George Hooper

Doctoral Researcher @ The Viral Pseudotype Unit Sussex @ViralPseudotype
Pathogens and Host Defences DTP @sussexuni @pirbright_inst

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

🧬 New paper explores peptide affinity ligands for scalable purification of VSV-G lentiviral vectors.

Researchers tested peptide-functionalised resins & membranes for LVV capture and compared binding, productivity and impurity reduction.
https://t.co/wASk7SIuZU

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

Key takeaways:
• Strong binding of active LVVs
• Cleaner eluates via reduced host-cell impurities
• Compatible with standard downstream workflows

Promising step toward more reliable large-scale LVV manufacturing.

#Lentiviral #Pseudotyping #Virology

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

🧬 New paper explores peptide affinity ligands for scalable purification of VSV-G lentiviral vectors.

Researchers tested peptide-functionalised resins & membranes for LVV capture and compared binding, productivity and impurity reduction.
https://t.co/wASk7SIuZU

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

PVNA titres correlated strongly with LVNA results across multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants (r ≈ 0.9–0.96).

Pseudotyped virus assays closely match authentic virus assays, making them a reliable, safer, and scalable alternative.

#Vaccinology #Virology #PseudotypedVirus #Pseudovirus

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

🧬 Pseudotyped virus assays correlate strongly with authentic SARS-CoV-2 assays!

A recent study compared pseudotyped virus neutralisation (PVNA) and live-virus neutralisation (LVNA) assays.

https://t.co/uFHmWM65yr
#Virology #Immunology #SARSCoV2 #PseudotypedVirus #Pseudovirus

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

By binding both viral and host targets, the bsAb pre-positions at the fusion site, enhancing potency, which could be useful for other viruses.
#Pseudovirus #Abs

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

🚨 New research on HIV-1 neutralising antibodies 🧬

A PNAS study reports a bispecific antibody targeting gp41 (NHR) and CCR5 that achieved 100% neutralisation breadth across 119 HIV pseudotyped viruses.
🔗 https://t.co/2Zgi2yqyXg
#HIV #Virology #Immunology #PseudotypedVirus

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

🔥Vaccine news🔥

A study of 2,300 women has shown that HPV infections dropped by 98% (!!) in vaccinated women

HPV causes cervical cancer

This vaccine prevents cancer!

https://t.co/pSHD9jlBLu

[Kyle Tretina, Ph.D. @AllThingsApx]

Viral AlphaFold Database dropped!

NCBI RefSeq → 647,000 viral protein seqs
MMseqs2 → ~117,000 clusters
AlphaFold2 → 26,962 monomers
AlphaFold-Multimer → 26,754 homodimers
Foldseek → 12,894 structural clusters

Enjoy.

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

Infectivity varies across bat & mammalian cell lines

GP–receptor interface differences appear to govern tropism & zoonotic potential.

💡Understanding these mechanisms helps assess spillover risk & guide countermeasure development.

#PseudotypedVirus #InfectiousDiseases

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

🚨 New study: compares bat-derived filovirus glycoproteins🦇 (Lloviu, Bombali, Mengla, Dehong)

They explored virus-like particles, entry mechanisms, and antibody neutralisation. 🔬

🔗https://t.co/J0aP8iJJgu

#Virology #Filoviruses #EmergingViruses

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

Key findings:

VLPs assembled from NP, GP & VP40 adopt classic filamentous morphology.

Some bat filoviruses are cross-neutralised by Ebola monoclonal antibodies.

Use human TIM-1 & C-type lectins for entry (less efficiently than Ebola/Marburg).

#VirusLikeParticles #ZoonoticRisk

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

@lii_elaine Thanks! I think it’s unlikely on the basis of this study alone, as the groups were quite small and from a limited geographical area. But it would be really interesting to see if larger, more diverse studies found the same effect.

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

New study: HPV vaccines assessed with pseudotyped virus neutralisation assays 💉

Bivalent gave strong HPV16/18 responses, nonavalent gave broader protection (esp. in older groups).

🔗 https://t.co/AEe8wuuuiZ

#HPV #Vaccine #Virology #Pseudovirus #PseudotypedVirus

[Dr Richard Hirschson @richardhirschs1]

⚠️Measles update US 🇺🇸

1454 cases, 42 jurisdictions, 65% kids, 96% not fully vaccinated, 12% required hospitalisation, 3 kids dead.

The US Measles outbreak continues to moderate, although still breaks all records since eradication 2 decades ago.

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

VelociRAPTR, a platform combining yeast display with virus-like particles, maps T cell receptor interactions with antigens at high throughput. Insights could aid T cell therapy design and immune recognition models.
https://t.co/ebRKEIvPh3
#TCR #HighThroughput #VLP #Pseudotype

[Nature Microbiology @NatureMicrobiol]

Out Now! Single-cell image-based screens identify host regulators of Ebola virus infection dynamics https://t.co/Jrk9sN5HMV #EbolaResearch #Microbiology #CRISPR

[Daniel Hurdiss @DanielHurdiss]

A novel nanoparticle vaccine, based on S1-CTD, elicits robust protective immune responses against porcine deltacoronavirus | Journal of Virology https://t.co/lP1PMw243m

[Dr Fabrício Campos @camposfabricios]

Post 29 — Adaptation Underway: H5N1 Is Narrowing the Gap Toward Human-to-Human Transmission

The H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b has changed a lot since it circulated only among birds. Since 2010, it has accumulated adapative mutations that increase its ability to infect mammals, 1/10

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

Is this CHIKV platform a real step forward, or just another point on the pseudotype–replicon continuum?
Would love to hear your thoughts 👇

Tanaka & Miyazawa (2025): https://t.co/27a16QBJLn

#Virology #PseudotypedVirus #Replicon

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

🚨 New study reports a CHIKV-based pseudotyping system — but is it really a pseudotype, a replicon, or something in between? 🤔

[George Hooper @GL_Hooper]

So, alphavirus envelopes alone can drive budding, but doesn't removing capsid move us further from a native virus? For vaccines, yes, less vector immunity. But for pseudotyping, isn't closer to a native virus better?