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Unprecedented floods and droughts bring new challenges for risk reduction, as is clear from this analysis of the drivers of changing impacts in many cases worldwide, with implications for efficient governance and investment in integrated management.

The survival of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells strongly depends on the presence of a supportive microenvironment. Here, the authors show that LYN kinase is essential for the reprogramming of stromal cells towards a leukemia-supportive phenotype that facilitates disease progression.

A new phylogenomic tree for butterflies is constructed using 391 genes from 2,300 species, representing 92% of genera. It suggests that butterflies originated around 100 million years ago in what is now the Americas and originally fed on Fabaceae.

A genome-wide association study meta-analysis combined with multiomics data of osteoarthritis identifies 700 effector genes as well as biological processes with a convergent involvement of multiple effector genes; 10% of these genes express the target of approved drugs.

Hydrogen borrowing is a method that allows common alcohols to serve as alkylating agents but is often associated with high temperatures and relatively harsh reaction conditions leading to limited scope. Here, the authors present a hydrogen borrowing method that proceeds at lower temperatures under iridium catalysis, enabling broad substrate scope.

Analysis of policies for promotion criteria to full professor from academic institutions and government agencies worldwide reveals considerable variation in assessment practices, particularly between the Global North and South.

Excitonic pairing in fractional quantum Hall states shows two new quantum phases, including a fractional exciton condensate and an unusual type of exciton that obeys fermionic or anyonic quantum statistics.

The Asian black-spined toad is a widespread, poisonous, invasive amphibian. Here, the authors use genomic and DNA-barcoding data from this toad to document its complex evolutionary history, two distinct species, and potential historic dispersal assisted by humans.

Sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) are considered to be products of homologous recombination repair. The authors show that SCEs can arise independently of homologous recombination due to processing of replication intermediates during mitosis.

Under field conditions, acquisitive tree species generally grow slowly, whereas conservative species show generally higher realized growth, owing to their ability to tolerate unfavourable environmental conditions.

Drug tolerance complicates the treatment of tuberculosis. Here, Kreutzfeldt et al. show that the protein CinA mediates drug tolerance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis by cleaving NAD-drug adducts, suggesting CinA as a potential target to shorten tuberculosis treatment by potentiating the efficacy of currently used antibiotics.

Construction and analysis of 2,901 promoter–GFP fusions in Salmonella reveal dynamic, heterogeneous transcriptional activity, including roles for manganese homeostasis and Entner–Doudoroff carbon metabolism in promoting intramacrophage growth and survival of bacteria.

Artificial intelligence (AI) system is known to improve dermatologists’ diagnostic accuracy for melanoma. This group applies the eye-tracking technology on dermatologists when diagnosing dermoscopic images of melanomas and reports improved balanced diagnostic accuracy when using an X(explainable) AI system comparing to the standard one.

Cyclin B1 is a mitotic co-factor of CDK5.

Controlling site-selectivity and reactivity in chemical reactions continues to be a key challenge in modern synthetic chemistry. Here, the authors demonstrate the assembly of amino-substituted porphyrins on a water surface into J-aggregate structures in the presence of charged surfactants.

Rational design has endowed self-assembling peptides with structural similarities to natural materials, but recreating the dynamic functional properties inherent to natural systems remains challenging. Here the authors report the discovery of a short peptide based on the tryptophan zipper motif, that shows multiscale hierarchical ordering into hydrogels that display emergent dynamic properties.

A physiologically relevant 3D model of the outer-blood-retina-barrier recapitulates healthy and disease phenotypes.

The ambipolar field of Earth controls the structure of the polar ionosphere and boosts its scale height by 271%, physically driving  the polar wind and acting as the source of the magnetospheric cold H⁺ ion population.

The transduction of signals by c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK) is highly contextual and has diverse cell functions. Here, the authors reveal tiered kinases in the JNK pathway are regulated by intracellular pH with changed signaling outcomes.

Serialized on-grid lift-in sectioning for tomography (SOLIST) improves the throughput of the serial lift-out technique for creating lamellas, addressing a major bottleneck in the use of cryo-electron tomography for in situ structural biology.

