Simone Richardson PhD
@cueEVILlaugh
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A scientist studying viruses and the antibodies that bind them proudly🇿🇦 Fc enthusiast 🤓cartoonist, boy mom, immunologist @AIRU
Joined June 2009
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Our latest study is out exploring what omicron infection meant for immune responses. So stoked for this one and proud of my little team and the killer lab, clinicians and boss that's behind all of this magic
@PennyMo70026063
Benefits of Vaccination before Omicron:
#SARSCoV2
Omicron in unvaccinated triggers Abs but poor VOC cross-reactivity. Omicron in vaccinated elicits cross-reactive Abs. Omicron vaccines unlikely as strong immunogens in naïve
@cueEVILlaugh
@PennyMo70026063
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Mandatory doesn't mean forced. Noone will ever hold you down and demand a vaccine. However, if you want to go to university, go to a restaurant, watch a rugby match - why should you infringe on the rights of half the country?
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If you are vaccine hesitant and have questions, contact me. If i cant answer I will find someone who will. You are not a bad person because you are careful about what you put in your body. Getting informed is the best way to make a good decision.
#GetVaccinatedNow
#CovidVaccine
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So excited to see this out! Here we show what prior infection with Beta or the original means for boosting responses (including Delta) from JnJ vaccination. Awesome example of SA excellence in research! collab with
@virusmonologues
@just_Thande
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Very chuffed as my first PhD student gets her first and my first last author publication is out! An interesting study that investigates Fc function in seasonal influenza vax against the HA stalk in collab with
@ShabirMadh
@florian_krammer
@PennyMo70026063
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Our latest study from the Fc effector crew is out in Cell Reports Medicine! We show that variants of concern make more cross reactive antibodies in Fc too. Great reasons not to forget all your binding antibodies when a new variant crops up!
@MooreLabNICD
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Our lab is on twitter! Follow us for exciting updates on exceptional research in SARS-CoV-2, influenza and HIV. We may be 24 years old but our science is fresh! 😃🔬👨🏾🔬
@moorelabNICD
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In an update of the twilight zone that is now my life I presented to the WHO on Omicron and my NIH R21 got scored. Some days you lose but today, today is a happy day.
#AcademicTwitter
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Many of us have trained at the best institutions in the world. It was under the banner of "capacity development". And yet here we are being maligned for doing what was asked of us.
#Omicron
#southafrican
#africanexcellence
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From tomorrow I am a senior scientist and no longer a postdoc. Does this mean I'm a grown up now? Can I still wear harry potter shirts to work? Asking for a friend.
#AcademicTwitter
#postdoclife
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My very first student flew the coop this month but made me a t-shirt as a parting gift. It's pretty legendary
#fcisfab
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Our labour of love is out in CHM. Very very proud!
@nicd
(high 5s for much formatting after acceptance in principle!
@just_Thande
@virusmonologues
)
The J&J vaccine in people with prior Covid induces an enhanced immune response
@cellhostmicrobe
@UCT_news
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What a privilege to work a bunch of awesome clinicians and basic scientists who worked so hard throughout the festive season to make important public health contributions. Get vaccinated!
@MooreLabNICD
Omicron doesn't trigger cross reactive neutralization in unvaccinated individuals but if you are vaccinated and were infected with Omicron you have very cross reactive responses. Another reason to get vaccinated! Big team effort lead by
@cueEVILlaugh
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Support your scientists! Fact over fiction, even when inconvenient.
#OmicronVariant
#science
#SouthAfrica
#VaccinesWork
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Please remember that scientists are humans too. We have families and friends and know the consequences of the findings we make. We do it to protect you all. And thank goodness for SA scientists. Would anyone be looking for omicron otherwise?!
#Omicron
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An article I wrote with
@PennyMo70026063
on why we think variant vaccines might be chasing our tails.
Omicron doesn't need its own custom COVID vaccine: here's why
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Why the vaccine hasn't been made too quickly. Latest video on tiktok (follow scientistsim)
#getvaccinated
@projecthalo
#teamhalo
#vaccinerollout
#VaccineForAll
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Writing grants is hard. Writing grants on a weekend is harder. But there are some ways to make the process a little more bearable and this view helps!
