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The seasonal vertical migration of copepods in polar oceans can be considered as a dispersal throughout the water column rather than a translocation to depth, according to field sampling of copepods that overwinter in the Central Arctic Ocean.

Toxicities limit combination of PARP inhibitors (PARPi) and chemotherapy in patients with germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 pathogenic variant (gBRCAm) breast cancer. Here, the authors report a preclinical study followed by a randomised phase II/III clinical trial investigating the addition of a gap between chemotherapy (carboplatin and paclitaxel) and PARPi (olaparib), in patients with early gBRCAm breast cancer.

In this study, Marshall et al. studied early immune responses in the lung and blood after an aerosol infection with BCG. Understanding which cells respond to this infection can help us understand how to design new tuberculosis vaccines.

Transient micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices that are based on water-soluble material platforms can provide safe implants for biointegrated systems.

Delivering therapeutics to the brain is challenging because of the hard-to-cross blood–brain barrier. Here, the authors show that HER3, which is expressed on the surface of many metastatic tumours, is associated with the brain endothelium and can drive accumulation of HER3-targeted nanoparticles within the brain, for therapy against HER3-positive tumours.

Knee osteoarthritis has a sex-specific phenotype with post-menopausal persons experiencing the highest incidence. Here the authors investigate the underlying mechanisms in a mouse model of menopause and find that the loss of 17β-estradiol and progesterone enhanced susceptibility to senescence, extracellular matrix disassembly and cartilage degradation.

Disturbances in IP3 receptor-mediated release of Ca²+ from the endoplasmatic reticulum are associated with neurodegenerative disease. Here, the authors identify in four families with hereditary spastic paraplegia biallelic mutations in RNF170 that associate with increased basal levels of IP3 receptors.

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.

A quantitative morphological framework for the human thymus reveals the establishment of the lobular cytokine network, canonical thymocyte trajectories and thymic epithelial cell distributions in fetal and paediatric thymic development.

A vascular cell atlas integrating single-cell data of 19 organs and tissues from 62 donors identifies angiotypic and organotypic characteristics of endothelial and mural cells.

The first controlled human infection model of cutaneous leishmaniasis transmitted by sand flies enables assessment of immune responses and parasitism in infected participants that can inform future vaccine and therapeutic development.

The αvβ6 integrin is key in activating the pro-fibrotic cytokine TGFβ in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Here, the authors show an inhaled small molecule αvβ6 inhibitor GSK3008348 induces prolonged inhibition of TGFβ signaling pathways in human and murine models of lung fibrosis via αvβ6 degradation.

Softening in tomatoes is uncoupled from ripening by silencing a pectate lyase, thereby identifying a route to engineering (or breeding) tomatoes with better shelf life and flavor.

Here the authors identify distinct mechanisms by which ___domain-specific p53 mutations activate cancer cell growth via the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). These mechanisms affect sensitivity to EGFR inhibitors, opening avenues for targeted therapy.

Transcriptomes of about 70,000 single cells from first-trimester deciduas and placentas reveal subsets of perivascular, stromal and natural killer cells in the decidua, with distinct immunomodulatory profiles that regulate the environment necessary for successful placentation.

Iron overload can be either hereditary or acquired via transfusions, and current treatments include the use of iron chelators that have adverse effects in some patients. Here the authors modify siderocalin to enhance iron excretion in urine, and demonstrate therapeutic efficacy in iron overload mouse models.

Cryptococcal meningitis is a life-threatening fungal infection. Here, Mohamed et al find that brain resident microglia do not provide protection against this infection and instead are a site where the fungus may access the micronutrient copper.

In vivo lensless imaging can be achieved via a phase mask that creates diffraction patterns with high-contrast contours, as shown for the imaging of calcium dynamics in the cortex of mice and of microvasculature in the oral mucosa of volunteers.

The combination of mathematical modelling of tumour tissue, optical imaging of cleared tumours from animal models, and in vivo imaging of vascular perfusion in tumours predicts the tumour uptake and distribution of specific therapeutic agents.

Ding and colleagues use bulk, single-cell and single-nucleus multi-omics together with spatial transcriptomics and multiplex imaging of clinical tumor samples to characterize gene expression and chromatin accessibility of breast cancer lineages.

Non-human primates are important animal models for studying SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here, Salguero et al. directly compare rhesus and cynomolgus macaques and show that both species represent COVID-19 disease of mild clinical cases, and provide a lung histopathology scoring system.

A design strategy termed ‘adaptive morphogenesis’ enables a robot inspired by aquatic and terrestrial turtles to adapt its limb morphology and gait to specialize for locomotion in different environments.

SARS-CoV-2 induces mild infection in ferret model. Here, Ryan et al. characterise optimal infection dosage inducing upper respiratory tract (UTR) viral shedding, progression time of viral shedding, and pathology in ferrets and finally provide evidence for protection after re-challenge.

The understanding of altered lipid metabolism by isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) mutations in gliomas at a compartment-specific level is limited. Here, the authors use Raman spectroscopy to monitor organelle-specific metabolic changes and report that IDH1 mutations induce phospholipid imbalances which lead to ER and Golgi dilation.

Marine bacteria and algae engage in intermittent symbioses mediated by unknown molecular signals. Here, it is shown that a chemical signal, p-coumaric acid, produced by the breakdown of algal lignin, causes the usually symbiotic bacterium Phaeobacter gallaeciensis to produce new metabolites (the roseobacticides) with potent but selective algaecidal activity.

The incorporation of cells into tissue engineering scaffolds can be a major challenge. Here, the authors report on anchoring thrombin to cell membranes for the in situ formation of fibrin scaffolds around the modified cells, demonstrate scaffold formation in vitro and show cell survival in vivo.

The brain is sensitive to oxygen deprivation. Here, the authors show in experimental animals that sensitivity to hypoxia is inversely related to the level of sulfide:quinone oxidoreductast (SQOR) and the capacity to catabolize sulfide in the brain.

The reaction of hydroxyl and methylperoxy radicals has recently been suggested as the source of missing methanol in the remote troposphere. Here, the authors present direct experimental measurements demonstrating the reaction leads to further underprediction of modelled methanol.

Deposition and spreading of amyloid-β pathology in mice requires binding to microglia-released ASC specks.

Innate immunity protects the central nervous system against fungal pathogens. Lionakis and colleagues identify Candidalysin, a Candida virulence factor that elicits microglial expression of the cytokine IL-1β and chemokine CXCL1 and facilitates neutrophil recruitment. Alteration of this pathway impairs antifungal responses.

The cytokine oncostatin M drives intestinal inflammation in mice, and its abundance in the intestine of patients with inflammatory bowel disease predicts response to tumor necrosis factor–neutralizing therapy.

The mechanism by which formaldehyde, a potent DNA and protein crosslinking agent, is generated from folate is described, with implications for the treatment of certain cancers.

Advances in sample preparation and computation analysis make FTIR of biological materials a rapidly expanding research area. Researchers from a number of universities have collaborated to provide procedures for FTIR analysis of biological samples.

Microbial methanogenesis converts up to 19% of the carbon dioxide injected into an oil field to methane, suggesting that microbial methanogenesis may be a globally important subsurface process.