Megan Orzalli
@VirulentMind
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320
Assistant Professor. @umass_id @UMassChanPII . Virologist. Lover of apocalyptic literature..not apocalyptic real life.
Boston, MA
Joined January 2011
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Excited to announce that I've accepted an Assistant Professor position at
@UMassMedical
. The Orzalli Lab is coming to the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology in Fall 2019!
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Excited to share our recent study in
@ImmunityCP
demonstrating a role for GSDME-mediated pyroptosis in cutaneous antiviral defense. This project began while I was a post-doc with
@jkagan1
@BostonChildrens
and was completed in my lab
@UMassMedical
. 1/11
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The Orzalli lab’s first paper is out today
@JExpMed
! See the excellent tutorial from first author
@JustKOS1
below.
We are very excited to share our recent study in JEM demonstrating that the DNA virus herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) inhibits the NLRP1 inflammasome in human keratinocytes.
@VirulentMind
@UMassChanPII
@UMass_Medicine
(1/n)
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Out in
@ImmunityCP
today! My preview of a recent study from Zhu and colleagues () identifying Nur77 as a cytosolic sensor of LPS and mitochondrial DNA involved in NLRP3 activation.
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The Orzalli lab is 1 year old today! Trying to get things up and running during a pandemic has definitely led to some unexpected challenges, but I'm super proud of the team we're building and the questions we're starting to ask/answer.
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Love coming into the lab and seeing so many plaque assays!
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hot take of the day: every journal should have the option of downloading the full pdf + supplemental material as a single pdf file. I get so annoyed when I have to go back to the website, download another file, and organize it.
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Do you like virus-host interactions? Want to make skin from scratch? Come join the Orzalli Lab at
@UMassMedical
! Currently looking for a research associate to help me get the lab up and running and to do some cool (according to me 😁) science! Please RT.
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Congratulations to my former PhD advisor, David Knipe! A great mentor and a fabulous scientist.
Congratulations to David Knipe, Higgins Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, on election to the National Academy of Sciences - well deserved!
@VirologyHarvard
@harvardmed
@theNASciences
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What a decade both personally and professionally.
-got married
-finished PhD
-started postdoc
-adopted a dog
-awarded a K99
-interviewed for faculty positions
-finished postdoc
-started my lab
Excited for the next 10. Happy New Year!
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Re-reading Charles Janeway's "Approaching the Asymptote? Evolution and Revolution in Immunology" paper while prepping a lecture for
@GSBS_UMassMed
students. I had forgotten how brilliant it is.
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The entire Orzalli lab made the trip to Boston to celebrate the Smith Family Awards Program for Excellence in Biomedical Research 30th Anniversary @ the Harvard Club. So proud of all they have accomplished in the last few years!
#womeninSTEM
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The Orzalli Lab is 6 months old today! We're shutting down on Wed to help
#FlattenTheCurve
, but I want to give a shout out to
@PPooja1986
for becoming the first PhD student to join the lab! We're going to do some awesome science when we're back up and running.
#ToBeContinued
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Orzalli lab getting back to their roots! No one tell David Knipe (not on Twitter) that I'm titering HSV in a 12 well dish 😉.
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Congrats
@jkagan1
on being named the Marion Neutra Professor in Pediatrics! Fancy affair here in Gordon Hall.
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First review article from the lab was just accepted! Congratulations to co-author and Orzalli lab graduate student
@JustKOS1
!
@UMassChanGSBS
@UMass_Medicine
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Honored to have been selected for this award. It has been a true joy mentoring the students in my lab as they pursue their PhD studies!
Congratulations to members of the Department of Medicine who were honored at yesterday’s
@umasschan
Educational Recognition Awards!
#advancingtogether
#advancingeducationtogether
@RPWLab
@VirulentMind
@MoormsLab
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Officially closing out my tenure as a postdoc in the Kagan lab. Such a great time saying farewell to all the members of the Kagan and Zanoni labs. Highlights included a
@jkagan1
rendition of "You'll Be Back" from Hamilton. Video on request when you see me at future conferences😂.
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I am constantly fascinated by what inborn errors of innate immunity can teach us about the critical signaling pathways important for control of virus infection in humans.
