Daily briefing: Rogue antibodies implicated in COVID deaths

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Next steps for lab-grown human embryos

In May, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) released new guidelines that relaxed the 14-day rule, an international consensus that human embryos should be cultured and grown in the lab only until 14 days post-fertilization. The change opens the door, in countries where such research is legal, for scientists to start exploring what happens after the embryo would normally have implanted in the uterus, shedding light on human development and reproduction. Researchers are cautious, and there are not many who have perfected the techniques needed to culture human embryos for so long. But there is excitement — and stiff competition — driving the field forward. “Embryos are the great masters,” says stem-cell biologist and embryologist Nicolas Rivron. “They are the structures that teach us everything about how we are formed and how we fail.”

Nature | 12 min read

Rogue antibodies and COVID deaths

Antibodies that turn against elements of our own immune defences, known as autoantibodies, seem to be involved in almost one-fifth of COVID-19 deaths. Researchers studied more than 3,500 people from 38 countries who had very severe COVID-19. They found that around 10% of them had autoantibodies that attack and block type 1 interferons, proteins in the blood that have a crucial role in fighting off viral infections. Autoantibodies were present in 18% of people who had died of the disease. These rogue antibodies are also found in a small proportion of healthy, uninfected individuals — and their prevalence increases with age, which might help to explain why elderly people are at higher risk of severe COVID-19.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: Science Immunology paper

Physicists quantify wave-particle duality

One of quantum physics’s most bizarre and fundamental concepts — that quantum objects behave both as particles and as waves — has a new and more quantitative foundation. Researchers have reimagined the archetypal double-slit experiment, using lasers and lithium niobate crystals to create two photons with a single quantum state. One photon’s wave-like nature was quantified using the interference pattern it created in an interferometer. The other photon’s particle-like qualities were measured by observing its trajectory. What’s more, scientists were able to tweak the lasers to test how the source influenced a single quantum particle’s wave–particle duality. This revealed how the whole system — photons, sources and detectors — is linked by quantum entanglement.

Physics World | 6 min read

Reference: Science Advances paper

Large HIV trial ends in heartbreak

Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J’s) promising vaccine against HIV has been unsuccessful in an efficacy trial among women in South Africa and four neighboring countries. A trial of a similar HIV vaccine among transgender people and men who have sex with men will continue in the Americas and Europe. The vaccine uses the same adenovirus technology as J&J’s successful COVID-19 vaccine, but showed only a 25% efficacy rate in preventing HIV infection. Its failure throws the long struggle for an HIV vaccine into stark relief, compared to what has been achieved against SARS-CoV-2. “I should be used to it by now, but you’re never used to it,” says physician-scientist Glenda Gray, who heads the South African Medical Research Council and oversaw the protocol for the trial. “You still put your heart and soul into it.”

Science | 4 min read & The New York Times | 3 min read, intermittent paywall

Features & opinion

Tools for tackling literature overload

A new generation of smart software tools is helping scientists to stay on top of the literature. Visual mapping and recommendation tools such as Connected Papers and Open Knowledge Maps find relevant papers on the basis of factors such as citations and metadata. Tools such as ResearchGate and ResearchRabbit offer recommendations based on what you, and others, have read before. These can augment or even replace e-mail alerts from services such as Google Scholar, and most of the tools are free or offer free versions.

Nature | 7 min read

Look to the world’s biodiversity panel

COP 15, the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, is slated to take place in Kunming, China, in April and May 2022. Ahead of the long-delayed meeting, policymakers and scientists are discussing a new action plan, called the Global Biodiversity Framework, which they hope to agree next year. Researchers around the world are advising on the plan, but one piece of the puzzle is missing, argues a Nature editorial: the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Policymakers would benefit from the systematic evaluation that the global scientific advisory body would bring.

Nature | 6 min read

Reference: Latest draft of the Global Biodiversity Framework

Image of the week

There are two easy ways to identify a spotted skunk. One, they are spotted, not stripey like Pepé Le Pew. Two, right before they spray you, they leap up into a spread-eagled handstand. Beyond those unforgettable qualities, how to differentiate between the lineages of Spilogale has been up for debate: over the years, the number of recognized species has ranged from 2 to 14. Now researchers have analysed the DNA of more than 200 specimens and determined that there are 7 full species of spotted skunk — 3 more than are currently recognized. (The New York Times | 4 min read, intermittent paywall)

Reference: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution paper ((c) Jerry W. Dragoo)