Lorin Crawford began his independent career at Brown University School of Public Health with his own lab in the summer of 2017. He is currently a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, New England while also keeping his faculty position at Brown University. In this short Q&A he tells us about his research and the effect the pandemic has had on his lab and science. Dr. Crawford also shares some great tips on academic careers and making biostatistics approachable to wider audience and his views on the most exciting application of machine learning.

Parrish et al. demonstrate the modification of an incoming solar spectrum through downconversion of high energy UV/blue photons into orange/red photons using luminescent quantum dot films, leading to improved growth of leaf vegetables. Such technology can improve greenhouse productivity while reducing energy costs and can be useful to realize self-sustaining human settlements beyond Earth.

Gauvain et al demonstrate that optogenetic therapy using the AAV2.7m8- ChR-tdT construct can partially restore vision in non-human primates to levels above those considered legally-blind. This study enables the identification of the most suitable construct for ongoing clinical trials attempting vision restoration in patients with retinitis pigmentosa.

Borcherding and Vishwakarma et al. characterize the tumor immune microenvironment in treatment-naïve clear cell renal carcinoma patients using single-cell RNA- and T-cell receptor sequencing. They find CD8 + T cells and macrophages are enriched in tumor tissue, and identify a proliferative CD8 + T-cell population, which may be relevant for anti-cancer responses.

Meng-Hsuan Lin et al. investigate MERS-CoV macro domain binding selectivity with NAD and NAD metabolites under various conditions. At physiological temperature, NAD is observed to have enhanced binding affinity to the MERS-CoV macro domain, shedding light on a new possible role of the MERS-CoV macro domain in viral replication.

Vaidyanathan et al. present a heuristic algorithm for the selection of fluorescent reporters in the context of single-cell analysis. They present a tool to enable biologists to design multi-colour fluorophore panels based on specific equipment’s configurations. The authors demonstrate the efficacy of their algorithm by comparing computational predictions with experimental observations.

Noji et al. test link between protein folding and misfolding upon heating and agitation. They show that folding and amyloid formation are separated by the supersaturation barrier of a protein, breakdown of which shifts the protein to the amyloid pathway. This study is useful to the field of protein folding versus self-assembly and amyloidogenesis.

A huge amount of intrigue surrounds the aging process. Senescence—the decreased likelihood of reproduction and the increased chance of mortality—is a hallmark of aging. The reduced ability of senescent cells to maintain protein homeostasis (proteostasis) has been well-established in nematodes but this phenomenon had yet to be directly demonstrated in human cells. Sabath et al. recently provided compelling evidence that proteostasis collapse is indeed intrinsic to human cell senescence, which may have broad implications in the underlying processes of human aging.

Lorin Crawford began his independent career at Brown University School of Public Health with his own lab in the summer of 2017. He is currently a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, New England while also keeping his faculty position at Brown University. In this short Q&A he tells us about his research and the effect the pandemic has had on his lab and science. Dr. Crawford also shares some great tips on academic careers and making biostatistics approachable to wider audience and his views on the most exciting application of machine learning.

Protein aggregation and phase separation appear to play important roles in diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLD), but the interplay between different participating molecular events-which may facilitate or inhibit one another-can be difficult to study by conventional ensemble methods. In a recent study, Kevin Rhine and co-workers make use of point mutations to demonstrate the contrasting behaviour of condensates arising from Glycine and Arginine FUS mutants using single molecules fluorescence measurements.

Centrosomes are the main microtubule-organizing centers in animal cells, indispensable for cell division and the building of a wide range of cilia, which include sensory and motile cilia. We are now inviting submissions related to the fascinating field of centrosomes, cilia and all of the processes that they are involved in with the aim of highlighting this work in a Special Collection.

The CRISPR-Cas toolbox allows genetic manipulation of cultured cells, plants and animals on the basis of simpler RNA-guided DNA recognition. It has provided breakthrough scientific opportunities to engineer desirable traits, cure genetic diseases and enable point-of-care diagnostics. A recent study by Joseph Bondy-Denomy and colleagues further equips this toolbox to cut larger chunks of DNA from a cell’s genome.

It doesn’t take much to disrupt our sleep. Whilst we are aware of environmental factors that can disturb our circadian rhythms, the precise mechanisms that control molecular time cues have remained elusive. Beesley and co-workers demonstrate that diseases associated with cytoplasmic crowding affect the sleep-wake cycle. They also pinpoint a precise time-limiting step in the trafficking of the pacemaker protein PERIOD.