Ed Hutchinson

@socialinfluenza

Virologist | Professor of Sneezy Diseases | studies influenza @ MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research | occasionally draws things | (he/him)

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Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· 17d

Bovine-derived H5N1 influenza virus efficiently infects lactating swine via the mammary gland www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Photograph of piglets suckling from a sow

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· 24d

Thank you to everyone who worked on this - our brilliant co-authors from @cvrinfo.bsky.social, @royalvetcollege.bsky.social, @pirbrightinst.bsky.social & @suhealthsci.bsky.social and our funders @ukri.org (MRC, BBSRC and AHRC). We hope you find it useful! (/end)

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· 24d

(2) Search IAV sequences of interest for markers of mammlian adaptation This is based on (we think) the largest available curated database of published adaptation markers (also available through GitHub) and should be a useful tool in pre-pandemic risk assessments (4/n)

Screenshot of the Flu-Mutation Explorer showing an analysis of the HA sequence of a bovine H5N1 virus (GenBank: YEL88008.1), with a table linking amino acid usage at three sites to papers which previously identified these residues (in particular contexts) as markers of mammalian adaptation, and a bar chart showing the amino acid usage at the first of these sites in all publicly-available IAV sequences, subdivided into viruses from Birds, Humans and Other Mammals

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· 24d

(1) Customisable, annotated, publication-ready trees from all IAVs in GenBank. Want to understand aa variation at a site? One click and you're done (bonus if you can guess this Very Famous Site - answer in ALT text) We also sort out H1-H3 numbering conversion for you because who has the time (3/n)

Phylogenetic tree for influenza A virus segment 1 (PB2), with tips coloured to show amino acid usage at position 627 - mainly K and E. This could have been further annoted to show e.g. viral host species. Screenshot from the Flu-Mutation Explorer

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· 24d

🚨New Pre-Print!🚨 Want to search for variation in influenza A virus sequences, but find the amount of data overwhelming? Wondering if new avian flu strains have signs of mammalian adaptation? The #Flu-MutationExplorer, a new online tool, can help (1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

An image in the style of an Andy Warhol screen print showing influenza virions in a variety of colours. (Image credit Ed Hutchinson and Naina Nair, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research)

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· May 18

Why do influenza viruses make ludicrously long filamentous virions? Probably lots of reasons, but in a new study Lu Liu et al. provide evidence for an appealing hypothesis: filaments are more stable in acidic solutions and hence survive for longer in aerosols www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Electron micrographs showing influenza virions of varying morphologies, from spheres to filaments

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· May 18

Absolutely extraordinary work from Hui Gao, John Briggs and co @mpibiochem.bsky.social on the structure of the influenza matrix protein in situ, particularly in filamentous virions. It's beautiful, and answers questions I've been wondering about for twenty years www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A reconstruction of part of the M1 helix of influenza A virus (looking from the outside of the virion, down onto the top of the N terminal domain of M1), showing a helix of M1 protomers (blue) bound to phosphatidyl inositol (green), and a 'seam' of M1 protomers placed every fourth unit in a distinct conformation (pink) which allows them to bind to the C-terminal domains of the NA tetramer (yellow).

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· May 7

🚨New paper!🚨 Our study showing that H5N1 influenza viruses can remain infectious in unpasteurised milk for, basically, as long as you are likely to encounter that milk has now been published: www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

A drawing of a Fresian cow whose markings resemble influenza viruses (image: Ed Hutchinson, 2025)

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Apr 17

🚨New pre-print!🚨 Using a panel of different H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b viruses and human seasonal influenza, and mammary explants from common beef and dairy cattle breeds, we add to the growing data showing that H5N1 spillovers into cattle should be seen as an ongoing risk www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A panel of immunohistochemistry images showing infection of a panel of IAV viruses (as 6:2 reassortants on a PR8 backbone) in epithelia from the teat and gland cisterns of Aberdeen Angus, Limousin and Holstein Friesian cattle

