Jesse D. Bloom is an American computational virologist and Professor in the Basic Sciences Division, the Public Health Sciences Division, and the Herbold Computational Biology Program, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.[1] He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an Affiliate Professor in the University of Washington departments of Genome Sciences and Microbiology.[2][3][4]

Education and career

Bloom obtained a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Chicago, an M.Phil. in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D in Chemistry from Caltech advised by Frances Arnold.[1] Following his Ph.D., he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of David Baltimore.[5] He became a professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in 2011 and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2018.[6][7]

Research

Bloom’s research focuses on the molecular evolution of viruses and viral proteins, particularly of rapidly-evolving RNA viruses like influenza, HIV, and SARS-CoV-2.[1][8][9][10] His lab uses a combination of computational and experimental techniques to understand how changes in viral proteins result in immune escape, drug resistance, and shifts in host specificity.[2] His group performed the first experimental study showing that human coronaviruses evolve to escape from human antibodies.[11]

Bloom has helped lead the development of deep mutational scanning techniques for measuring the effects of large numbers of mutations in viral proteins in parallel.[8][10][12] Notably, his laboratory provided one of the earliest maps of the effects of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain on folding and ACE2 affinity.[10] Using the same technique, Bloom’s research group prospectively identified mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that erode the immunity provided by both therapeutic antibodies and naturally elicited immune responses.[13][14] His group has integrated these measurements into an antibody-escape calculator that is used to help track SARS-CoV-2 evolution.[15] They also showed that the ability to bind human ACE2 is widespread and highly evolvable among natural SARS-related coronaviruses, highlighting the zoonotic potential of this family of viruses.[16]

Bloom's scientific work has been published in top scientific journals including Science, Nature, and Cell.[13][17][10][16]

In addition to his scientific publications, Bloom has authored several columns with Sarah Cobey in the New York Times about SARS-CoV-2 evolution.[18][19]

Bloom has also argued that it is important for virologists to ensure that virology research is performed responsibly and does not create biosafety risks. He outlined his views in a column he published on the topic in the New York Times.[20] Bloom is also co-director of an initiative sponsored by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists entitled "Pathogens Project" that aims to ensure that research on high-risk pathogens appropriately balances risks and benefits.[21]

In 2021, Bloom was a co-author of a letter calling for further investigation of COVID-19 origins published in Science.[22] Bloom's research on the origin of COVID-19 "raised the possibility that the Chinese government might be trying to hide evidence about the pandemic’s early spread" and was the subject of a meeting with Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).[23][24]

Honors and awards

• 2019 McDougall Mentoring Award[25]
• 2018 HHMI Investigator[26]
• 2017 Merck Irving S. Sigal Award from the American Society for Microbiology [27]
• 2016 Ann Palmenberg Junior Investigator Award from the American Society for Virology[28]
• 2016 HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholar[29]
• 2015 Young Investigator in Virology Award[30]
• 2015 Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences[31]
• 2012 Searle Scholar Award

