Bluesky Explainer thread by Dr. Kate Kennedy here:
Publication: “Mapping the intersection of demographics, behavior, and government response to the COVID-19 pandemic: an observational cohort study”
Reply
Category Archives: News
Publication: “No evidence of immune exhaustion after repeated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in vulnerable and healthy populations”
Below is an ‘explainer’ thread from Bluesky. See original here
Publication alert: “No evidence of immune exhaustion after repeated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in vulnerable and healthy populations” @natcomms.nature.com The backstory is particularly interesting-it’s a tale of the conflicting needs of scientists & decision makers in times of disinformation ….1/n
To begin – my team was funded by the CITF to study COVID-19 infections/vaccinations in older adults & people on immunosuppressants. We had a broad mandate to look at ‘cellular & humoral immunity’ and unlike most grants there was a constant feedback to decision makers, participants & the public 2/n https://www.covid19immunitytaskforce.ca/
This meant that I got a pretty good sense of people’s worries and concerns and we could get solid data to address them. Case in point – we provided data that long-term care residents needed a 3rd dose and then a 4th – they got them and colleagues proved they prevented many infections 3/n https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj-2022-071502.short
In 2021 internet personalities were fretting that too many vaccines would lead to ‘immune exhaustion’. Most immunologists were not worried (explanation to follow) but I was shocked to hear in meetings that some folks on decision making tables were worried, esp, for vulnerable populations 4/n
What is this scary ‘immune exhaustion’? When you turn on an inflammatory response (e.g., by vaccination/infection) you have to have a way to turn it off. T cells that recognize an antigen multiply, make cytokines and start to express ‘off-switches’ which have names like PD-1, Tim-3 & Lag-3. 5/n
When there is a lot of antigen around (ie. during infection or vaccination) the balance between the on-switch (antigen-stimulation) and the off-switch (PD-1 & friends) favours being on – the T cells expand & differentiate & work their magic. Here PD1 is better described as an ‘activation marker’….. 6/n
…than an exhaustion marker. When the antigen decreases (ie infection or vaccine clears), the off-switches signal that it’s time to close up the inflammatory shop. It is pretty rare that antigens don’t go away but in cancer that chronic stimulation can lead to sustained expression of the PD1 off-switch. 7/n
How do you know when a T cell is truly ‘exhausted’? It expressed these markers AND it loses its function. Here’s where our study shines – we looked at the T cells’ ability to produce at least 1 cytokine (‘functionality’) or more than 1 cytokine (‘polyfunctionality’). 8/n
Repeat vaccination does not affect the T cells ability to make cytokines, even in vulnerable populations. They may express some activation markers but they are definitely not turned off. 9/n
Pity the lead author, PhD student @jennabenoit.bsky.social Her committee would grill her ‘why are you doing this- we all know vaccines don’t cause exhaustion!’ She held strong “Because policymakers & the public need us to PROVE this in THESE people”-She was strong, thorough & committed. 10/n
So why do so many people make such rash statements on whether a T cell is doing it’s thing (PD-1 = activation) vs crashing out (PD-1 =exhausted)? Above I said this disinformation began circulating in 2021 – we’ve been working on this story since then 11/n
Measuring 1 marker (eg PD1) and making wild inferences is relatively cheap & quick but measuring T cell function and analyzing these complex data is slow & expensive. Indeed we had a team of people working very hard in a clinical trials quality immune testing lab and an analysis team to generate these data. 12/n
https://healthresearch.healthsci.mcmaster.ca/single-cell-spatial-profiling-core-facility/human-immune-monitoring-services/
Learnings: Disinformation = quick to make up but hard to disprove and even immunologists and experts can have seeds of doubt sown by bad actors. Vulnerable populations deserve to be included in research. Negative data studies are impt but hard to sell (see reviews of the paper!). 13/n
Huge shout out to lead author @jennabenoit.bsky.social and the not-on-Bluesky team from our star phlebotomist/blood processor Braeden Cowbrough, flow cytometry genius Dr. Jessica Breznik, analytics guru Dr. Chris Verschoor, and HITS Team (Nichols, Hagerman, Bramson) and of course our participants. 14/14
Fringe review: ‘The Perils of Being Born in the Fall’ provides laughter, tears and scientific history
Dr Bowdish’s solo storytelling/scicom presentation recives a 5N review from Next Magazine! Read the full review here: https://nextmag.ca/fringe-review-the-perils-of-being-born-in-the-fall-provides-laughter-tears-and-scientific-history/
Dr. Bowdish’s “The Perils of Being Born in the Fall” is playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival, July 2-12th
Born in September? This professor has got bad news for you. Spend an hour of edu-tainment touring through the wackiness of early 19th century psychiatry, stealth mid-century reproductive rights activism, the climate/pregnancy connection, and learn why cold & flu season has an outsize impact on mental health. Didn’t think science could be funny? Come check out the only show in this year’s Fringe put on by a PhD scientist – you might laugh, but you’ll definitely learn. Tickets are “Pay What You Can” and available for as little as $4! Suitable for ages 13+ (PG). Content warning: brief mention of suicidality, mentions of mental health, abortion and reproductive sex.