The entry receptor for SARS-CoV-2, ACE2, translocates to the nucleus following infection with this virus. Here, the authors demonstrate that a peptide targeting the ACE2 nuclear localization signal promotes its methylation and abrogates viral replication of SARS-CoV-2 in Syrian hamsters.

The intravenous injection of oxygen via polymeric microbubbles that are stable in storage yet quickly dissolve following intravenous injection led to the maintenance of critical oxygenation and to improved survival in swine with profound hypoxaemia.

An integrated analysis of de novo and inherited coding variants in 42,607 individuals with autism spectrum disorder identifies 60 risk genes of which five have not previously been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Here the authors present a non-FRET DNA-templated silver nanocluster probe that exhibits a distinct colour switch from green to red upon nuclease digestion, visible under UV excitation, offering a low-cost, effective alternative to fluorescent reporters for detecting nuclease activities.

Structural analysis of the type VI secretion TssK baseplate protein shows structural similarities with phage receptor-binding protein.

The telomerase enzyme performs a crucial role by maintaining protective caps of repetitive DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes. A structure of human telomerase casts fresh light on its architecture.

In this paper and the related paper from Lugli and colleagues the authors show that high levels of NaCl inside the tumor have a beneficial effect on CD8⁺ T cells and their ability to control tumor growth as a result of enhanced T cell receptor activity.

Chiuppesi et al. demonstrate the use of a synthetic poxvirus-based platform to rapidly generate multi-antigenic vaccine candidates expressing spike and nucleocapsid antigens of SARS-CoV-2. Immunization of mice stimulates potent antigen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses, including neutralizing antibodies.

From 1980 to 2018, the levels of total and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreased in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe.

This study describes the second, shortened chloroplast variant of the ribosome-associated molecular chaperone termed trigger factor. While lacking chaperone activity, it rather contributes to maturation of the 50S ribosome subunit, particularly during plant cold acclimation.

In order to design cancer immune therapies, it is important to understand how tumours evade the immune response that is mounted against them. Authors here analyse the distribution and properties of immune cells in hepatocellular carcinoma and describe a progressive tumour-immune co-evolution programme from early to late stage cancer.

Analysis of HbA1c and FPG levels across 117 population-based studies demonstrates regional variation in prevalence of previously undiagnosed screen-detected diabetes using one or both measures and suggests that use of elevated FPG alone could underestimate diabetes prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.

In this work, the authors probe the efficacy of BWC0977, a bacterial topoisomerase inhibitor, in pre-clinical animal models, also demonstrating that BWC0977 is safe and well tolerated in healthy human volunteers, in a phase 1 trial.

Single-cell transcriptional profiling of primary human synovial sarcoma tumors suggests that combinatorial treatment with HDAC and CDK4/CDK6 inhibitors could enhance tumor immunogenicity.

Certain specific antigens have been shown to activate T cells in an MHC independent manner. Here the authors show a phycoerythrin reactive mouse TCR which recognises native protein and characterise the molecular nature of this interaction and that this specific TCR can be selected in the thymus.

Small-molecule senolytic compounds targeting BCL-xL were beneficial in a mouse model of diabetic edema and well tolerated when tested in a phase 1 trial involving eight patients with diabetic macular edema.

It is hoped that simulations of molecules and materials will provide a near-term application of quantum computers. A study of the performance of error mitigation highlights the obstacles to scaling up these calculations to practically useful sizes.

Restoring lost excitability of injured tissue is a paramount of regenerative medicine. By using a combined expression of bacterial voltage-gated Na⁺ channel, Kir2.1, and connexin-43 in non-excitable human fibroblasts, here the authors generate excitable cells that rescue action potential conduction in an in vitromodel of cardiac fibrosis.

Selvakumar, Clayton et al. use a porcine model of myocardial infarction and PSC-CM transplantation and identify atrial and pacemaker-like cardiomyocytes as the cause of engraftment arrhythmias and surface marker signatures to distinguish between arrhythmogenic and non-arrhythmogenic cardiomyocytes.

Galectin-3 (Gal-3) has been proposed to have a pathogenic role in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Here, the authors identify a Gal-3-based transcriptomic signature associated with SSc severity in patients and demonstrate that Gal-3 blockade reduces the severity of SSc skin and lung lesions in murine models.