Great collaboration with friends in NY, Belgium, Brazil, and Iran, reveals that inherited complete IFNAR1 deficiency can be clinically silent until vaccination by live-attenuated
#measles
or
#yellowfever
viruses
@IsabelleMeyts
@tutu_ZQ
@JExpMed
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Congratulations to Orzalli lab graduate students Jenny and Jafira for passing their Qualifying Exams! Excited to see where their projects take them over the next couple of years.
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Proud PI moment! Pooja (
@JustKOS1
) gave the first conference talk from our lab this morning at
#KSINNATECOMP22
. She did a wonderful job!
Wonderful talk by Pooja from the
@VirulentMind
lab highlights a novel mechanism for controlling NLRP1 activation - beautiful display of the molecular arms race.
#KSINNATECOMP22
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Great visiting my old stomping grounds today
@VirologyHarvard
. Thanks to the graduate students for the invitation to speak! It was lovely talking with you all.
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Congratulations to Orzalli Lab MD/PhD student Jenny Powers on her outstanding F30 score! If paylines stay the same in FY25 (fingers crossed) her grant will likely be funded!
@UMassChanPII
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Sad to be missing
#NEIC2022
in Woods Hole this weekend...but am just up the road in Falmouth for the Cape Cod half marathon. 13.1 finished in the pouring rain!
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Thanks to
@WilenLab
for hosting me yesterday for
@Yale_Labmed
grand rounds. It was great meeting and talking science with so many of the faculty and trainees
@carolilucas
,
@DrDidychuk
,
@madisonstrine
,
@esensefik
,
@EllenFoxman
, and
@mnleeee
.
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Heard about this paper at last night's
#KScelldeath
poster session. Perfect timing for it to be out online. Such an interesting story!
#Leishmania
#symbioticviruses
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Went for a long run after spending the day writing (and rewriting). Fall in New England is my favorite season.
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What a wonderful surprise! Thank you for highlighting our recent study on this week's podcast
This week we talk about
#pyroptosis
! 🔥
Drs. Megan Orzalli (
@VirulentMind
) and Jonathan Kagan (
@jkagan1
) found that MCL-1 and BCL-xL sense translation inhibition during viral infection, leading to GSDME-dependent pyroptosis.
📄
🎧
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On my way to Italy for Viruses and Cells 2019! Ciao, Boston!
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Orzalli lab out for lunch! Saying goodbye (for now!) and good luck to our summer rotation student, Jenny, as she heads back for her second year of her MD/PhD program.
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Starting to realize that most of my internal motivation comes from answering (rather than asking) scientific questions. Coming up with ideas without being able to test them really sucks.
#QuarantineShowerThoughts
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Excited about participating in Cytokines2020! Recording my talk today for Lightning Talk Session
#2
on Nov 2.
11 days to go. Don't miss the exciting work that will be presented at Cytokines2020, the annual ICIS
@CytokineSociety
meeting (Virtual). Congrats to meeting chairs on a stellar program
#cytokines
#COVID19
#IFNs
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On my way to DC for
#AAI2023
. Looking forward to sharing our work on inflammasomes in cutaneous antiviral defense tomorrow during Major Symposium B. Come say hi!
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Come join us! It is a great place to do Science!
I am very excited to announce that the Program in Innate Immunity and the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at
@UMassMedical
has launched an open search for a new tenure-track junior faculty recruit in innate immunity. Please RT.
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Wonderful visit to
@utswimmuno
today. Thanks to
@OrchardLab_Rob
for hosting me! Enjoyed talking science with
@jkpfeiff
,
@jschoggins
,
@AndrewSandstr12
,
@nanyanlab
,
@ZhenyuZhonglab
, and their graduate students!
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Getting shipments of HSV-1 stocks in glass vials that are labeled from the decade of my birth will never not excite me.
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Working on a grant about the immune response to viral infection during a pandemic is...surreal.
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Me cutting a 12 page 1/2 inch margin grant to 5 pages with 1 inch margins.
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Great seminar from
@theayreslab
here today at
@UMassMedical
. My new favorite term may now be "metabolic bribery."
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Wonderful evening celebrating 80 years of the
@CHoodFoundation
tonight
@museumofscience
. Thank you for supporting our science!
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I can't be the only one that pronounces xba1 "x-bah-1." What is this "x-b-a-1" nonsense!?
