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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.

Anti-disialoganglioside (GD2) antibody therapy has proven beneficial to neuroblastoma patients and intra-tumoral copper levels have been associated with immune evasion. Here the authors show that copper chelation potentiates anti-GD2 immunotherapy through improved infiltration and function of Fc receptor bearing neutrophils.

Hybrid organic-inorganic trihalide perovskites can make remarkable optoelectronic devices but their spin characteristics are less investigated. Here Wang et al. show spin-polarized carriers injection into methylammonium lead bromide films with long lifetime and realize spin LEDs and spin valves.

The global distribution of nearly all extant reptile species reveals richness patterns that differ spatially from that of other taxa. Conservation prioritization should specifically consider reptile distributions, particularly lizards and turtles.

In the gastrointestinal tract, defensins—endogenous antibiotics with microbicidal activity—help regulate the composition and number of colonizing microbes, and protect against food-borne and water-borne pathogens. Inspired by recent studies of defensins in human disease and animal models, this Review discusses emerging evidence for the importance of defensins in gastrointestinal infections and inflammatory diseases.

Immunotherapy has yet to demonstrate efficacy for patients with glioblastoma. Here, the authors employ human single-cell RNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, and a preclinical mouse model to show that glioblastoma cell-derived synaptogenic factor Thrombospondin-1 promotes neuronal circuit remodeling and regional immunosuppression, highlighting a potential therapeutic target.

The associations between gut metabolites, brain activity, and behavior in youth with autism is unclear. Here authors show that some tryptophan metabolites are different in autism and are associated with autism symptoms and activity in interoceptive brain regions.

Inbreeding depression has been observed in many different species, but in humans a systematic analysis has been difficult so far. Here, analysing more than 1.3 million individuals, the authors show that a genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) is associated with disadvantageous outcomes in 32 out of 100 traits tested.

Over half the world’s rivers dry periodically, yet little is known about the biological communities in dry riverbeds. This study examines biodiversity across 84 non-perennial rivers in 19 countries using DNA metabarcoding. It finds that nutrient availability, climate and biotic interactions influence the biodiversity of these dry environments.

Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are crucial for immune response, yet it is unclear what shapes their diversity at a community level. Here, the authors show that indirect effects among rodent hosts and their helminth parasites can play a crucial role in shaping host MHC diversity.

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.

By profiling immune cell variation in bone marrow of 54 genetically diverse mouse strains and analysing the evolutionary record, we found that genes associated with the frequency of a particular cell type but expressed in a different cell type increase the evolvability of the immune system.

Tan and colleagues conducted a single-cell multiomic analysis of T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and identified a treatment-resistant subpopulation of bone marrow progenitor-like blasts associated with poor outcomes.

The severity of ulcerative colitis, and response to treatment, is highly variable. Here, the authors examine rectal gene expression signatures and faecal microbiomes of children and adults with the disease and provide new insights in to pathogenesis.

Overcoming reciprocity is important for novel functionalities. Here, the authors demonstrate a spatio-temporally modulated metasurface capable of complete violation of Lorentz reciprocity by reflecting an incident beam into far-field radiation in forward scattering, but into near-field surface waves in reverse scattering.

Emojis, smartphone technologies and revamped guidelines would boost transparency at scientific meetings, say Shai D. Silberberg and colleagues.

An extinction-risk assessment of reptiles shows that at least 21.1% of species are threatened by factors such as agriculture, logging, urban development and invasive species, and that efforts to protect birds, mammals and amphibians probably also benefit many reptiles.

High-resolution subnational mapping of child growth failure indicators for 105 low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017 shows that, despite considerable progress, substantial geographical inequalities still exist in some countries.

In addition to species richness, evolutionary measures of biodiversity are important considerations for conservation. Here, Gumbs et al. develop new biodiversity metrics incorporating phylogenetic diversity and human pressure and highlight conservation priorities in a global analysis of reptiles.

A combination of computational modelling and empirical data is used to explore the network structure of infection and immunity in CRISPR–Cas host–virus interactions.

The molecular mechanisms underlying malignant transformation of the Schwann lineage in Schwann cell tumours remain to be explored. Here, the authors suggest that NF2 inactivation leads to PAK activation leading to NF1-mutant Schwann cell tumour de-differentiation and resistance to selumetinib.

The effectiveness of protected areas under climate change is debated. Here, the authors analyse the potential effectiveness of protected areas for conserving over 70% of extant amphibian and reptile species under present and future climate scenarios.

Global spatial data for terrestrial vertebrate and vascular plant diversity, above- and below-ground biomass carbon, and potential clean freshwater volume are combined in a joint optimization study to identify potential synergies for conservation management.

Comprehensive spatial multiomic profiling of high-grade meningiomas identifies intratumor and primary–recurrence subclonal heterogeneity. Cell line models recapitulating intratumor heterogeneity show differential sensitivity in drug screens.

Gottlieb and colleagues show that stearoyl-CoA desaturase promotes metabolic adaptation of acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells to the central nervous system microenvironment, revealing a potential site-specific metabolic vulnerability of this disease.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are abundant in the stroma of pancreatic ductal carcinoma (PDAC) tumors. In this study, the authors demonstrate using human samples and mouse models that senescent CAFs impair CD8⁺ T cell responses and may contribute to poor responsiveness to immunotherapy in PDAC.

Analysis of a global data set of local biodiversity comparisons reveals an average 13.6% reduction in species richness and 10.7% reduction in abundance as a result of past human land use, and projections based on these data under a business-as-usual land-use scenario predict further substantial loss this century, unless strong mitigation efforts are undertaken to reverse the effects.

Sumida et al. resolve the human T cell transcriptional response to type I interferon stimulation at high temporal resolution and reveal a genetic network controlling coinhibitory receptor expression.

Chordoid glioma is a slow growing diencephalic tumor whose mutational landscape is poorly characterized. Here, the authors perform whole-exome and RNA-sequencing and find that 15 of 16 chordoid glioma cases studied harbor the same PRKCA mutation which results in enhanced proliferation.

DNA methylation profiling of 565 meningiomas highlights three groups associated with distinct molecular, clinical and therapeutic features.

The internal organization of the cell has been enriched by the discovery that organelles establish membrane contact sites, however the entire repertoire of these contacts is still being explored. Here the authors systematically identify the landscape of cellular contact sites in yeast, discovering four potential novel contact sites and two tether proteins for the peroxisome-mitochondria contact site.

The relationship between the coral animal and symbiotic algae is essential to coral health, and researchers are turning to Exaiptasia, a model cnidarian system, to study this relationship mechanistically. Here the authors find that endosymbiotic algae become limited by nitrogen at high population densities and provide the host with high levels of fixed carbon.

High-grade gliomas functionally remodel neural circuits in the human brain, promoting tumour progression and impairing cognition.

Synthetic biology and engineering approaches are harnessed to incorporate new capabilities in synthetic cells. Here, the authors designed bioluminescent signaling mechanisms for intracellular and intercellular synthetic-to-natural cell communication.

In the version of this Article originally published, grant no. 2015/20215-7 for C.N. was omitted from the Acknowledgements section. This has now been corrected in all versions of the Article.