#AcademicChatter
#postdoclife
#weekendgoals
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A word of caution to everyone. Findings are final when they've been corroborated by loads of labs. Watch with care. Exciting times!!!!
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Excited to be nominated! Will not probably slap anyone though.
Nominees announced: ‘Science Oscars of South Africa’
#NSTFawards2022
#science
#engineering
#technology
#innovation
#research
#scicomms
-
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My student just got picked to meet Bill Gates as one of 35 students globally and I am mama-bearing all over the internet to anyone who will listen!
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My first R21 is in! What a terrifying experience. Why are there so many buttons?!
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Exceptionally proud to be named one of 6 L'oreal women in science fellows for 2020!
#loreal
#WomenInSTEM
#WomenInScience
#COVID19
#vaccine
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Your T cells are highly functional and don't lose activity against Beta (phew) and your antibodies are capable of popping cells infected with Beta or Delta equally well to the original variant (hooray)
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Should I be working on a paper? Always. Am I painting instead? You betcha!
#SundayFunday
#thelittleprince
#COMINGSOON
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Can I just point out that while it was pointed out Twitter early, the alarm was not raised by Twitter. In South Africa credit goes to
@LancetLab_ZA
who absolutely raised the alarm and amazing
@nicd_sa
genomics team who confirmed it. NGS SA is a phenomenal organisation
@Tuliodna
Everything we know so far on the new B.1.1.529 variant, for which there is an emergency
@WHO
meeting to review
@nature
by
@ewencallaway
@nature
🧵by
@jburnmurdoch
@FT
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Having a break from BA.4 for the weekend. Some kind of beautiful!!
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Our new study out in cell rep med on functional antibodies against SARSCOV2. A really cool collab.
@AShiakolas
@IG_lab
Researchers demonstrate that cross-reactive
#coronavirus
antibodies induced by natural infection display a spectrum of epitope specificities across the spike protein and exhibit effector function capabilities in murine models.
@VUMC_Vaccines
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A new paper out by
@CathrineSch07
and the team! Very cool stuff coming functionally too so stay tuned.
Yes, SARS-CoV-2 is still evolving.
A potential variant of interest, C.1.2, has been identified in South Africa and 7 other countries across the world. C.1.2 contains multiple key mutations within the spike protein.
@Tuliodna
#VaccinesWork
#GetVaccinated
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All made possible by the awesome Sisonke Team
@nigegarrett
@LindaGailBekker
and the the great
@ntobekon
and Penny Moore!
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My latest paper about IgG3 as a means to enhance HIV bNAb neutralization is out now! An now a thread....
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Here's Pfizer data vs Omicron in a live virus assay from
@sigallab
. It's not particularly good news I'm afraid.
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But spike sequence matters! If you were infected with Beta, your vaccine responses are worse off at blocking Delta infection (neutralizing) than if you were infected with the non VOC original.
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My viruses bring all the boys to the lab and they like that hazmat suit is fab!
#distractinglysexy
http://t.co/pzhLfyPZJl
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Phew so much misinformation! Reasons people say they don't want to get vaccinated and the reasons to do it anyway
#VaccinesWork
#vaccine
#VaccineEquity
@projecthalo
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Today I spoke at
@JeppeGirls
at their prize giving. It was great to be back but also interesting that I still look 16.
#oldgirlrighthere
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41x drop in neutralization but incomplete knockout if you've had infection so that's something! Also good that ACE2 is still the receptor to watch. Trophism changes would have been very bad indeed.
#OmicronVariant
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Happy to have been honoured as an early career investigator for a second time by the CAVD of the
@gatesfoundation
#awesomescience
#BMGF
#CAVD
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Vaccinated! Chills, headache and joint pain is a small price to pay to likely not pass this virus on to anyone who cannot handle it
#JohnsonAndJohnsonVaccine
#VaccinesWork
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Huge congrats to our lab for a massive team effort! Especially to Mashudu who worked two jobs and was our resident night owl
@mashmad7
@just_Thande
Convalescent serum from persons who had recovered from infection with 501Y.V2, a
#SARSCoV2
variant in South Africa, showed potent neutralization of pseudoviruses expressing spike proteins of the original variant (D614G), the 501Y.V2 variant, and the P.1 variant in Brazil.
