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Cuckoo eggs mimic those of their hosts to evade rejection. Here, the authors demonstrate that African cuckoo finch females combine both mimicry and a strategy of repeatedly parasitizing the same host nests to increase success by creating uncertainty in host defenses.

Tummino et al. dock 74 million molecules against the human cannabinoid-1 receptor to find uM ligands. Optimization led to a nM agonist conferring analgesia with reduced side effects in mice, highlighting its potential as a pain therapeutic and the promise of a structure-based approach.

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.

As the NHS moves on from its 70th birthday, BSPD's Stanley Gelbier, Claire Stevens and Ben Underwood look forward

What drives the mouthfeel of ’thickness’? When is a soup too ’thick’? Here, authors measure the rheology of liquid soups and show their subjectively perceived ’thickness’ can be directly associated to their non-Newtonian rheology.

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

This multisite study detects a link between brain dynamic functional network connectivity and current and future post-traumatic stress symptom severity with a stronger effect in the female group.

This study identifies a set of risk factors that fully mediate and uniquely contribute to the relationship between sex assigned at birth and posttraumatic stress disorder severity.

Clinically significant genetic variation in Asian populations is under-characterized. Here, the authors show the diversity in prevalence and spectrum of human disease and pharmacogenetic variants in a multi-ethnic Asian population.

Long Fung Chau and colleagues report the generation of transgenic pigs expressing human ACE2, and show that they exhibit clinical signs and immunopathology consistent with COVID-19 following infection with SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that human ACE2 transgenic pigs are a viable large animal model for COVID-19.

Immune lymphocyte estimation from nucleotide sequencing (ImmuneLENS) infers B cell and T cell fractions from whole-genome sequencing data. Applied to the 100,000 Genomes Project datasets, circulating T cell fraction provides sex-dependent and prognostic insights in patients.

This manuscript evaluates forecasts of laboratory-confirmed influenza hospital admissions, a new target for influenza forecasting in the United States. Across two influenza seasons, the FluSight ensemble is robust compared to submitted models.

The authors report data from the emergency department AURORA study to characterize resilience in more detail than the absence of psychopathology after trauma.

Vaccination is effective in protecting from COVID-19. Here the authors report immune responses and breakthrough infections in twice-vaccinated patients receiving anti-TNF treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, and find dampened vaccine responses that implicate the need of adapted vaccination schedules for these patients.

Large-scale sequence-based analyses identify novel risk variants and susceptibility genes for Crohn’s disease, and implicate mesenchymal cell-mediated intestinal homeostasis in disease etiology.

Understanding how ß-amyloid contributes to synapse loss and dysfunction is a central goal of Alzheimer’s disease research. Here, Leshchyns’ka et al.identify a novel mechanism by which Aß disassembles hippocampal glutamatergic synapses via cleavage of a neural cell adhesion molecule 2 (NCAM2).

Frustrated magnetic systems such as pyrochlores are interesting for the complexity of their competing low-temperature phases. Here, the intrinsic disorder of the entropy-stabilized compound Tb₂(TiZrHfGeSn)₂O₇ is utilized to investigate the elusive ground state of Tb-based pyrochlore magnets.

Prostate cancer (PrCa) involves a large heritable genetic component. Here, the authors perform multivariate fine-mapping of known PrCa GWAS loci, identifying variants enriched for biological function, explaining more familial relative risk, and with potential application in clinical risk profiling.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies across different populations highlights new risk loci and provides a genetic risk score that can stratify prostate cancer risk across ancestries.

Reactivation of the inactive X chromosome (Xi) has modelled epigenetic reprogramming in mouse. Here, by using cell fusion between human female fibroblasts and mouse embryonic stem cells, the authors show a complex hierarchy of epigenetic changes that are required to reactivate the genes on the human Xi chromosome.

An exciting genome-wide association study in the British population for seven common diseases. This analysis confirms previously identified loci and provides strong evidence for many novel disease susceptibility loci.

What advice should you give patients with young children to ensure that they establish and maintain good oral health? BDJ Team is pleased to publish an article from Claire Stevens' ToothFairyBlog.

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.

The implementation of genomics for identification and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in clinical laboratories remains challenging. Here, Sherry et al. present a bioinformatics platform for detection of AMR determinants from whole-genome sequencing data, suitable for clinical and public-health microbiology reporting.

Whole-exome sequencing identifies ten risk genes for schizophrenia implicated by rare protein-coding variants, a subset of which overlap with risk genes in other neurodevelopmental disorders.

A genome-wide association study for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) identifies 12 loci and implicates neurodevelopmental pathways and conserved regions of the genome as being involved in underlying ADHD biology.

Chromosome 8q24 is known to be a major susceptibility region for prostate cancer risk. Here the authors analyze genetic data across the 8q24 region from 71,535 prostate cancer patients identifying 12 risk loci, three previously unreported, highlighting the contribution of germline variation at this locus.

Ground-nesting birds actively choose backgrounds for their nests that enhance their camouflage, refining this choice across spatial scales.

New methods and larger sample groups are used to precisely determine the alleles in the HLA complex which contribute susceptibility to type 1 diabetes.

It's in our food and it's now all over the news. So we ask what is the deal with sugar?

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.

Functionalisation of conjugated polymers is essential for performance in many applications, yet there are limited approaches to achieve this. Here the authors developed a method for the direct postpolymerisation modification of the aromatic backbone of conjugated polymers and used them to create multifunctional semiconducting nanoparticles.