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Apr 17

🚨New pre-print!🚨 Influenza viruses need proteases to become infectious. Here, we identify the proteases needed for influenza D virus entry, and show that proteases in the human airway are more than capable of activating this non-human virus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A woodcut of a highland cow peering through a square frame (image credit Ed Hutchinson)

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Apr 17

Thank you to the multiple authors at multiple institutions who contributed to this, particularly #SwethaVijayakrishnan from @cvrinfo.bsky.social who helped pull a sprawling collection of studies together and @ludovicautin.bsky.social from @scripps.edu for turning data tables into beautiful models

A multi-panel figure showing integrative models of influenza virions with different morphologies, with molecular structures visualised, compared to lower-resolution cryoEM images of virions with the same dimensions.

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Apr 17

🚨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...

An illustration of an apical region of an animal cell in cross section, shown crowded with individual molecules. The plasma membrane is densely occupied by influenza virus glycoproteins, and from the surface bud influenza virions with different morphologies (L-R): spherical, bacilliform, filamentous with a genome, filamentous and empty, filamentous with a helical inner layer, and filamentous with a cofilactin cytoskeleton.

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Apr 8

Happy birthday! Please enjoy the Very Odd Shark Akmonistion zangerli, a new discovery from 'a housing estate in Glasgow' which I loved in a children's book of prehistoric life in the 1980s. By complete coincidence, 25 years later I moved to Scotland and now live just down the road from where it did.

The holotype of Akmonistion zangerli, the 'Bearsden Shark,' a well-preserved 330 Myo fossil of a small shark (less than a metre long, from memory) with an odd dorsal structure that looks like an anvil covered in teeth

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Apr 2

Fully funded for UK Home students, application deadline May 8th 2026. Informal enquiries welcome by e-mail (me) or via the Pirbright Institute contact form (Tom) (though I am away for the next two weeks, so ideally contact me after the 20th) Please share!

A visual summary of the project showing a 3D view of a lung, visualised by lightsheet microscopy, a schematic of virus replication showing spread from cell to cell, and the internal anatomy of a chicken

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Mar 27

Impressively thorough - but bleak - survey of the spread of H5N1 through the antarctic and sub-antarctic www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A figure showing a map of the southern polar region higlighting locations of H5N1 infection, with photographs showing representative mortality in gentoo penguins, Antarctic fur seal pups, a juvenile snowy albatross, and elephant seals and a king penguin (red arrow).

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Mar 5

"Does this IAV have Mammalian Adaptations?" The largest (we think) curated database of IAV avian-mammalian adaptation mutations can be compared to each major IAV gene product, or to user-specified sequences, linking all previously annotated risk markers to supporting literature. (3/n)

Screenshot of a GUI showing histograms of amino acid usage at position 434 of segment 4 of the IAV genome (HA) in viruses from birds, humans, and other mammals. Alongside, part of a table of adaptation mutations in HA providing summary details and linking out to supporting literature. A disclaimer points out that 'These mammalian adaptation mutations are largely derived from in vitro studies performed in specific viral strain backgrounds. Consequently, their adaptive significance may be context-dependent and may not apply to the submitted query sequence.'

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Mar 5

“Where Did This Mutation Come From?’ Search all GenBank IAV data, smoothly toggling between numbering systems. Produce customisable, publication ready, annotated trees for each major gene product, including colouring by subtype, host group/order and amino acid usage at user-specified positions (2/n)

A screenshot of a GUI showing a customised phylogenetic tree for IAV segment 1 (PB2), coloured by amino acid usage at positon 627 (mostly E, with a branch of K)

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Mar 5

🚨New Influenza Tool🚨 Interested in IAV mutations? Looking for markers of mammalian adaptation? Frustrated by converting between IAV numbering systems? The #Flu-MutationExplorer, a new tool from @cvrbioinfo.bsky.social and @royalvetcollege.bsky.social, is here to help: flu-gdb.cvr.gla.ac.uk (1/n)