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So wildly proud to have been featured as a vaccine luminary at the G7 summit in the UK this week. Click on their cool interactive map to see me!
@projecthalo
@nicd_sa
#VaccineRolloutSA
#VaccinesWork
#G7Summit2021
#G7UK
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I kind of can't believe the land of the free is so backward. Can't prevent gun violence at schools because everyone must have the right to bear arms but hey if you are a woman you can't decide what happens to your own body. BIZARRE.
My thoughts on the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
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Please people, the new
#C12
variant does not mutate twice as fast. As a colleague of the people who have described it and as a person actively working on it, we need to stop fear mongering. In the setting of delta it is still only 2% of cases. Can we all just calm down?!
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In the last 2 years people of the world have shown incredible resolve and bravery in the face of a common enemy. And now because the world hasn't had enough loss here we are again repeating history. Heartbreaking doesn't begin to cover it.
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A open access link to my latest review on Fc effector function and how we can elicit them in vaccination. 🎉
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Nice to see this work out!
Our latest study looking at longitudinal responses following Ad26.COV2.S breakthrough infections is out in
@CellRepMed
. We show high neutralization titers vs Omicron, ADCC and binding to other VOCs. Huge team effort led by
@KitchinDale
and
@cueEVILlaugh
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Powerhouse team right here from the Lynn Morris and Penny Moore lab 🇿🇦filled with awesome rising stars and extraordinary science minds. The guys are a bit outnumbered here but we still love them.
#womeninstem
#womenintech
#WomenInScience
#southafricanscience
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Our study showing the cross reactivity of antibodies elicited by ba4/5 infection is out in biorxiv... Spoiler alert it's very cross reactive!
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This week of delta hell despite vaccination has taught me something that I needed to remember. Your health, your family - That's the stuff that matters. The grant, the paper, the deadlines are important just are not worth your health. Nothing is worth that.
#COVID19
#DeltaVariant
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Why you should get vaccinated asap South Africa! A new Tiktok from me!
#covid19
#VaccinesWork
#VaccineRolloutSA
@nicd_sa
@projecthalo
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I'll just leave this here shall I?
"Today, the number of boosters that's being administered around the world (close to a million jabs per day) is 3 times the amount of vaccines being administered in low-income countries (330K doses per day)"
@doctorsoumya
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Killer speech
@Trevornoah
. I believe why SA is special is because we laugh but always question.
#jokeswithapurpose
I’ve always respected
@Trevornoah
so much but this closing speech from the White House correspondents’ dinner is particularly spectacular.
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This
#B11529
variant is not good news. We need to put in the work to understand but it's not a small proportion of current cases. Yes we have seen other alarming variants that haven't taken off but I fear this is not one of those. Mask up and vaccinate!
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Another SA export team of awesome generating important data quickly. This is a bit different to
@sigallab
but still shows drop off in neutralization to be expected. Looking forward to final data
#OmicronVariant
#SouthAfrica
Omicron antibody neutralization thread, with preliminary results, and substantial caveats. Most credit to
@DannySheward
. We’ve been racing to generate neutralization data as fast as possible, and our first results were read this afternoon (1/n).
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2021 was very hard. Bit brutal really and I'm glad to see the back of it. But it's been so successful, it's hard to fully regret it. Ready for the next which will be so full of new things I'll be in overload 🤣
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@rcr_pereira
Also particularly hilarious that the people who discovered omicron studied at Wits!
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@MEDIUMSTEVE9
@__ice9
@DrEricDing
@hbdchick
The study refers to both Sera and monoclonals. Here's the link!
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Thank you for isolating us again for clearly communicated science. Naive to think it's not in your borders already.
#B11529
#Nuvariant
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A new Tiktok vid from me this time about how you should still get vaccinated even if you've already had covid.