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Celebrated this awesome woman in STEM today. Congratulations
@katbarnett3
on a successful dissertation defense! It was great getting to watch you progress through your PhD. I'm going to miss you!
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Getting some work done during the afternoon
#virusesandcells
break. What a great view!
#GRC2019
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Finally, the Orzalli Lab is looking to hire a post-doc! If you are interested in viruses, inflammation, epithelial barriers, and/or organoids I’d love to hear from you. Shoot me an email at megan.orzalli
@umassmed
.edu. 11/11
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A really beautiful study. Love the excel spreadsheet function.
I'm happy to share the formal publication of our proteomic analysis of HSV-1 infection, now out in
@CellReports
(). We use complementary mass spectrometry and biochemical techniques to probe how HSV-1 changes the host-cell proteome during infection.
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EM images of viral particles were the first thing that got me interested in virology as an undergrad. I still think they are amazing.
V. cholerae outer membrane vesicles inhibit bacteriophage infection by acting as natural decoys
@JBacteriology
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I feel seen.
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Another IL-1 family members promotes ISG expression in the skin! Interesting work from the Jensen Lab
@templemedschool
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Love a good ICP0 story. Excited to read this paper.
One of the great thrills in science is an unexpected discovery that changes our thinking—we are lucky if we have this experience at most a few times in our career. Here, due to the remarkable efforts of Moritz Gaidt in my lab, is one such time (thread):
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Now I can see how many I've been mispronouncing for years.
Turns out there is a lot of debate about how to correctly pronounce enzyme names. Thanks to
@JasonWilliamsNY
for pointing out that a definitive resource was lacking... it took us a few months, but you can now find enzyme name pronunciation on all
@NEBiolabs
RE product pages.
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Heard
@joeBondyDenomy
talk about this work at the Viruses & Cells Gordon Conference this year. I think my mouth was on the floor the entire time. So cool.
To defend from CRISPR attacks, viruses inside cells build “safe rooms” in which they hide their vulnerable DNA. & paper:
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Big news for our Medical School!!
With gratitude for the transformational philanthropy of the Morningside Foundation, UMass Medical School is now UMass Chan Medical School. Learn about the history-making gift at
@UMass
and the name changes for
#UMassChan
's three schools:
#WhyUMassChan
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Wrote my first commentary as corresponding author this past fall (). Since publication last week I have gotten emails from 10 predatory journals/conferences. So it begins?
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Thanks, Kate! This was a great conference to participate in.
Dr. Megan Orzali talking about her exciting work on mucosal defense
@KeystoneSymp
#VKSInnateImmunity21
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Was hoping to unveil our lab website today..but if I've learned anything this year it's that everything takes longer than expected to finish when you are a
#newpi
.
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Always great to hear
@scienceCC
talk about antiviral responses in human placenta. Such an interesting topic!
#Cytokines2018
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Happy to have contributed to this study from
@SilvermanNeal
lab and excited for future collaborations on SLC46A2!
For all the innate immunity tweeps out there, I am very excited to share our newest story on the role of SLC46s in muropeptide sensing in mammals: . This story was the labor of love for a very talented and fearless postdoc
@RaviBha47100419
. 1/17
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This👇
"You are not working from home; you are at your home during a crisis trying to work."
I've heard this twice today. I think it's an important distinction worth emphasising.
846
86K
316K
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First paper out out the Kranzusch lab. Always excited to see my former classmates doing so well. Go Phil!
Structure of the Human cGAS–DNA Complex Reveals Enhanced Control of Immune Surveillance: Cell
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Great talk this afternoon by
@VirusesImmunity
. It had everything but the kitchen sink...
#Herpes
#MucosalImmunity
#Vaccines
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Something I never noticed before until the flurry of COVID emails this week- "Canceled" can be spelled with one L or two and I've gotten multiple emails that switch back and forth between the two. Did the individual who wrote it code switch half way through?
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This is so true.
After my third job talk I can now say this with certainty: having head nodders in the audience can dramatically improve your performance.
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Kagan lab trainees on the way to Harvard Immunology Department retreat. Titanic style.
#ThompsonIsland
.
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This.