Show times are:
2nd July 5:00pm
4th July 8:15pm
5th July 1:00pm
7th July 4:45pm
8th July 2:30pm
10th July 4:15pm
12th July 10:15pm
Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse
79 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3L8
For details and tickets: https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/perils-being-born-fall
CBC’s Quirks and Quarks ‘Scientific Sovereignty — How Canadian scientists are coping with U.S. cuts and chaos’ featuring Dr. Bowdish and MD/PhD candidate Kevin Zhao
Politically-driven chaos is disrupting U.S. scientific institutions and creating challenges for science in Canada. Science is a global endeavour and collaborations with the U.S. are routine. In this special episode of Quirks & Quarks, we explore what Canadian scientists are doing to preserve their work to assert scientific sovereignty in the face of this unprecedented destabilization.
Canadian climate scientists brace for cuts to climate science infrastructure and data
U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on climate science are putting our Earth observing systems, in the oceans and in orbit, at risk. Canadian scientists who rely on U.S. led climate data infrastructure worry about losing long-term data that would affect our ability to understand our changing climate. With:
Kate Moran, the president and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada and Emeritus Professor of Oceanography at the University of Victoria
Debra Wunch, Physicist at the University of Toronto
Chris Fletcher, Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo
U.S. cuts to Great Lakes science and monitoring threaten our shared freshwater resource
U.S. budget and staffing cuts are jeopardizing the long-standing collaboration with our southern neighbour to maintain the health of the Great Lakes, our shared resource and the largest freshwater system in the world.
With:
Jérôme Marty, executive director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research and part-time professor at the University of Ottawa
Greg McClinchey, policy and legislative director with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission
Michael Wilkie, Biologist at Wilfred Laurier University
Brittney Borowiec, research associate in the Wilkie Lab at Wilfred Laurier University
Aaron Fisk, Ecologist and Canada Research Chair at the University of Windsor
Unexpected ways U.S. culture war policies are affecting Canadian scientists
One of the first things President Trump did after taking office was to sign an executive order eliminating all DEI policies in the federal government. This is having far-reaching consequences for Canadian scientists as they navigate the new reality of our frequent research partner’s hostility against so-called “woke science.”
With:
Dr. Sofia Ahmed, Clinician scientist, and academic lead for the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta
Angela Kaida, professor of health sciences and Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver
Dawn Bowdish, professor of immunology, the executive director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health and Canada Research Chair at McMaster University
Kevin Zhao, MD/PhD student in immunology in the Bowdish Lab at McMaster University (starting at 36:10)
Jérôme Marty, executive director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research
Canada has a ‘responsibility’ to step up and assert scientific sovereignty
A 2023 report on how to strengthen our federal research support system could be our roadmap to more robust scientific sovereignty. The Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System made recommendations to the federal government for how we could reform our funding landscape. The intent was to allow us to quickly respond to national research priorities and to make Canada a more enticing research partner in world science.
With:
Frédéric Bouchard, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and professor of philosophy of science at the Université de Montreal. Chair of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System.
The Agenda: Why aren’t more kids vaccinated against measles? With Dr. Bowdish and other experts.
Publication: Minimal Impact of Prior Common Cold Coronavirus Exposure on Immune Responses to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Vaccination or Infection Risk in Older Adults in Congregate Care
Link to publication here.
