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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.

The fetal globin gene repressors BCL11A and ZBTB7A directly bind γ-globin gene promoter regions. Repressor binding is disrupted by naturally occurring point mutations located upstream of the transcriptional start site that are associated with hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin.

Enhanced weathering in agriculture shows promise as a carbon dioxide removal strategy, but experts disagree on how large its impact could be, and the greatest uncertainties lie in soil and water processes, highlighting the need for targeted research, according to an expert elicitation method.

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.

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.

A multi-institute, multi-platform initiative generates standard metrics and best practices for spatial transcriptomics analysis.

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.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

There is a growing body of research on disease clusters in multimorbidity, necessitating a systematic review and meta-analysis of methods and findings. Here, the authors show the range of methods applied, and identify six disease clusters with moderate stability across the multimorbidity literature.

Despite improving therapeutic options, the prognosis for patients with metastatic castration-resistance prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains poor. Here, the authors identify MCL1 copy number alterations as a prognostic and predictive biomarker, demonstrating its therapeutic potential as a drug target, either alone or in combination, in patients with mCRPC.

Here, by integrating faecal metabolomics, metagenomics, and habitual dietary data of two large human cohorts, the authors show that faecal metabolites reflect diet and gut microbiome interactions, predict dietary patterns, and indicate cardiovascular risk, offering insights for diet-based health interventions.

Eosinophils exist as a functionally heterogeneous population. Whether the heterogeneity is driven by cell-intrinsic or extrinsic factors is underexplored. Here, by leveraging single-cell transcriptomic data and epigenomic analysis, the authors propose that local environmental cues define the gene expression program of murine esophageal eosinophils and identify AP-1 family members, including ATF3, as key regulators of gene expression.

DNA methylation is a critical component for repression of fetal haemoglobin in adult blood cells. Removing DNA methylation from the fetal haemoglobin promoter effectively upregulates the gene, opening avenues for the treatment of blood disorders.

A region on chromosome 19p13 is associated with the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer. Here, the authors genotyped SNPs in this region in thousands of breast and ovarian cancer patients and identified SNPs associated with three genes, which were analysed with functional studies.

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.

m⁶A modifications are measured in living cells with a fluorescent reporter.

Immune cells are important regulators of adipose tissue function, including adaptive thermogenesis. Here the authors show that mice with Krüppel-like factor 3 (KLF3) deficiency in bone marrow-derived cells have increased adipose tissue beiging which may at least in part be due to altered eosinophil paracrine signaling.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

mRNA vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2 also sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Experimental measurements of high-order out-of-time-order correlators on a superconducting quantum processor show that these correlators remain highly sensitive to the quantum many-body dynamics in quantum computers at long timescales.

In this Stage 2 Registered Report, Buchanan et al. show evidence confirming the phenomenon of semantic priming across speakers of 19 diverse languages.

Retrotransposition events have been linked to some human disorders. Here, Gardner et al. systematically search for mobile genetic elements (ME) in trio whole exome-sequencing datasets and ascertain 9 de novo MEs and further estimate genome-wide germline ME burden and constraint.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports the observation of the electroweak production of two jets and a Z-boson pair. This process is related to vector-boson scattering and allows the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking to be probed.

Reversible cysteine oxidative modifications have emerged as important mechanisms that alter protein function. Here the authors globally assess the cysteine reactivity and an array of cysteine oxidative modifications in C. elegans, providing insights into redox signaling at the organismal level.

Openshaw and colleagues find myeloid inflammation and complement activation signatures in patients with long COVID who were previously hospitalized.

Investigation of variation in three cohorts has identified multiple genetic signals associated with the pregnancy-specific liver disorder, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, giving insight into the disease which can cause preterm birth and stillbirth.

