NEW: fresh data from trials in Brazil, South Africa and the UK shows the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is highly effective with a 12 week gap between doses. Efficacy is in fact much higher with a 12 week interval than a shorter gap Story by donato: ft.com/content/de00fe…

news.sky.com/story/the-covi…

NEW: Cases & hospital admissions in Israel are falling steeply among vaccinated age groups, in the first clear sign worldwide that Covid-19 jabs are preventing illness 💉🎉 Rates are falling much more slowly (if at all) among under-vaccinated groups. ft.com/content/0cdc85…

Wonderful to see this collaborative Cambridge-UCL work out UCL Division of Infection & Immunity laura mccoy Ian Goodfellow COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre Cambridge University Hospitals NHS. We can learn about how to deal with this virus by learning from chronic infection. nature.com/articles/s4158…

1/ E484K in the UK. We seem to see E484K on at least 6 different backgrounds. B.1.351 and P.2 are imported lineages, originating in South Africa and Brazil. B.1.1.7 and A.23.1 seem to have acquired E484K within the UK. I'm not sure about the other B.1 lineages.

More details now available for South African trial w/ Astra Zeneca vaccine, regarding B.1.351 variant. Table updated, data here: wsj.com/articles/astra… by Gabriele Steinhauser

There is a lot of confusion about the efficacy of AstraZeneca/ChAdOx1 vaccine against COVID19 due to B.1.351 / 501Y.V2 - summarising the results of phase 1b/2a double-blind randomized trial conducted in South Africa (based on South African Government press conference).🧵(1/6)

Our complete mapping of mutations to #SARSCoV2 RBD that reduce binding by convalescent human plasma is out in Cell Host & Microbe (cell.com/cell-host-micr…). Right now E484K getting lot of attention, but I want to emphasize what our results suggest to keep eyes on in *future* (1/n)

B.1.1.7 + E484K growing cluster in UK is now officially a virus of concern (VOC). Wonder what it will be named. A nice summary here: bmj.com/content/372/bm…

I need a break from writing and I need a detox from all this Covid tweets (which always fascinates and distracts my attention).. so let me do a little #CRISPRthread on #CRISPR #Cas9 #genomeediting GEMININ EDITION

NEW: it’s a while since I’ve done a big international Covid thread, but this one feels important. The first six weeks of 2021 have gone rather well in terms of humanity’s fight against Covid. As well as the rollout of vaccines, global cases halved(!) between Jan 11 and Feb 18

Today, World Health Organization (WHO) announces new, easy-to-say labels for #SARSCoV2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) & Interest (VOIs) They will not replace existing scientific names, but are aimed to help in public discussion of VOI/VOC Read more here (will be live soon): who.int/activities/tra… #COVID19

So thrilled to finally be able to share our study on CRISPR prime editing originally developed in David R. Liu 's lab. We proudly present: Prime Editing All-in-One (PEA1) and Nuclease prime editor. Thread biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Nothing can beat a wee post-PhD thesis defense celebration with the family 🥰 and some #crispr themed cake #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #phdlife

Congratulations to Rio Hermantara on passing his PhD. 🍾🎉 Some excellent work on targeted gene knock-in using advanced CRISPR techniques. Let’s get this in print Rio!! 📖 A big thanks to @RosserLab and Clare Rollie for examining the thesis. UofG Cancer Sciences UofG MVLS University of Glasgow

The study is the first to suggest that administering a gene-editing treatment directly into the body could be a safe and effective treatment. go.nature.com/3w2JodX

The CRISPR children. rdcu.be/cBYZO My latest story in Nature Biotechnology , three years in the making. Thank you so much to those willing to be interviewed. So very many said: Noooo, go away, not taking about that!! Thank you to my editors. My sources. A first 🧵

Busy day on B.1.1.529 - a variant of great concern - The world should provide support to South Africa and Africa and not discriminate or isolate it! By protecting and supporting it, we will protect the world! A plea for billionaires and financial institutions. 1/8 tweets

They did it! Huge congratulations 🎉 to everyone involved in the University of Glasgow- led Lighthouse Lab #COVID19 testing centre, who’ve just won the 🏆 Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year at the Times Higher Education #THEAwards So many people made this possible - well done all👏