News & Comment

Partnerships between academic investigators and industry can accelerate the translation of research findings into life-saving products. The healthcare industry has witnessed heightened interest from universities in capitalizing on the discoveries made by faculty to create intellectual property, form new companies and seek investments. However, academic investigators and even Biotechnology start-ups may be unfamiliar with how industry sources and evaluates these opportunities. In this Comment, we share the approaches and principles by which a large healthcare company sources innovation and assesses opportunities to serve as a guide to better deal making with the goal of improving health for humanity.

More and more clinical studies include potentially sensitive human proteomics or metabolomics datasets, but bioinformatics resources for managing the access to these data are not yet available. This commentary discusses current best practices and future perspectives for the responsible handling of clinical proteomics and metabolomics data.

A bank of 59 well-characterised prostate cancer patient-derived xenografts was established, including 17 classed as research-ready covering the disease-spectrum which, plus associated resources (organoids, serum, DNA/RNA profiles, tissue), are available for collaborative projects. This eagerly-anticipated resource will facilitate pre-clinical prostate cancer therapy studies.

Microglia are brain resident immune cells with multiple functions. However, little is known about microglia-vascular interactions. In a recent paper published in Nature Communications, Bisht et al. identify a signalling mechanism that attracts and maintains microglia at the capillary wall. Moreover, they show that microglia regulate capillary vascular tone, playing a more significant role in blood flow regulation than previously thought.

Spatially resolved transcriptomic data demand new computational analysis methods to derive biological insights. Here, we comment on these associated computational challenges as well as highlight the opportunities for standardized benchmarking metrics and data-sharing infrastructure in spurring innovation moving forward.

Synthetic biology has brought about a conceptual shift in our ability to redesign microbial metabolic networks. Combining metabolic pathway-modularization with growth-coupled selection schemes is a powerful tool that enables deep rewiring of the cell factories’ biochemistry for rational bioproduction.

Robust and precise characterization of the interactions between nanoengineered materials and biosystems is vital for the development of safe, efficient diagnostic and therapeutic nanomedicines. This comment discusses the key aspects of nanoparticle characteristics affecting the interpretation of nano-bio interface data.

The COVID-19 lockdown reduced human mobility and led to immediate insights into how humans impact nature. Yet the strongest ecological impacts are likely to come. As we emerge from the pandemic, governments should avoid prioritizing short-term economic gains that compromise ecosystems and the services they provide humanity. Instead, the pandemic can be a pivot point for societal transformation to value longer term ecosystem and economic sustainability.

Synthetic glucocorticoids serve as co-medication against solid malignant tumors. However, glucocorticoid receptor activation may promote unsolicited cancer resistance to chemotherapy. The Kang team elucidated a glucocorticoid receptor-centred chemotherapy-resistance mechanism to cisplatin and characterized avenues towards a viable escape strategy.

The cyst(e)ine/glutathione (GSH)/glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) axis is the most frequently targeted pathway to trigger the ferroptosis cascade and suppress tumor growth. Two recent studies present additional mechanisms underlying cystine starvation-induced ferroptosis apart from impaired GSH synthesis.

A new generation of earthquake catalogs developed through supervised machine-learning illuminates earthquake activity with unprecedented detail. Application of unsupervised machine learning to analyze the more complete expression of seismicity in these catalogs may be the fastest route to improving earthquake forecasting.

Globalisation supports the clustering of critical infrastructure systems, sometimes in proximity to lower-magnitude (VEI 3–6) volcanic centres. In this emerging risk landscape, moderate volcanic eruptions might have cascading, catastrophic effects. Risk assessments ought to be considered in this light.

Outdoor air pollution contributes to millions of deaths worldwide yet air pollution has differential exposures across racial/ethnic groups and socioeconomic status. While green infrastructure has the potential to decrease air pollution and provide other benefits to human health, vegetation alone cannot resolve health disparities related to air pollution injustice. We discuss how unequal access to green infrastructure can limit air quality improvements for marginalized communities and provide strategies to move forward.

Two papers published in June 2021 used a two-photon microscope or one-photon miniature microscope to interrogate the motor cortex in behaving macaque monkeys. The imaging was performed over several months, and the direction of natural arm reaching was decoded from the population activity.

As it fulfills an irresistible need to understand our own origins, research on human development occupies a unique niche in scientific and medical research. In this Comment, we explore the progress in our understanding of human development over the past 10 years. The focus is on basic research, clinical applications, and ethical considerations.

In the next 10 years, the continued exploration of human embryology holds promise to revolutionize regenerative and reproductive medicine with important societal consequences. In this Comment we speculate on the evolution of recent advances made and describe emerging technologies for basic research, their potential clinical applications, and, importantly, the ethical frameworks in which they must be considered.

In the face of an on-going global pandemic and the growing urgency of climate change, the challenge of building an equitable and sustainable world has never been greater. Thus, now more than ever, we want to support and highlight research efforts made at attaining the UN sustainable development goals.

From smartphones to electric vehicles, Li-ion batteries have revolutionized our daily lives. Here, we discuss the most important aspects that have enabled lithium-ion batteries to thrive, and introduce some of our articles that contribute to the evolution of these devices.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) scientists are an invisible minority that still faces harassment and discrimination. Fostering safe, designated LGBTQ+ environments is a way for the community to connect with each other and raise awareness. In honor of Pride Month (June 2021), Dr. Keisling (postdoctoral fellow at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University), Dr. Le Bras (scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and Dr. Ludka (postdoctoral researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) share with Nature Communications their experiences bringing together the LGBTQ+ community at geoscience conferences, and offer advice for how other disciplines can do the same.