External links

• Google Scholar page
• Lab Website

References

• a b c "Jesse Bloom, Ph.D." Fred Hutch. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
• a b "Jesse D. Bloom". HHMI. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
• ^ "Jesse D. Bloom | UW Microbiology". microbiology.washington.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
• ^ "UW Genome Sciences: Jesse Bloom". www.gs.washington.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
• ^ "Jesse Bloom". www.aiche.org. 2021-03-05. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
• ^ "Jesse Bloom, Ph.D." Fred Hutch. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
• ^ "Jesse D. Bloom". HHMI. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
• a b Thyagarajan, Bargavi; Bloom, Jesse D (2014-07-08). Pascual, Mercedes (ed.). "The inherent mutational tolerance and antigenic evolvability of influenza hemagglutinin". eLife. 3: e03300. doi:10.7554/eLife.03300. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 4109307. PMID 25006036.
• ^ Haddox, Hugh K.; Dingens, Adam S.; Bloom, Jesse D. (2016-12-13). "Experimental Estimation of the Effects of All Amino-Acid Mutations to HIV's Envelope Protein on Viral Replication in Cell Culture". PLOS Pathogens. 12 (12): e1006114. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1006114. ISSN 1553-7374. PMC 5189966. PMID 27959955.
• a b c d Starr, Tyler N.; Greaney, Allison J.; Hilton, Sarah K.; Ellis, Daniel; Crawford, Katharine H. D.; Dingens, Adam S.; Navarro, Mary Jane; Bowen, John E.; Tortorici, M. Alejandra; Walls, Alexandra C.; King, Neil P.; Veesler, David; Bloom, Jesse D. (2020-09-03). "Deep Mutational Scanning of SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Binding Domain Reveals Constraints on Folding and ACE2 Binding". Cell. 182 (5): 1295–1310.e20. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.08.012. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 7418704. PMID 32841599.
• ^ Eguia, Rachel T.; Crawford, Katharine H. D.; Stevens-Ayers, Terry; Kelnhofer-Millevolte, Laurel; Greninger, Alexander L.; Englund, Janet A.; Boeckh, Michael J.; Bloom, Jesse D. (2021-04-08). Lauring, Adam S. (ed.). "A human coronavirus evolves antigenically to escape antibody immunity". PLOS Pathogens. 17 (4): e1009453. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1009453. ISSN 1553-7374. PMC 8031418. PMID 33831132.
• ^ Dadonaite, Bernadeta; Crawford, Katharine H. D.; Radford, Caelan E.; Farrell, Ariana G.; Yu, Timothy C.; Hannon, William W.; Zhou, Panpan; Andrabi, Raiees; Burton, Dennis R.; Liu, Lihong; Ho, David D.; Neher, Richard A.; Bloom, Jesse D. (2022-10-13). "A pseudovirus system enables deep mutational scanning of the full SARS-CoV-2 spike". bioRxiv 10.1101/2022.10.13.512056.
• a b Starr, Tyler N.; Greaney, Allison J.; Addetia, Amin; Hannon, William W.; Choudhary, Manish C.; Dingens, Adam S.; Li, Jonathan Z.; Bloom, Jesse D. (2021-02-19). "Prospective mapping of viral mutations that escape antibodies used to treat COVID-19". Science. 371 (6531): 850–854. Bibcode:2021Sci...371..850S. doi:10.1126/science.abf9302. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 7963219. PMID 33495308.
• ^ Greaney, Allison J.; Loes, Andrea N.; Crawford, Katharine H. D.; Starr, Tyler N.; Malone, Keara D.; Chu, Helen Y.; Bloom, Jesse D. (2021-03-10). "Comprehensive mapping of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain that affect recognition by polyclonal human plasma antibodies". Cell Host & Microbe. 29 (3): 463–476.e6. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2021.02.003. ISSN 1931-3128. PMC 7869748. PMID 33592168.
• ^ Greaney, Allison J; Starr, Tyler N; Bloom, Jesse D (2022-05-11). "An antibody-escape estimator for mutations to the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain". Virus Evolution. 8 (1): veac021. doi:10.1093/ve/veac021. ISSN 2057-1577. PMC 9092643. PMID 35573973.
• a b Starr, Tyler N.; Zepeda, Samantha K.; Walls, Alexandra C.; Greaney, Allison J.; Alkhovsky, Sergey; Veesler, David; Bloom, Jesse D. (March 2022). "ACE2 binding is an ancestral and evolvable trait of sarbecoviruses". Nature. 603 (7903): 913–918. Bibcode:2022Natur.603..913S. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04464-z. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 8967715. PMID 35114688.
• ^ Starr, Tyler N.; Czudnochowski, Nadine; Liu, Zhuoming; Zatta, Fabrizia; Park, Young-Jun; Addetia, Amin; Pinto, Dora; Beltramello, Martina; Hernandez, Patrick; Greaney, Allison J.; Marzi, Roberta; Glass, William G.; Zhang, Ivy; Dingens, Adam S.; Bowen, John E. (September 2021). "SARS-CoV-2 RBD antibodies that maximize breadth and resistance to escape". Nature. 597 (7874): 97–102. Bibcode:2021Natur.597...97S. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03807-6. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 9282883. PMID 34261126. S2CID 235907733.
• ^ Cobey, Sarah; Bloom, Jesse; Starr, Tyler; Lash, Nathaniel (2022-03-28). "Opinion | We Study Virus Evolution. Here's Where We Think the Coronavirus Is Going". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
• ^ Bloom, Jesse; Cobey, Sarah (2021-12-12). "Opinion | A Scientist's Guide to Understanding Omicron". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
• ^ Bloom, Jesse (2022-10-30). "Opinion | A Plea for Making Virus Research Safer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
• ^ "Pathogens Project: Creating the Framework for Tomorrow's Pathogen Research". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
• ^ Bloom, Jesse D.; Chan, Yujia Alina; Baric, Ralph S.; Bjorkman, Pamela J.; Cobey, Sarah; Deverman, Benjamin E.; Fisman, David N.; Gupta, Ravindra; Iwasaki, Akiko; Lipsitch, Marc; Medzhitov, Ruslan; Neher, Richard A.; Nielsen, Rasmus; Patterson, Nick; Stearns, Tim (2021-05-14). Sills, Jennifer (ed.). "Investigate the origins of COVID-19". Science. 372 (6543): 694. Bibcode:2021Sci...372..694B. doi:10.1126/science.abj0016. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 9520851. PMID 33986172.
• ^ ""This Shouldn't Happen": Inside the Virus-Hunting Nonprofit at the Center of the Lab-Leak Controversy". Vanity Fair. 2022-03-31. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
• ^ Bloom, Jesse D (2021-12-09). Nielsen, Rasmus (ed.). "Recovery of Deleted Deep Sequencing Data Sheds More Light on the Early Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 38 (12): 5211–5224. doi:10.1093/molbev/msab246. ISSN 1537-1719. PMC 8436388. PMID 34398234.
• ^ "McDougall Mentoring Award" (PDF). Jan 6, 2022.
• ^ "Jesse Bloom, PhD". HHMI. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
• ^ "Good News: Malik and Bloom win ASM awards; pilot project funded by Bezos family aims to create personalized anticancer vaccines". Fred Hutch. 2016-11-14. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
• ^ "Ann Palmenberg Junior Investigator Award". American Society for Virology. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
• ^ "People". Simons Foundation. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
• ^ Vazquez, Franck (2015-02-17). "The 2015 Viruses Young Investigator Prize Has Been Awarded!". MDPI Blog. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
• ^ Trusts, The Pew Charitable. "Pew Names 22 Top Scientists as Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2022-12-17.