Link to Bluesky “Skeetorial” here and reproduced below without images:
New paper! “Minimal Impact of Prior Common Cold Coronavirus Exposure on Immune Responses to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Vaccination or Infection Risk in Older Adults in Congregate Care”. For those of you who follow our #COVID work, read on for the story behind the story. 1/n
Remember reports like this one from the beginning of the pandemic? How could some older adults show such resilience to COVID compared to their peers? Some thought that they might have cross reactive immunity due to exposure to the related ‘seasonal’ or ‘common cold’ coronaviruses. 2/n
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/102-year-old-woman-recovers-from-covid-19-1.5567189
After all, our @mcmasteru.bsky.social colleagues, Dr. Mark Loeb & team had shown years earlier that seasonal/common cold coronaviruses caused a lots of infections in long-term care and others had investigated whether these might protect kids from COVID…. 3/n
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108481
….while others have shown that can be very deadly in residents of long-term care (reminding us that words matter and calling them ‘common colds’ minimizes risk – common viruses can still make people very sick, but that is rant for another day). So could pre-existing immunity be protective? 4/n
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(23)00018-1/fulltext
Alternatively, maybe older adults got so sick because a life of exposure to these viruses ‘used up’ all the immune cells that could be used to respond to SARS-CoV-2 or COVID vaccines(i.e. ‘immune imprinting’, a phrase I came to hate along with ‘original antigenic sin’ as it was so misused) 5/n
To find out we tested whether antibody levels for the coronaviruses OC43, HL63, and 229E were higher/lower in people whose first COVID infection was an early Omicron variant and found they were not. Therefore it is unlikely these are either protective or problematic 6/n
What about pre-existing anti-coronavirus T cells? We looked at memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells against the M & N proteins (indicates prev infections) and Spike (vaccine and infections). No evidence that these differed between those who did/did not get an infection (7/n)
What was a correlate of protection? Anti-RBD-IgG & neutralizing antibodies to the ancestral virus (which is all the residents would have been vaccinated to at that point). Unlike others we didn’t find that (serum) IgA was a correlate of protection. 8/n
Pre-existing immunity to common cold coronaviruses didn’t protect against SARS-CoV-2/COVID but might our vaccines and immunity alter immune responses to seasonal coronaviruses? Antibodies to other coronaviruses increased a bit (‘back-boosting’) after COVID infection or vaccination…. 9/n
But I doubt this will have much effect on the prevalence of other coronaviruses who follow a pretty consistent yearly/biennial or big wave/small wave pattern in the Northern hemisphere. We don’t know why but we do know that immunity doesn’t last long so a small boost from COVID infection/vaccination is not likely to make a difference 10/n
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1083-1
Caveats: Only measured peoples first infections in the early Omicron era, only older adults living in LTC and retirement homes, vaccines would have been against the ancestral virus – things might be different in other populations/variants/vaccines. 11/n
Huge shout out to Braeden Cowborough for doing all those titres – that’s a lot of plates – and to Dr Jessica Breznik (former @miramcmaster.bsky.social currently @mcmasternexus.bsky.social PDF) for analytic skills. Thanks to the rest of the COVID-in-LTC team @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social
Post-doctoral position in Human Immunology Available
About the project
The Bowdish lab has received funding from the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) to study immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccinations in older adults including those living in long-term care. The applicant will use over 10,000 biobanked saliva, PBMCs, and serum from over 500 participants in addition to participant metadata and detailed infection records to;
- Uncover novel correlates of protection in older and frail adults, including, but not limited to, ACP, ADCC, and cellular immune responses.
- To understand why immune responses are not always protective in older adults and may contribute to subsequent infections.
The successful applicant will have significant leeway to develop an independent research project based on their interests and expertise. The applicant will work closely with an experienced technician and a graduate student, external collaborators, and will have access to biostatistics expertise. If interested, there will be opportunities to teach undergraduate courses.
The initial
contract will be for one year, with the possibility of extending for more
years, depending on productivity. The position is funded, but the applicant
will also apply for internal and external funding sources.
About the Bowdish Lab
The Bowdish Lab is situated at Canada’s most research-intensive university, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. We are a diverse group of undergraduate students, graduate students, technicians and post-doctoral fellows committed to uncovering how the aging immune system changes and understanding why this alters immune responses to vaccination and respiratory infection. For more details on our lab’s philosophy see https://www.bowdish.ca/lab/lab-philosophy/ . We emphasize teamwork, career development, and leadership. Many of our former PDFs have gone on to independent faculty positions in Canada and abroad.
| Must have;Passion for discovery & evidence of leadership in the form of first-author publications in a relevant field.Team-player with history of collaboration and mentorshipFlow cytometry experienceDeep knowledge of immunity | Nice to have;Experience in human immunology/vaccinologyExperience in antibody quantitation and functional antibody assays (e.g., ADCC, ADP)Experience in intracellular cytokine staining or Experience in science communication with vulnerable populations. |
Application process
Please send Dr. Bowdish (bowdish@mcmaster.ca);
- A cover letter explaining your interest, skills and career goals and potential start-dates.
- A sample of your writing (e.g., first author publication, thesis, other)
- C.V.
- Names and email addresses of 2 references
Click here for .doc of posting
The Bowdish lab is no longer accepting thesis student applications for the 2025/26 academic year.
Thank you for your interest in our lab. Unfortunately we have received over 200 applications for 2 thesis positions and so we have no stopped accepting applications. Interviews will occur in January and if you have not heard from us, you have not been selected for an interview. This is not a reflection on the quality of your application or your credentials but simply the sheer volume of applications. Dr. Bowdish will not be able to respond to your emails directly. Very best of luck with your search.
Publication: Canadian Immunity Task Force (CITF) Hema-Net Serosurveillance Meeting
Serosurveillance describes using blood samples to determine what percentage of the population has been exposed to a pathogen or has been vaccinated by measuring the presence or absence of antibodies to the pathogen or vaccination. During the COVID-19 pandemic Dr. Bowdish and team built a network of long-term care homes to measure vaccine responses and infection rates, but this infrastructure could have been used to measure virtually any infection or any antibody response. The Hema-Net community came together February 14-16 to present data and share experiences using serosurveillance and published this report. Unfortunately, no funds were made available to continue Dr. Bowdish’s or others serosurveillance networks.
See the CITF website here.
See the English report here.
See the French Report here.