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Graphitic oxide is readily produced by the oxidation of graphite. Here the authors show that the amount and nature of the oxidant can be used to tune the properties of graphitic oxide, and furthermore report a carbocatalyst for alkene epoxidation without the need for metal or initiators.

‘Ultrathin’ gold interlayers are shown to form nanoparticles that balance optical losses and electrical contact, enabling efficient perovskite–perovskite integration for scalable and durable triple-junction photovoltaics.

Soft tissue trauma can result in aberrant osteochondral differentiation of local mesenchymal progenitor cells. Here the authors show that, in mice, soft tissue trauma results in NGF expression by perivascular cells, which leads to axonal invasion and drives abnormal osteochondral differentiation, and show that this process can be prevented by inhibition of NGF signaling.

Here the authors perform a trans expression quantitative trait locus meta-analysis study of over 3,700 people and link a USP18 variant to expression of 50 inflammation genes and lupus risk, highlighting how genetic regulation of immune responses drives autoimmune disease and informs new therapies.

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.

Glioblastoma—the deadliest form of brain cancer—alters the calvarial bone and its marrow components, pushing it toward producing more myeloid cells and contributing to an immunosuppressive environment.

Analyses of whole-genome sequencing data from UK Biobank and All of Us identify rare variant burden signals associated with metabolic health, including effects of protein-truncating variants in IRS2 on type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease risk.

Disruption of circadian rhythms leads to reduced healthspan, but the mechanisms by which the normal clock protects aging organisms are not known. Here, the authors show that a subset of genes becomes more rhythmically expressed in older flies, and these are enriched for response to oxidative stress.

In the LUMINA-1 trial for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, garetosmab, an activin A monoclonal antibody, did not lead to significant changes in heterotopic ossification lesion activity in pre-existing lesions in period 1. Garetosmab prevented the formation of new lesions in both periods 1 and 2.

BRCA2 has essential roles in suppressing genome instability at stalled replication forks, but how this is achieved remains unclear. Here, the authors apply Okazaki-fragment sequencing to predict sites of genomic instability caused by head-on transcription-replication conflicts upon BRCA2 loss.

Here, the authors present and characterise a collection of human gut bacteria including novel taxa associated with health conditions and a large diversity of plasmids. All isolates, their genomes and metadata are publicly available, facilitating research by others (www.hibc.rwth-aachen.de).

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is a severe disorder characterized by heterotopic ossification, and is caused by mutations in ACVR1. Here, the authors show that expression of mutant ACVR1 in fibro/adipogenic progenitors recapitulates disease progression, and that this can be halted by systemic inhibition of activin A in mice.

Using mouse pancreatic cancer models, Tsanov et al. show that reactivation of SMAD4 at metastatic sites promotes tumor growth in the lung through RUNX1 but restrains metastatic growth through KLF4 in the liver, influenced by organ-specific epigenetic states.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

Summer ozone in urban Beijing increased until 2014 and then decreased, according to 15 years of measurements in August from 2006 to 2020.

Human transplantation with allogeneic donor organs results in non-matching of MHC and differential presentation of T cell antigens. Here the authors show that in a lung transplanted SARS-CoV-2 infected patient T cell responses generated from the host may not be able to recognise infected cells within the graft and this may contribute to virus persistence.

Lanthanide coordination compounds are indispensable in biomedical applications yet there has been limited progress on improving their thermodynamic stability and kinetic inertness. Here, the authors report the coordination-templated formation of a 1,5-triazole bridge that improves kinetic inertness up to a million-fold relative to DOTA.

How yeast telomeres avoid triggering DNA damage checkpoints is studied by creating de novo telomere ends with different amounts of telomeric repeats. Rif1 and Rif2 protect short telomere tracts through different mechanisms and by blocking the accumulation of proteins that can activate checkpoint kinase Mec1. Moreover, long telomere tracts can perturb DNA end processing on neighboring short tracts and hence dampen checkpoint activation.

The authors observe a reduction in thermal conductivity when transitioning from single to multi-cation oxides, exploring the role of local bonding distortions in phonon scattering and thermal transport.

Dormant liver stages of Plasmodium vivax complicate malaria elimination efforts by causing relapses that obscure the efficacy of antimalarial treatments. Here, the authors develop a high-throughput amplicon sequencing assay to reconstruct P. vivax lineages, demonstrating its capacity for geospatial infection tracking, and distinguishing recurrent malaria caused by new infections versus untreated dormant liver stages.

The mechanisms underlying gut microbial metabolite (GMM) contribution towards alcohol-mediated cardiovascular disease (CVD) are unknown. Herein, the authors reveal that alcohol-induced microbial reorganization and resultant elevation in GMM phenylacetylglutamine, directly contributes to CVD.

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.

The widespread use of fuel cells requires improved catalysts to reduce oxygen efficiently at the cathode. It is shown that model, well-characterized size-selected Pt_xY nanoparticles can be synthesized by the gas aggregation technique, and that they are highly active for this reaction.

Genetic associations with severe COVID-19 have been discovered, but epigenetic associations are not as well described. Here, the authors perform a genome-wide epigenetic analysis of COVID-19 patients, discovering an interaction between environmental exposure, genetics, and epigenetics which might play a role in severe disease.

A COVID vaccine developer, an Arctic voyager and a prime minister are some of the people behind the year’s big research stories.

Phenotypic persistence allows yeast and other microorganisms to endure stress conditions. Here a link is shown between DNA damage and the onset of persistence, resulting in increased genetic diversity in persister cells that could facilitate evolutionary adaptation.

The role of the tumour microenvironment in the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic melanoma remains poorly understood. Here, single cell profiling of metastatic melanoma samples identifies associations of the mature dendritic enriched in immunoregulatory molecules subtype with immunotherapy response.

The quark structure of the f₀(980) hadron is still unknown after 50 years of its discovery. Here, the CMS Collaboration reports a measurement of the elliptic flow of the f₀(980) state in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV, providing strong evidence that the state is an ordinary meson.

Despite its biocidal properties, the use of hydrogen peroxide is still limited in the context of water disinfection. Here an approach is disclosed based on the generation of H₂O₂ in situ by means of an AuPd catalyst, which can compete with chlorination methods by generating a highly reactive radical flux.

Integrated structural biology approach leveraging in situ cryo-electron tomography reveals molecular details of the native malarial translation elongation cycle and its perturbation by cabamiquine, a potent antimalarial drug candidate.

Rashan, Bartlett and colleagues show that mammalian 4-hydroxy fatty acids are primarily catabolized by ACAD10 and ACAD11 (atypical mitochondrial and peroxisomal acyl-CoA dehydrogenases, respectively) that use phosphorylation in their reaction mechanisms.