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Women of reproductive age may have specific concerns relating to perceived impacts on fertility and menstrual cycles that make them hesitant to receive COVID-19 vaccination. In this study, the authors explore COVID-19 vaccine uptake rates in women of reproductive age using linked data for ~13 million women in England.

Given rising diabetes prevalence globally, access to diabetes treatments is gaining urgency. Here, the authors show patterns of glucose-lowering medication use for diabetes across 62 low- and middle-income countries.

Ward et al. utilise electronic health records to identify groups of adults (who had received a second booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine) at elevated risk of COVID-19 death.

A technique called condense-seq has been developed to measure nucleosome condensability and used to show that mononucleosomes contain sufficient information to condense into large-scale compartments without requiring any external factors.

DIAL designs synthetic promoters for generation of heritable setpoints of gene expression across a range of cell types.

In this cohort study, the authors investigate the risk of severe outcomes following infection from Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 sub-lineages. Using whole genome sequencing and electronic health record data for ~980,000 BA.1 and ~250,000 BA.2 cases in England, they find a slightly lower risk of death and hospitalisation associated with BA.2.

The severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection varied over the course of the pandemic due to factors such as changes in variant characteristics and population immunity from previous infection or vaccination. Here, the authors estimate infection hospitalisation and infection fatality rates in England over time from the start of the pandemic until March 2023.

A retrospective, observational study shows that completion of a diabetes prevention program in England (the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme) was associated with decreased incidence of type 2 diabetes and long-term conditions such as dementia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at 24 months.

Modern land management often assumes that past human activity shaped iconic landscapes. This study finds that climate, rather than indigenous activity, controlled fire severity in New England, with open landscapes developing after deforestation for European agriculture.

Mutations in the insulin receptor cause severe insulin resistance, but their functional impact is often unclear. Here, the authors map ~14,000 receptor variants, linking molecular defects to disease and highlighting variants responsive to therapeutic activation.

Intrinsic capacity includes a person’s mental and physical capacities. The authors examined cohort trends in intrinsic capacity in two large English and Chinese studies. They report that more recently born participants entered older ages with markedly higher levels of functioning, while subsequent age-related declines were somewhat delayed.

Hydrogen peroxide is a signaling molecule that can also cause damage if its levels are too high. Here, the authors report HyPerFLEX, a fluorescent sensor with tenable colors, to track very low peroxide levels in cellular organelles, even in low-oxygen or highly oxidizing environments.

Somatic small variants in cancer genomes are identified in both short-read and long-read data.

Klein and colleagues characterize 04_A06, a new V_H1-2-encoded broadly neutralizing antibody that has marked breadth and potency against extended multiclade HIV-1 pseudovirus panels and can maintain full viral suppression in HIV-1-infected humanized mice.

The Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative recruited and genotyped more than half a million Taiwanese participants, almost all of Han Chinese ancestry, and performed comprehensive genomic analyses and developed polygenic risk score prediction models for numerous health conditions.

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.

The authors linked data from non-European Union migrants and resettled refugees to the national COVID-19 vaccination dataset in England, demonstrating disparities in vaccination timing and coverage.

Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

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.

Different types of SETBP1 variants cause variable developmental syndromes with only partial clinical and functional overlaps. Here, the authors report that SETBP1 variants outside the degron region impair DNA-binding, transcription, and neuronal differentiation capacity and morphologies.

The risk of intensive care unit admission among children with COVID-19 or its sequelae is affected by age, ethnicity and comorbidities. Understanding these modifiers might help identify at-risk children and guide interventions.

Data from acute hospitals in England are used to quantify hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections, evaluate likely pathways of spread and factors associated with heightened transmission risk, and explore the impact on community transmission.

Roebuck et al. analysed 922,149 records to investigate the impact of midwife continuity of carer throughout the perinatal period in England on stillbirth and first newborn feed. They find an increase in first feed of breast milk, reduced stillbirth in Black women, and increased stillbirth in women not receiving any antenatal care by 24 weeks.

Shigella sonnei is divided into five lineages and most infections are caused by Lineage 3. Here, the authors investigate factors contributing to the epidemiological success of Lineage 3 through comparative genomics and virulence analyses in a zebrafish infection model.

Chemotherapy is commonly used for the treatment of cancer but resistance often occurs. Here, the authors identify mitochondrial DLAT as driver of chemotherapy resistance via interaction with (MTHFD2) and develop a decoy peptide which blocks this interaction, restoring sensitivity to chemotherapy.

The UK extended the interval until the second COVID-19 vaccine dose up to 12 weeks. Here, the authors show in a cohort of 750 participants aged 50–89 years that the extended schedule results in higher antibody titers and estimate a higher vaccine effectiveness for the extended schedule.

The duration of symptomatic COVID-19 and its impacts on health and quality of life are not well understood. In this study, the authors report results from a survey of ~275,000 adults in England and find that persistent COVID-19 is relatively rare but is associated with poorer mental health and health-related quality of life.

Many countries have closed schools as part of their COVID-19 response. Here, the authors model SARS-CoV-2 transmission on a network of schools and households in England, and find that risk of transmission between schools is lower if primary schools are open than if secondary schools are open.

Viruses generally have compact genomes, resulting in many viral mRNAs with short 5’ untranslated regions. An antiviral complex exploits this feature of viral mRNAs to selectively inhibit viral protein synthesis and repress viral replication.

A clinical review of all pediatric deaths in England from March 2020 to February 2021 attributes 25 deaths to SARS-CoV-2 infection and identifies risk factors to guide interventions.

Lipoproteins are major cell-surface components in archaea, but their functions and the lipidation mechanisms are unclear. Here, Hong et al. identify two proteins required for attachment of proteins to unique archaeal membrane lipids via thioether bonds, and demonstrate their importance in archaeal physiology.

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.

The REACT-1 study measures the community prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in England through repeated cross-sectional surveys. Here, the authors present data from REACT-1 that document the increase in infection prevalence, particularly among children, associated with the Omicron variant in January 2022.

Here the authors reveal how an incoherent feedforward C/EBPα–Notch circuit times lung cell fate, guiding alveolar development, repair after injury, and shifts between protective and reparative states.