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An optical detection and analysis platform quantifies aggregate density, distribution and size in fluorescently labelled post-mortem human brain tissue.

Multicellular tissues behave akin to nematic liquid crystals, which are fluid as well as ordered. Here, the authors develop an image analysis method to capture the nematic ordering of tissues with the complex geometries typical of morphogenesis.

In this work, authors perform a large-scale genetic screen to explore the previously unrecognized physical interaction between two transcription factors in Candida albicans. The roles of Stp2 and Dal81 are important in extracellular pH alkalization, fitness, and pathogenicity, key processes requiring coordinated gene regulatory networks governing amino acid metabolism.

The number of individuals in a given space influences animal interactions and network dynamics. Here the authors identify general rules underlying density dependence in animal networks and reveal some fundamental differences between spatial and social dynamics.

Glutarate rewires cell metabolism through conjugation to proteins or fatty acids, but how glutarylation is regulated is unclear. ABHD11 was identified as a lipoyl-deglutarylase to maintain the TCA cycle and mitochondrial metabolism.

In this alternative approach to quantum computation, the all-electrical operation of two qubits, each encoded in three physical solid-state spin qubits, realizes swap-based universal quantum logic in an extensible physical architecture.

Using well-calibrated statistical methods the authors jointly analyze Undiagnosed Diseases Network genomes, identifying known and novel disease genes. Software is publicly available to support future cross-cohort rare disease discovery efforts.

The density of states is an important quantity for a quantum material. Here, we demonstrate how singularities in the density of states can be characterized and engineered, combining the theoretical analysis of different experiments on the paradigmatic quantum material Sr₂RuO₄.

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.

Antibiotic resistance is biologically driven by antibiotic use but other social, environmental, demographic, economic and behavioural factors also contribute. Here, the authors conduct a cross-sectional study to identify risk factors jointly associated with multidrug resistant urinary tract infection in East Africa.

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).

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.

This study shows how including different ancestry groups in a genome-wide association study for prostate-specific antigen levels can improve prostate cancer risk prediction, with implications for population screening.

Bunyaviruses are a large group of viruses that infect a wide range of organisms, including insects, animals, plants, and single-celled organisms. Here, Terhzaz et al show that the non-structural protein NSm is required for cell-to-cell spread and egress in the mosquito midgut.

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.

Transferrin receptor (TfR) and CD98hc are increasingly used to enable more effective drug delivery to the central nervous system. Here, the authors reveal comprehensive and distinct brain cellular and whole body biodistribution patterns of TfR- and CD98hc-binding molecules.

Genome-wide association analyses of prostate cancer in men from sub-Saharan Africa identify population-specific risk variants and regional differences in effect sizes. Founder effects contribute to continental differences in the genetic architecture of prostate cancer.

Drosophila RNAi libraries are commonly used to perform large-scale functional genetics screens in vivo. Here the authors find that a subset of lines from the VDRC KK RNAi line cause false-positive enhancement of the Hippo pathway, and provide a strain that can test whether a genetic screen of interest will be affected by this technical artefact.

Geospatial estimates of the prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age across 82 low-income and middle-income countries reveals considerable heterogeneity and inequality at national and subnational levels, with few countries on track to meet the WHO Global Nutrition Targets by 2030.

The generation of primary organoids, from fetal fluid-derived epithelial stem or progenitor cells, offers the possibility of modeling different developing tissues during gestation, even beyond the limits of pregnancy termination.

Common-variant and rare-variant association analyses combining datasets from multiple populations yield insights into the genetic architecture of all-cause heart failure across the allele-frequency spectrum.

The role of cohesion is vital to our understanding of how sedimentary bedforms evolve. Here, the authors show that microorganisms within the sediment affect cohesion and demonstrate that ripples can take up to one hundred times as long to develop when extracellular polymeric substances are present.

Electrophysiology and in vivo imaging in larval zebrafish reveal a systematic relationship between the location of a spinal neuron and the minimal swimming frequency at which the neuron is active. This suggests an unexpected pattern of organization within zebrafish spinal cord that underlies the production of movements of varying speeds.

Materials formed by linking metal ions with organic ligands have potential for gas adsorption and storage, and can be flexible in response to stimuli. Now, suitable organic linkers result in a material that undergoes a large structural change, but does not lose crystallinity.

A systematic analysis of 115 mammalian genomes, including 10 new bat genomes, reveals prevalent positive selection in immune genes in bats and shows key adaptations in the antiviral gene ISG15 that aid disease resistance in bats, including to coronaviruses.

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is an anti-inflammatory drug proposed as a treatment for COVID19. Here the results are reported from a randomised trial testing DMF treatment in 713 patients hospitalised with COVID-19. DMF was not associated with any improvement in day 5 outcomes.

First-in-human trial of a self-assembling, ferritin nanoparticle-based influenza vaccine shows evidence that this new platform can elicit neutralizing and cross-reactive antibodies and has potential for further vaccine development.

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.

Treatment with neoadjuvant BRAF/MEK-targeted therapy results in higher rates of major pathological response in female compared with male patients with melanoma, and pharmacological inhibition of androgen receptor signalling improved the responses of male and female mice to BRAF/MEK-targeted therapy.

Analysing >1,700 inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network, the authors show that the majority of Amazon tree species can occupy floodplains and that patterns of species turnover are closely linked to regional flood patterns.

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.