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From 2014–2017, marine heatwaves caused global mass coral bleaching, where the corals lose their symbiotic algae. The authors find, this event exceeded the severity of all prior global bleaching events in recorded history, with approximately half the world’s reefs bleaching and 15% experiencing substantial mortality.

The APOE-ε4 allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, but it is not deterministic. Here, the authors show that common genetic variation changes how APOE-ε4 influences cognition.

The analysis of pairs of identical SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences enables characterization of transmission patterns between geographies and age groups.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

The lowest-frequency gravitational wave background may be shaped by supermassive black hole binaries that scatter nearby stars or dark matter. In this case, the NANOGrav 15-year dataset favours dense galactic centres with 10⁶ solar masses per cubic parsec.

Combining high-resolution mapping of foliar and herbivore faecal sodium concentrations across Africa, the authors show that plant-derived sodium availability constrains megaherbivore densities at a continental scale.

Transcription factor osr2 is identified as a specific marker and regulator of mural lymphatic endothelial cell (muLEC) differentiation and maintenance, and muLECs and border-associated macrophages share functional analogies but are not homologous, providing an example of convergent evolution.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Improved vaccines and antivirals are needed for many enveloped viruses. Here, the authors identify sulfur-based small molecules that disrupt viral membrane properties, inhibiting fusion and entry, and safely inactivate influenza virus. The resulting inactivated influenza vaccine is protective in mice.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

The heterogenous nature and dynamics of endogenous protein complexes pose challenges for conventional structural biology techniques. Here, the authors develop a native nanoproteomics strategy for the enrichment and subsequent native top-down mass spectrometry (nTDMS) analysis of endogenous cardiac troponin (cTn) complex directly from human heart tissue.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

The authors analyzed the whole-exome sequences of over 16,000 individuals and found that very rare variants predicted to disrupt the SETD1A gene confer substantial risk for schizophrenia. Damaging variants in SETD1A were also associated with diverse, severe developmental disorders, providing an important genetic link between schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Antibiotic resistance can be addressed by reinventing classes of antibiotics through chemical synthesis. Here BT-33—a fully synthetic antibiotic—affords broad-spectrum activity against the bacterial ribosome. X-ray crystallography, theoretical calculations and structure–activity relationship studies reveal the structural features that contribute to the enhanced antibacterial activity and metabolic stability of BT-33.

Genetic and testing data from England show that the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7 has a transmission advantage over other lineages.

Chronic infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to the emergence of viral variants that show reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies in an immunosuppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma.

The PEAK family of pseudokinases is known to play oncogenic roles in poor-prognosis triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Here this group identifies the role of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase 2 (CAMK2) in targeting downstream of PEAK1 thereby utilizing RA306 (CAMK2 inhibitor) to effectively attenuate TNBC xenograft growth and block metastasis as well.

Sera from vaccinated individuals and some monoclonal antibodies show a modest reduction in neutralizing activity against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2; but the E484K substitution leads to a considerable loss of neutralizing activity.

This study used fine-mapping to analyze genetic regions associated with bipolar disorder, identifying specific risk genes and providing new insights into the biology of the condition that may guide future research and treatment approaches.

The antibiotic polymyxin B requires bacterial metabolic activity to cause sufficient damage to the outer membrane to access the inner membrane, which it permeabilizes via an energy-independent mechanism to kill the cell.

PBK is a mitotic kinase implicated in cancer. This study reveals how PBK evicts key C2H2-zinc finger transcription factors such as Ikaros, Aiolos and CTCF from DNA as cells divide, regulating mitotic chromatin accessibility and chromosome compaction.

T cells must recognize a vast array of potential foreign peptide–MHC complexes. Comprehensive immune cover can only be provided if each T cell recognizes numerous peptides. The implications of this T cell cross-reactivity include autoimmune disease but also provide opportunities for multiple therapeutic interventions.

A key challenge for high-voltage lithium-ion batteries is electrolyte instability. Here, authors use machine learning-guided experiments to rapidly discover optimal dual electrolyte additives, identifying combinations such as LiDFOB and succinic anhydride that improve multiple performance metrics.

Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine-mapping, 298 loci and 36 credible genes are identified in the aetiology of bipolar disorder.

Post-international travel quarantine has been widely implemented to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but the impacts of such policies are unclear. Here, the authors used linked genomic and contact tracing data to assess the impacts of a 14-day quarantine on return to England in summer 2020.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

Bosonic qubits can be engineered to feature intrinsic protection against certain kinds of errors, which makes quantum error correction across many bosonic qubits possible with less overhead.

Here the authors dissect the developmental and functional relationship between tumor-responsive cytotoxic T cells in the tumor versus the tumor-draining lymph nodes (tdLNs), finding that stem-like T_PEX cells dependent on MYB in the tdLNs are required for CD8⁺ T cell tumor infiltration and ICB responses.