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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.

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) has limited treatment options and few tumor-specific targets. Here the authors report that the Notch ligand DLK1 is highly expressed in ACC acting as a regulator of tumor cell plasticity and chemoresistance, and that DLK1 can be targeted with an antibody drug conjugate.

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.

Systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease study reported that, despite global improvements from 1990 to 2021, dietary iron deficiency-associated disease burden remains high in women, children and residents in low socio-demographic index countries.

When a superconductor is in contact with a normal metal, Cooper pairs from the superconductor ‘leak’ into the metal, causing local superconductivity. When in contact with a ferromagnet, however, Cooper pairs do not stray very far. Therefore, the discovery that a ferromagnetic nanowire goes completely superconducting when placed between two superconducting electrodes is surprising indeed.

Fine-scale geospatial mapping of overweight and wasting (two components of the double burden of malnutrition) in 105 LMICs shows that overweight has increased from 5.2% in 2000 to 6.0% in children under 5 in 2017. Although overall wasting decreased over the same period, most countries are not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025.

Flocking emerges from communication within groups of animals. Here, Kumar et al. create a flock in inanimate matter, by showing that a vibrated layer of a small number of millimetre-sized tapered rods, amidst a background of spherical beads, spontaneously aligns into a state of coherent motion.

The authors study a cohort of healthcare workers in India who received two doses of the ChAdOx-1-nCoV19 vaccine during the Delta wave. Using serological data, they infer that 25% of the cohort were infected within 60 days of vaccination, although there were no severe infections leading to hospitalisations.

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 human smell that attracts mosquitoes includes many chemical odorants. Here, authors used electrophysiology to probe neurons in the antennal lobe region of the tiny mosquito brain and found that they represent odorants using a combinatorial code.

Repair of topoisomerase 1 (TOP1) DNA protein crosslinks (DPC) limits the efficacy of the TOP1 inhibitor irinotecan in cancer therapy. Here, the authors identify pevonedistat, NEDD8 inhibitor, as synergistic with irinotecan by blocking neddylation-activated ubiquitin/proteasomal degradation of TOP1-DPC.

The female bladder seems to harbor a poorly characterized indigenous microbiota. Here, the authors isolate and genome-sequence 149 bacterial strains from catheterized urine of 77 women, generating a culture collection representing two thirds of the bacterial diversity within the samples.

Multidrug efflux pumps significantly contribute for bacteria resistance to antibiotics. Here the authors present the structure of Campylobacter jejuni CmeB pump combined with functional FRET assays to propose a transport mechanism where each CmeB protomers is functionally independent from the trimer.

Here, Forster et al. compare 1354 cultured commensal strains (540 species) to 45,403 pathogen strains (12 species), identifying 64,188 MGE-mediated antibiotic resistance gene transfer events between the two groups, and show that 15 broad host range MGEs are able to transfer between phyla.

IgA-secreting plasma cells that originate in the intestine are found in the meninges, where they protect the brain against pathogens.

Pain is one of the many debilitating side effects of cancer. Now, Rohini Kuner and her colleagues show that blocking hematopoietic colony-stimulating factor signaling on neurons can inhibit pain caused by bone cancer.

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) benefits only a small subset of patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and the mechanisms driving benefit are poorly understood. Here, the authors show that elevated Notch signaling predicts clinical benefit in ICB in relapsed SCLC.

Malladi and colleagues show that inhibiting DRP1 limits mitochondrial plasticity, resulting in increased mitochondrial fusion, impaired fatty acid oxidation and reduced metastasis formation in breast cancer models.

AbgT family of transporters have previously been implicated in the uptake of folate catabolites but remain poorly understood. Here the authors present a structural and functional characterization of Alcanivorax borkumensisYdaH, an AbgT-type transporter, revealing a unique topology and possible function as a drug efflux pump.

Light-responsive myosin motors enable spatial and temporal control over the dynamics and transport of active nematic liquid crystals composed of actin filaments and myosin at an oil–water interface.

A large bacterial strain collection and genome sequences will boost gut microbiome research.

Human infections with Campylobacter fetus are often assumed to be derived from livestock. Here, Iraola et al. provide evidence that healthy humans may act as carriers and dispersers, and C. fetus may have originated in humans as an intestinal pathobiont and then adapted as a livestock pathogen.

Genomic analysis of 906 Clostridium difficile strains shows that this enteropathogen is undergoing speciation, which is linked to the selection of genes involved in sporulation and in the metabolism of simple dietary sugars.

Large-scale gut microbiome analysis of a widely use mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease reveals that the gut microbiome is a driver of variability across genetically identical mice, in particular two species that are associated with variable treatment endpoints.

This month’s Genome Watch highlights the use of metagenomics to survey urban waste waters as a proxy for studying the gut microbiota in the local population and discusses how predictive models based on this data could inform public health.

This month's genome watch discusses the vast global microbial diversity revealed by the Earth Microbiome Project and the value of its characterization.

This month's Genome Watch highlights the variation in gut microbiota across different human communities and explores how this is associated with lifestyle and diet.

Delivery via caesarean section, maternal antibiotic prophylaxis and colonization by opportunistic pathogens associated with the hospital environment affect the composition of the gut microbiota of children from birth until infancy.