nature.com

🚨 Out Now! Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus induces mitochondrial fission to evade host immune responses and promote viral production #MicroSky #Virus 🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comKaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus induces mitochondrial fission to evade host immune responses and promote viral production - Nature MicrobiologyKaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus changes mitochondrial architecture via vBcl-2 interaction with a host NDP kinase, which triggers mitochondrial fission and inhibition of MAVS allowing for virus...
Alexander Price
@pricelesssci.bsky.social

Amazing!! Need to read right away to finally understand what I've been working with!

Bou-Nader lab@bounaderlab.bsky.social

Happy to share yet another story back from my days as a postdoc 👇 we uncovered how the J2 antibody specifically recognizes #dsRNA. J2 is a quintessential tool used to discover #RNA, QC #RNA therapeutics and much more

Alexander Price reposted

Yevgeniy Serebrenik
@ysereb.bsky.social

Thrilled to see our work now in @cp-molcell.bsky.social! It was an incredible privilege to do my postdoc with @ophirshalem.bsky.social and work alongside the super talented Steph Sansbury and our amazing co-authors. Excited to keep building on this research in our new lab at @rwjms.bsky.social!

Ophir Shalem@ophirshalem.bsky.social

Check out our paper, now extensively revised and published in @cp-molcell.bsky.social! This has been a real tour de force led by Stephanie Sansbury and @ysereb.bsky.social and we are very excited about the findings and future potential of this approach www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

cell.comPooled tagging and hydrophobic targeting of endogenous proteins for unbiased mapping of unfolded protein responsesSansbury and Serebrenik et al. use pooled gene tagging with in situ sequencing and high-throughput image analysis to generate a cell pool with endogenous HaloTag fusions. Hydrophobic targeting is then...

Alexander Price reposted

Ophir Shalem
@ophirshalem.bsky.social

Check out our paper, now extensively revised and published in @cp-molcell.bsky.social! This has been a real tour de force led by Stephanie Sansbury and @ysereb.bsky.social and we are very excited about the findings and future potential of this approach www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

cell.comPooled tagging and hydrophobic targeting of endogenous proteins for unbiased mapping of unfolded protein responsesSansbury and Serebrenik et al. use pooled gene tagging with in situ sequencing and high-throughput image analysis to generate a cell pool with endogenous HaloTag fusions. Hydrophobic targeting is then...

Alexander Price reposted

Molecular Cell
@cp-molcell.bsky.social

Online Now: A nuclear RNA degradation code is recognized by PAXT for eukaryotic transcriptome surveillance Online now:

dlvr.itA nuclear RNA degradation code is recognized by PAXT for eukaryotic transcriptome surveillanceSoles et al. demonstrate that the combination of a 5′ splice site and a poly(A) junction constitutes a nuclear RNA degradation code that targets RNAs for degradation by the PAXT adaptor and the RNA exosome. This study provides fundamental insight into how the RNA exosome specifically recognizes misprocessed RNAs.