It is not the back order that hurts the most, it is paying the premiums for reagents that will get there in a reasonable time frame
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Special kudos to second author
@AleksProchera
who, during her rotation, made the key observation that puromycin-treated keratinocytes had a similar morphology as VSV-infected keratinocytes. This critical insight helped shape my thoughts on the study. 10/11
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Seriously consider joining this lab if you are at all interested in C. elegans as a model system for host-pathogen interactions. They are doing some very cool science and it has been exciting to see it progress from our neighboring bays.
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So excited to read this!!
Regulation of inflammasome mediated pore formation and pyroptosis extends further than we thought. See our new study identifying Ragulator-Rag complex as factors required for pore formation after gasdermin d has been cleaved.
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Love this story. Epithelial-fibroblast communication is
#important
in the lung following viral infection.
Quick summary of work we published on the role of lung fibroblasts after flu infection. Major take home: lung fibroblasts are decisionmakers, integrating “upstream” inflammatory signals from epithelia & converting them into changes in extracellular matrix
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Great new study using pSILAC/TMT to identify novel proteins that are degraded following HCMV infection.
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@COdendall
@InflammaZoom
@JelenaLab
@Rebecca_Coll
@drjackpgreen
@dave_boucher
@inflammasomelab
@FabiAlexFischer
@_kaiwenchen
Glad you got to see your first in person win!
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Back to work after this great workshop at NIAID. Learned some useful stuff and got to meet some of my K99 cohort including
@sding88
!
#NIH
#Networking
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Sad that I won't be able to combine a trip home to Seattle with this year's
#cytokines2020
conference, but excited that it will still be happening remotely!
Cytokines 2020
#cytokines2020
is coming to you as a Virtual Meeting 1-4 November. Young Investigator Awards submission deadline has been extended to 15 June and the Abstract Submission Deadline is extended to 1 July.
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Favorite autocorrect moment of the day: germline ---> gremlin
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or better yet....get rid of supplemental material all together. If it needs to be in the paper it should be in the main figures.
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Congratulations to Jafira and our other IITP trainees!
We are thrilled to announce the 2023-24 Innate Immunity Training Program trainees! Learn more about this talented group of students here:
@umass_medicine
@SilvermanNeal
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Really glad that I had the opportunity to attend and present at this conference. So much interesting science being done in the skin!
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@NirDrayman
If I recall correctly it's only true in monocytes, which don't really support HSV replication anyways. F strain infected HFFs definitely produce ICP27.
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It's been a really great experience for me! If anyone is interested they should definitely contact
@jkagan
.
The Kagan lab at Harvard is looking to hire postdocs who take creative approaches to immunology. Agnostic to model system. Please contact me if you are interested. Email can be found at Please RT.
@harvardmed
@BostonChildrens
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Blocking this cell death pathway in mono-cultured keratinocytes had no effect on virus replication. However, an antiviral role was revealed in human skin organoids, highlighting the importance of 3D architecture and multi-cell type communication in cutaneous host-defense. 6/11
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Thank you to the
@IcahnMountSinai
Department of Microbiology for hosting me today for a visit/seminar. Had a great time sharing our work and getting to talk science with the faculty and trainees!
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@BrodskyIgor
Hope you like it Igor! We we've been very inspired by your 2020 review in Nature Microbiology over the last couple of years.
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Come work with the Kagan lab! We're a cool bunch.
#organoids
Science friends out there: Please retweet job posting for a senior tech position at Harvard/Boston Children's Hospital
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So cool!!
Very excited to share our work out today in
@ScienceMagazine
on a novel isoform of Dicer called aviD, that protects mammalian stem cells against RNA viruses: .
TLDR: it works with
#COVID
too! A 🧵. (1/11)
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Shout out to co-authors Dr. Jonathan Garlick
@stemcellrappa
and research assistant Avi Smith
@TuftsDental
for teaching me how to construct skin organoids during my post-doc. These tissues have been an invaluable tool for the research being performed in my lab. 9/11
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Congratulations
@HarrisVitiligo
!!!
John Harris, MD, PhD, one of the foremost authorities on
#vitiligo
, a
@UMassMedical
alumnus & associate professor of dermatology, will become chair of the Department of Dermatology on Jan. 1. Read Harris' bio & learn about the new institute he will direct:
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