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This large-scale genome-wide association analysis of subjects with asthma, hay fever or eczema provides insights into the shared genetic basis of these allergic diseases. The findings suggest that these diseases partly co-occur because they share many genetic risk variants that dysregulate the expression of immune-related genes.

A high-resolution, global atlas of mortality of children under five years of age between 2000 and 2017 highlights subnational geographical inequalities in the distribution, rates and absolute counts of child deaths by age.

Climate change can affect lake water level and nearby landscape. Korosi and colleagues show recent expansion of shallow lakes in the Canadian Northwest Territories is flooding critical habitat for the wood bison, and demonstrate the trickle-down effect of climate change on ecosystem functioning.

Viral rebound has been observed following treatment with Paxlovid. Here the authors develop a mathematical model for viral-immune dynamics and nirmatrelvir pharmacokinetics and suggest that early treatment preserves susceptible cells and blunts the innate immune response without fully eliminating infection. They project that treatment extension for 10 days may overcome this effect.

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).

The immune response to herpes simplex virus is essential in limiting immunopathology during infection, however factors linked to neuroprotection are currently unclear. Here the authors implicate mTORC2 in the host response to viral infection and link to neuroprotection.

Circulating proteins are a potential source of cancer biomarkers. Here, the authors assessed 2,074 circulating proteins and used Mendelian randomisation to compare with the risk of 9 common cancer types across multiple GWAS cohorts and identified key considerations with respect to the potential for adverse effects of altering cancer-risk proteins that inform their utility in cancer prevention.

Local-level analyses show that, despite marked progress in educational attainment from 2000 to 2015 across Africa, substantial differences persist between locations and sexes that have widened in many countries.

Geospatial estimates of child growth failure in Africa provide a baseline for measuring progress and a precision public health platform to target interventions to those populations with the greatest need.

Activity in the striatum is necessary for trial-to-trial improvements in learning sensory–motor tasks but not memory recall.

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.

In this disease mapping study, the authors estimate disability-adjusted life year rates for three of the major causes of mortality for children under five 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. They identify significant heterogeneity at the subnational level, highlighting the need for a targeted intervention approach.

Hailong, an anti-phage defence system, synthesizes an oligodeoxyadenylate signal that blocks effector activity in the absence of phage infection but is degraded by phage-encoded DNA exonucleases, leading to protective growth arrest of infected cells.

Although progress in the coverage of routine measles vaccination in children in low- and middle-income countries was made during 2000–2019, many countries remain far from the goal of 80% coverage in all districts by 2019.

A diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 experts in COVID-19 response from 112 countries provides health and social policy actions to address inadequacies in the pandemic response and help to bring this public health threat to an end.

Two approaches using an adenine base editor and a Cas9 nuclease prevented the development of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in mice carrying a pathogenic mutation on the Myh6 gene, highlighting the potential of single-dose genetic therapies for the treatment of cardiac disease.

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.

The autoinflammatory pathology associated with alteration of the ZBD domain of the RNA-editing enzyme ADAR1 is driven by signalling that is dependent on the nucleotide sensor ZBP1.

Attachment of the ubiquitin-like modifier UFM1 to 60S ribosomes has a critical function in the release and recycling of stalled or terminated ribosomes from the endoplasmic reticulum membrane.

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.

Designed novel protein nanoparticle technology integrates antibody targeting and responds to changes in environmental conditions to release protected molecular cargoes, opening new applications for precision medicine.

Flagellotropic phages spin down flagella to reach the bacterial surface and must withstand remarkable drag forces. Here authors show how two nested sets of chainmail stabilise the viral head and a beta-hairpin regulates the formation of the robust yet pliable tail, characteristic of siphoviruses.

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.

Assembly and analysis of the Schmidtea mediterranea genome indicate that this planarian’s chromosome 1 may be evolving into a sex chromosome.

A large-scale remote sensing study on water use by chia suggests that chia could be a sustainable choice for agriculture, consuming 13-38% less water than alfalfa, corn, and soybean, while assimilating 14-20% more carbon per unit of water.

In this Review, TeSlaa, Ralser, Fan and Rabinowitz comprehensively review the fundamental biochemical aspects of the pentose phosphate pathway and discuss its biological relevance in the context of physiology and pathology.

This Technical Report describes light-activatable metabotropic glutamate receptors based on synthetic photoswitchable tethered ligands, and demonstrates optogenetic control of G protein–coupled receptor activity in neurons in vivo and ex vivo.