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In this work, authors present an automated, high-throughput platform that utilizes robotics and computer vision to enable creation of a therapeutic phage cocktail, LBP-EC01, effective against over 96% of tested Escherichia coli isolates from urinary tract infections.

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.

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.

Tree buds integrate cold and warm cues to control dormancy release. Extended warm periods block plasmodesmata opening by repressing Flowering Locus T and GA pathways in buds. This mechanism ensures robust temporal regulation of dormancy release.

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.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Hannah Whitby about their Royal Society International Exchanges grant.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

As Nature Aging celebrates its fifth anniversary, the journal asks some of the researchers who contributed to the journal early on to reflect on the past and the future of aging and age-related disease research, the impact of the field on human health now and in the future, and what challenges need to be addressed to ensure sustained progress.

Analyses of liver biopsies from a child with spinal muscular atrophy treated with adeno-associated virus gene therapy who developed hepatitis reveal contaminating manufacturing plasmids and disrupted vector genomes, possibly resulting from recombination events.

Brain-machine interfaces are hindered by neuroinflammation. Here, the authors found that bacterial sequences invade the brain post-microelectrode implantation. Antibiotic-treated mice showed reduced bacterial presence and altered neuroinflammatory profile, temporarily improving recording performance.

Phaeocystales are ecologically significant nanoplankton whose evolutionary history and functional diversity remain incompletely characterized. Here, the authors integrate genomic and transcriptomic data to reveal their lineage diversification, metabolic plasticity, and adaptation to polar and temperate regimes.

A lipid nanoparticle is used to deliver mRNA to hematopoietic stem cells in macaques.

Watt, Dauber, Szkop and colleagues find that H3K4me3 remodels 5′UTR selection in hypoxia and that this process is independent of HIF-1 transcriptional mechanisms.

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.

Oxidative catalytic depolymerization of polystyrene (PS) can produce benzoic acid, but the annual consumption of benzoic acid is ~40 times lower than PS, so benzoic acid should be converted to higher-volume chemicals for the process to be viable. Here, the authors report a hybrid chemical and biological process that uses PS as feedstock for production of adipic acid, a high-volume co-monomer for nylon 6,6, via benzoic acid.

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.

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.

Monocytes participate in plaque formation, and adapt to metabolic changes to alter their functions. Here the authors show, using genetic mouse models and functional analyses, that Glut1-mediated glucose metabolism is important for regulating monocyte homeostasis and migration, but curiously has no impact on atherosclerotic plaque formation.

Systemic dissection of sexually dimorphic phenotypes in mice is lacking. Here, Karp and the International Mouse Phenotype Consortium show that approximately 10% of qualitative traits and 56% of quantitative traits in mice as measured in laboratory setting are sexually dimorphic.

The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC), plans to document disease-related phenotypes for each generated mouse strain including metabolic, neurological and behavioral data. Hannah Waters spoke with Steve Brown, chairman of the IMPC and director of the UK Medical Research Council’s Mammalian Genetics Unit in Harwell, to learn more about the project.

Nature is full of ultraviolet coloration, invisible to the human eye. This study shows that “hidden” UV coloration in snakes is widespread and may have evolved in response to predators and habitat rather than for reproductive functions.

The authors report a meta-analysis of methylome-wide association studies, identifying 15 significant CpG sites linked to major depression, revealing associations with inflammatory markers and suggesting potential causal relationships through Mendelian randomization analysis.

The neurophysiology of excessive daytime sleepiness in Parkinson’s disease (PD) remains unclear. Here, the authors found that beta oscillatory activity, a pathophysiological signature of PD motor signs, is also associated with daytime vigilance in parkinsonism

Alfonsa et al. show that wakefulness causes shifts in cortical EGABA_A, weakening synaptic inhibition and resulting in markers of local sleep pressure, and identify Cl⁻ regulation as a link between sleep–wake history, cortical activity and behavior.

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.

Glutamatergic and GABAergic (γ-aminobutyric acid-producing) cortical neuronal activity drives proliferation of small lung cell cancer via paracrine interactions and through synapses formed with tumour cells.

Scientists can improve how they inform politicians and other policymakers on how to make decisions, say Hannah Safford and Austin Brown.

The Omicron variant evades vaccine-induced neutralization but also fails to form syncytia, shows reduced replication in human lung cells and preferentially uses a TMPRSS2-independent cell entry pathway, which may contribute to enhanced replication in cells of the upper airway. Altered fusion and cell entry characteristics are linked to distinct regions of the Omicron spike protein.

Knowledge of genetic variants that underlie ecological selection against hybrids is crucial for understanding speciation. This study identified loci that underlie hybrid viability and seasonal migration in a hybrid zone between songbirds with different migratory behavior.

The APOE4 allele is a major genetic risk factor for the development of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this manuscript, Butovsky and colleagues suggest that APOE4 impairs the microglial response in AD by inducing TGFβ-mediated checkpoints.

A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.

In a large international survey, a minority subset of individuals with Long COVID experienced greater psychiatric symptom severity that was associated with greater reductions in overall health and other specific outcomes.

Heightened threat reactivity following early life adversity (ELA) is linked to dysregulated Crh signaling, crucial for regulating fear expression in the CeAL. Here, the authors show sex-specific changes in CeAL CRF+ neuron activity following ELA and their role in enhancing startle.

A genome-wide study by the Long COVID Host Genetics Initiative identifies an association between the FOXP4 locus and long COVID, implicating altered lung function in its pathophysiology.

COVID-19 can be associated with neurological complications. Here the authors show that markers of brain injury, but not immune markers, are elevated in the blood of patients with COVID-19 both early and months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, particularly in those with brain dysfunction or neurological diagnoses.