@projecthalo
#CovidVaccine
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Here's my latest tiktok explaining our jnj vaccination study!
#delta
#JNJ
#VACCINE
#VaccineRolloutSA
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Just trust the experts yes? Unless you are doing a literature review you are not "doing your own research".Bit like doing your own brain scan or rewiring your own house. You might succeed but there are probably people you can call for that.
#VaccineRollOutSA
#vaccines
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This is doing so much damage. If you don't want a vaccine to infringe on your human rights, don't go to university, don't go to restaurants and don't go to a job. This is a classic case of I'm more important than the needs of the many. The vaccine is FREE.
ATTENTION‼️ Hello Witsies! This is the position of the Wits SRC on the Mandatory Vaccine Policy. We look forward to hearing your views on this matter.
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If you would like to know what the last 2 years has been like for scientists watch Don't look up on Netflix.
#DontLookUp
#vaccination
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@JamieBGall
Hi Jamie I'm Simone Richardson, a postdoctoral virologist from South Africa and a cartoonist that has been attempting to battle vaccine hesitancy!
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@BrentLindeque
Unfortunately the mutations viruses get make them more infectious not less. Natural immunity wanes often unpredictably compared to vaccination and unfortunately our population is just not getting the jab fast enough. 4th wave will be here soon very sadly.
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@just_Thande
@rcr_pereira
@virusmonologues
@MoshabelaMosa
Maybe a push to make vaccination mandatory without saying so. I'd hate to be unvaxxed in this climate!
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Well it seems being vaxxed doesn't affect your ability to win a Grand slam tennis title! Vamos Rafa!
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Knowing the difference between the different tests for covid19! Follow me on Tiktok (scientistsim)
#teamhalo
#fourthwave
#FamilyMeeting
#CovidIsNotOver
#COVIDVaccination
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Spoiler alert, if you have been previously infected you have higher ability to block or neutralize the virus and pop virus infected cells by antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (yay Fc)
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Join us for an exciting webinar with the latest SuperScientist (
@SciSuperheroes
) ProVax aka
@ShabirMadh
on the 15th June at 1pm!
@SAImmunology
for the win!
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I like what Nadal said that he doesn't have an opinion on Novak "no Vax". Just that there are rules and the world has suffered enough for 2 years to not follow them.
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We are getting there. Please go for your jab. Your life and those of people around you depends on it! Also I really miss the theatre and events and concerts and live sports and feeling calm. So lets keep going!
Limpopo has fully vaccinated 20.5% of its adults. Find out how the other provinces are doing too.
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How can there be so much uncertainty about babies when we were all one at some stage? I actually have never been more grateful that I know how to spot a good study from a bad one and poor biased medical practice from actual fact. Parenthood is tough enough.
#onmymomhorse
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@BitaScicomm
@HealthZA
I do think that the more pressing issue was getting all the jnj folks boosted first but agree they should be doing things in parallel.
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@rcr_pereira
@andrew_croxford
@joshuadecter
It was considered in SA, it is just not feasible with our ability to test for prior infection in highly populated and under resourced countries. Some talk of rapid testing prior to vaccination, which I think is a great idea.
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@rcr_pereira
Yup. I am also hearing that you can make your own Hydroxychloroquine!just boil grapefruit! Covid isn't even a problem right?
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As the answer always is based on our work and this latest BA.4 study...just get vaccinated. Keep boosting while the waves keep coming.
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Surely the right choice for USA, perhaps not fair to all the countries struggling to get their first dose.
#VaccineEquity
CDC Director Dr. Walensky made the right decision last night on boosters. 🧵
Boosters now available (not required) for Pfizer vaxxed after 6 months:
🔵 65 and older
🔵 healthcare workers
🔵 nursing home residents
🔵 50 and older with health problems
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Basically IgG3 is superior in phagocytosis, in ADCC in an epitope specific manner and either maintains or enhances neutralization too. Also there is this nifty observation that light chain influences the half life of IgG3 bNAbs.
#HIV
#antibodies
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