Our current understanding of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is based on patients ascertained through phenotype-first approaches, which estimate a low prevalence at 1 in 3,000. Here, the authors leverage a genotype-first approach in multiple large patient cohorts to demonstrate an unexpectedly high prevalence (1 in 1,286) of NF1 pathogenic variants with distinct disease associations.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports a measurement of the ratio of the decay rates of W bosons to τ leptons and muons, in agreement with universal lepton couplings as postulated in the standard model of particle physics.

The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider reports a search for charged-lepton-flavour violation in decays of Z bosons into a τ lepton and an electron or muon of opposite charge.

This overview of the ENCODE project outlines the data accumulated so far, revealing that 80% of the human genome now has at least one biochemical function assigned to it; the newly identified functional elements should aid the interpretation of results of genome-wide association studies, as many correspond to sites of association with human disease.

The sodium salts in corn stover hydrolysates have been identified as important inhibitors for cellulosic ethanol production. Adaptive evolution generated a robust yeast that converted both glucose and xylose into biofuel. Subsequent reverse engineering created a genetically defined yeast with equivalent performance to the evolved strain.

In a post-hoc analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) features from patients with metastatic prostate cancer treated with [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu–PSMA-617 or cabazitaxel in the randomized phase 2 TheraP trial, low ctDNA levels at baseline were predictive of clinical benefit from [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu–PSMA-617, and PTEN or ATM alterations were identified as potential biomarkers of response.

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.

Lim et al. identify CD34 as a surface marker of the heart’s sinoatrial node pacemaker cells, enabling their isolation from stem cell differentiation cultures, advancing future disease modeling, drug discovery, and biological pacemaker applications.

Whole-genome sequencing analysis of individuals with primary immunodeficiency identifies new candidate disease-associated genes and shows how the interplay between genetic variants can explain the variable penetrance and complexity of the disease.

Unlocking the blood proteome requires exquisite sensitivity and multiplexing to detect low and high abundance proteins simultaneously. Here the authors describe a 200-plex immunoassay with attomolar sensitivity to detect important low abundance proteins in inflammatory diseases and COVID-19.

The exploration of voltage-gated potassium channels using cryo-electron microscopy and electrophysiology identifies a mechanism of inactivation involved in regulating neuron firing.

Phage genomes are readily engineered using retron recombineering.

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.

Post-international travel quarantine has been widely implemented to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but the impacts of such policies are unclear. Here, the authors used linked genomic and contact tracing data to assess the impacts of a 14-day quarantine on return to England in summer 2020.

Sera from vaccinated individuals and some monoclonal antibodies show a modest reduction in neutralizing activity against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2; but the E484K substitution leads to a considerable loss of neutralizing activity.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

In the dose-escalation part of the ongoing phase 1/2 LIBRA4 trial, patients with relapsed/refractory peripheral T cell lymphoma received T cell antigen receptor beta-chain constant domain 1 (TRBC1)-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy, showing limited toxicity and encouraging preliminary clinical responses.

Getting around the limitations of antibody-based N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) pulldown, such as high input requirements and cross-reactivity, DART-seq profiles transcriptome-wide m⁶A occurrences from RNA amounts equivalent to the RNA obtained from 1,000 cells.

Chronic infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to the emergence of viral variants that show reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies in an immunosuppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma.

Actin mediates insulin secretion in pancreatic β-cells through remodeling. Here, authors report the in situ structure of actin remodeling and quantify changes in architecture, alignment, and interactions during glucose-stimulated insulin secretion.

Patricia Munroe, Joanna Howson and colleagues genotype ∼350,000 individuals and identify 30 new blood pressure– or hypertension-associated risk loci. Their analyses provide insights into the pathophysiology of hypertension and highlight new potential targets for clinical intervention.

In a previous clinical trial, the authors reported that SCFA-yielding biotherapy in adults with type 1 diabetes remodels the gut proteome and metabolome. Here, the show that colonization of the post-therapy microbiome into mice delayed diabetes and increased aryl-hydrocarbon receptor ligand and IgA production in the gut.