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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).

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.

Unaffordable water prices pose a threat to human health and well-being. A socio-hydrological modelling approach that integrates hydrology, water infrastructure, utility decision-making and household behaviour can be used to understand the impacts of droughts on household water affordability

Price fluctuations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have been key determinants of food security in the recent past. A comparison of monthly retail prices in 181 countries from January 2019 to June 2021 reveals which regions and food items have been most affected.

As adoption of electric vehicles rises, grid costs increase. The authors show that charging loads differ by income and predict cost asymmetries up to 33-fold between higher- and lower-income neighborhoods, leading to an inequitable cost allocation.

The results obtained by seventy different teams analysing the same functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset show substantial variation, highlighting the influence of analytical choices and the importance of sharing workflows publicly and performing multiple analyses.

An investigation using various methods reports an association between adeno-associated virus 2 and paediatric hepatitis of unknown aetiology.

COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of supply chains, particularly for goods that are essential or may suddenly become essential, such as repurposed pharmaceuticals. Here the authors develop a methodology to provide routes to pharmaceutical targets that allow low-supply starting materials or intermediates to be avoided, with representative pathways validated experimentally.

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

This Perspective considers the addition of ACKR1 genetic testing for identifying ACKR1/DARC-associated neutropenia in patients receiving clozapine, recommending eligibility criteria and testing strategies while estimating substantial cost savings for the UK healthcare system and enhancing equitable treatment access.

A cell surface reporter that binds to a fluorine-18-labelled radioligand enables the monitoring of CAR T cells and gene therapy vectors in preclinical models using PET imaging.

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.

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.

A case–control study investigating the causes of recent cases of acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in 32 children identifies an association between adeno-associated virus infection and host genetics in disease susceptibility.

Net-zero bioplastics are possible when combined with high recycling rates. This study presents a mixed polyester recycling process integrated with monomer separation and purification for both fossil- and bio-based plastics. Techno-economic and life cycle analyses confirm its environmental and commercial advantages, advancing the path toward circular, low-emission polyester plastics.

Traders of financial options bet that firms’ stock prices will be affected by forecasts of seasonal climate produced by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Firms are exposed throughout the economy, and traders spend more to hedge the news from more skillful forecasts

Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine-mapping, 298 loci and 36 credible genes are identified in the aetiology of bipolar disorder.

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.

This study found higher RSV antibody levels were associated with lower RSV risk in children outside the hospital. An earlier rise in incidence and higher incidence rates were observed among children <5 years compared to older children and adults.

Integrated multi-omic analyses using samples from the TRACERx study highlight cross-talk between DNA hypermethylation and genomic lesions in non-small cell lung cancer.

Offshore mariculture could promote food security and economic development while sparing wild fisheries. This model-based study finds that the Caribbean could produce over 40 million metric tons of cobia (Rachycentron canadum), about half as much as the current global wild fish catch, and in less than 1.5% of the study area.

Regional differences in SARS-CoV-2 variants may affect treatment outcome. Here, the authors show that near-sourced convalescent plasma has higher efficacy, as defined by death within 30 days of transfusion, than plasma sourced more than 150 miles away.

Animal migrations are extensive and crucial for ecosystem health but are in decline. This study identifies 1,787 sites and links among them for 109 marine species, highlighting the need for international cooperation and providing policymakers with essential knowledge for effective conservation.

This study assessed COVID-19 social science preprints’ replicability using structured groups. Both beginners and more-experienced participants used a elicitation protocol to make better-than-chance predictions about the reliability of research claims under high uncertainty.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper proposes a framework to assess systemic risks that compound and cascade within and between systems. This emphasizes political economy and transformations, as well as trans-disciplinarity and diverse participation, evidence and methods.

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.

An estimated area of 215 million hectares has the potential for natural forest regeneration across tropical forested countries and biomes, representing an above-ground carbon sequestration potential of 23.4 Gt C.

Benchmarking of scATAC-seq protocols demonstrates the effects of data quality on downstream analyses.

New tumor epitopes are discovered by ribosome profiling and immunopeptidome mass spectrometry.

Jose Florez, Claudia Langenberg, Erik Ingelsson, Inga Prokopenko, Inês Barroso and colleagues perform large-scale association analyses using the Metabochip to gain further insights into the genetic architecture of glucose regulation. They identify 38 new loci influencing 1 or more glycemic traits and show that many of these loci also modify risk of type 2 diabetes.

Genome-wide association analyses of 41,917 bipolar disorder cases and 371,549 controls of European ancestry provide new insights into the etiology of this disorder and identify novel therapeutic leads and potential opportunities for drug repurposing.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

Genome-wide analyses identify 30 independent loci associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder, highlighting genetic overlap with other psychiatric disorders and implicating putative effector genes and cell types contributing to its etiology.

Dormant liver stages of Plasmodium vivax complicate malaria elimination efforts by causing relapses that obscure the efficacy of antimalarial treatments. Here, the authors develop a high-throughput amplicon sequencing assay to reconstruct P. vivax lineages, demonstrating its capacity for geospatial infection tracking, and distinguishing recurrent malaria caused by new infections versus untreated dormant liver stages.

Extent and spatial patterns of settlements and infrastructures strongly affect resource demand of national economies worldwide. Their influence on final energy and CO2 emissions is almost as large as that of gross domestic product (GDP).

Gao and colleagues explore soluble biomarkers, immune cell subsets, viral antibody responses and plasma proteomics to better define and understand long COVID in two independent cohorts.

The reasoning capabilities of OpenAI’s generative pre-trained transformer family were tested using semantic illusions and cognitive reflection tests that are typically used in human studies. While early models were prone to human-like cognitive errors, ChatGPT decisively outperformed humans, avoiding the cognitive traps embedded in the tasks.

Data collected from more than 2,000 taxa provide an unparalleled opportunity to quantify how extreme wildfires affect biodiversity, revealing that the largest effects on plants and animals were in areas with frequent or recent past fires and within extensively burnt areas.