A 3x3 grid of coloured images of influenza virus particles in the style of an Andy Warhol screen print. Image credit Naina Nair / Ed Hutchinson (MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research)

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Mar 5

Happy #WorldBookDay! I'm currently enjoying @derekgatherer.bsky.social's wry, readable and wide-ranging 'BioFutures and the Legacy of Our Past' (bone comb not included)

A man peering over the top of the book 'BioFutures and the Legacy of Our Past: Escaping Evolution' by Derek Gatherer. The cover illustration is a black and white drawing of a bone comb.

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Feb 25

I know I am late to the party on this one, but @thrasherxy.bsky.social's The Viral Underclass is *so* good in analysing why the people most excluded from society are also the people in it who are most likely to experience disease. It's incisive, readable, and defiantly hopeful. And also...

The paperback copy of The Viral Underclass by Steven W. Thrasher, subtitled 'The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide'

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Feb 6

Some Glasgowversaries today. Our omnicompetent lab manager Sarah Cole started working at what is now @cvrinfo.bsky.social 20 years ago, and our lab group started up almost exactly 10 years later. Huge thanks to Sarah - and to the CVR and everyone who makes it such a great place to study viruses 🦠🥳🦠

Sarah doesn't really like photographs, so here is a linocut of a golden cube of the main CVR building, labelled 'Sir Michael Stoker Building' (Image: Ed Hutchinson)

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Feb 1

Having a clear out and disposing of some COVID-era Winogradski columns, made during an attempt at home-schooling and now very um... ripe.

Three sealed glass milk bottles filled with coloured layers of ochre and green sediment

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Jan 30

There is definitely some antigenic escape, and we speculate that this tipped the scales a bit - possibly the reason why the UK season started early but did not peak as high as we had feared

Graph of influenza rates, from UKHSA (Jan 2026 week 3 report)

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Jan 30

🚨New Pre-Print🚨 Although H3N2 subclade K has multiple mutations in HA, neutralisation assays with pre-epidemic human sera show only moderate antigenic drift, and vaccines used in the 2024/2025 flu season induced cross-neutralising immunity www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

A data figure showing a phylogenetic tree of H3N2 with 2025-K highlighted, the structure of the HA trimer with mutations characteristic of K highlighted, and box and whisker plots showing % neutralisation of the 2022 H3N2 vaccine strain, and of 2025 clade K, by various human antisera

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Jan 24

I think he would have got there with the right prompts! (Crick and Watson did, with minimal data.) I wonder if Kepler would have found celestial music in virus structures too?

Page from Harmonices Mundi by Johannes Kepler, an engraving showing various Platonic solids

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Jan 23

... and enveloped virus exit, going back the other way #sciart

A pen and ink drawing labelled 'Exit,' showing a white membrane spanning a black background. A coronavirus genome assembles with glycoproteins at the membrane, buds through, and pinches off to release a virus particle.

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Jan 23

An attempt to explain enveloped virus entry (and practice pen and ink drawing) #sciart...

A pen and ink drawing labelled 'Entry,' showing a white membrane spanning a black background. A coronavirus particle binds to the membrane, fuses with the surface, and the genome inside it enters the cytoplasm and begins to unfold.

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Jan 23

Preparing for some introductory virology lecutures, which is of course a happy excuse for me to do some drawing again

A pen and ink drawing showing a sphere (labelled 'What is the simplest symmetrical way to build a box around this genome') and the same sphere enclosed in the 5 Platonic solids

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Jan 20

One of my children has to do a presentation, and it turns out that they understand more about my job than I had realised

Text from a PowerPoint slide reading "Inventing, what I have learned: research a lot then find out your idea won't work / Keep working"

Ed Hutchinson@socialinfluenza· Jan 13

Did not have panspermia on my 2026 bingo card, which... may have been an oversight