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Featured
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Outline |
Cancer-vaccine trials give reasons for optimism
Therapeutic vaccines could provide a transformative shot in the arm for cancer treatment.
- Liam Drew
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Outline |
How does a cancer vaccine work?
After decades of slow progress, therapeutic vaccines that direct the immune system to attack tumours could soon become a fixture of cancer treatment.
- Liam Drew
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News & Views |
Mobile delivery of COVID-19 vaccines improved uptake in rural Sierra Leone
A trial that took mobile health services to rural Sierra Leone finds that this initiative increased COVID-19 vaccine uptake. But more must be done to expand the coverage of health services in low-income countries.
- Alison Buttenheim
- & Harsha Thirumurthy
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News |
Massive public-health experiment sends vaccination rates soaring
The rate of vaccination against COVID-19 rose sharply in villages in Sierra Leone where health officials held mobile vaccination clinics.
- Max Kozlov
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Comment |
Save lives in the next pandemic: ensure vaccine equity now
The proposed Pandemic Agreement must ensure that COVID-19 vaccine nationalism is never repeated; 290 scientists call for action.
- Colin Carlson
- , Daniel Becker
- & Alexandra Phelan
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Book Review |
The ‘Bill Gates problem’: do billionaire philanthropists skew global health research?
Personal priorities are often trumping real needs and skewing where charitable funding goes.
- Andy Stirling
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Nature Podcast |
Cervical cancer could be eliminated: here’s how
Two experts lay out the steps that need to be taken, and the challenges facing low- and middle-income countries.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Jennifer Gardiner
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News Explainer |
Measles outbreaks cause alarm: what the data say
A drastic rise in infections in the United Kingdom and Europe follows a drop in vaccine uptake.
- Carissa Wong
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Editorial |
Research funders must join the fight for equal access to medicines
Pandemic treaty is a rare opportunity to ensure pandemic-related technologies are accessible and affordable to all.
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Comment |
Cervical cancer kills 300,000 people a year — here’s how to speed up its elimination
Without rapid change, the World Health Organization’s goals for tackling cervical cancer by 2030 will be missed. Four experts share ways to move the needle.
- Lynette Denny
- , Ishu Kataria
- & Kathleen M. Schmeler
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Nature Podcast |
Science in 2024: what to expect this year
AI, Moon missions, weaponized mosquitoes and superfast supercomputers — we’ll run through what to look out for in the new year.
- Noah Baker
- & Miryam Naddaf
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News |
Vaccines reduce the risk of long COVID in children
A study shows that US children who received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have some protection against developing long-lasting symptoms of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
- Shannon Hall
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Article
| Open Access
Mucosal boosting enhances vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in macaques
Intratracheal boosting with a bivalent Ad26-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine results in substantial induction of mucosal humoral and cellular immunity and near-complete protection against SARS-CoV-2 BQ.1.1 in rhesus macaques.
- Katherine McMahan
- , Frank Wegmann
- & Dan H. Barouch
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News Feature |
Nature’s 10: ten people (and one non-human) who helped shape science in 2023
An AI pioneer, an architect of India’s Moon mission and the world’s first global heat officer are some of the people behind this year’s big stories.
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Spotlight |
The fight against antimicrobial resistance
India is developing local solutions to a global problem that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Bianca Nogrady
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News & Views |
Modified messenger-RNA components alter the encoded protein
Modified components of messenger RNA can cause the protein-production machinery to stall during the process of translation. This might change the protein being made, a finding with implications for vaccines or therapies.
- Nicholas J. Tursi
- & David B. Weiner
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News & Views |
A next-generation inhalable dry powder COVID vaccine
Current injectable COVID-19 vaccines are unable to induce robust immunity in the mucosal tissues lining the airways. A protein-based vaccine delivered to the lungs in the form of an inhaled dry powder shows promise as a way forward.
- Zhou Xing
- & Mangalakumari Jeyanathan
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News Feature |
Malaria fighter: this researcher paved the way for a game-changing vaccine
Halidou Tinto runs a clinic in rural Burkina Faso that has been instrumental to the approval of the world’s first malaria vaccines.
- Brendan Maher
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Article |
Inhaled SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for single-dose dry powder aerosol immunization
An inhalable, single-dose dry powder aerosol SARS-CoV-2 vaccine shows good storage stability, results in sustained antigen delivery to antigen-presenting cells in the lungs and induces a potent antiviral immune response.
- Tong Ye
- , Zhouguang Jiao
- & Wei Wei
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News |
Self-copying RNA vaccine wins first full approval: what’s next?
Researchers look ahead to the potential uses and benefits of a technology that has been more than 20 years in the making.
- Elie Dolgin
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Comment |
This is how the world finally ends the HIV/AIDS pandemic
Putting the specific needs of individuals and communities at the heart of HIV/AIDS care, by harnessing behavioural science, is key to building on the progress already been made.
- John Nkengasong
- , Mike Reid
- & Ingrid T. Katz
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Nature Podcast |
Polio could be eradicated within 3 years — what happens then?
How to ensure polio doesn’t return after eradication, and the space explosion that’s baffling scientists.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Research Briefing |
The highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.2.86 is still neutralized by antibodies in the blood
The spike protein of BA.2.86 — a subvariant of Omicron — has a large number of mutations, and binds to its receptor in host cells with high affinity. Despite these characteristics, BA.2.86 is no more resistant to antibodies from vaccinated individuals than are the dominant variants that are currently in circulation.
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News Feature |
Polio is on the brink of eradication. Here's how to keep it from coming back
The campaign to eradicate polio could succeed in the next few years. But that’s just the beginning of a new challenge — keeping it away.
- Aisling Irwin
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News Explainer |
How wild monkeys ‘laundered’ for science could undermine research
Demand is fuelling an illegal trade. But smuggled monkeys carry diseases that can disrupt experiments and lead to unreliable data.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
Scientists deliberately gave women Zika — here’s why
‘Human challenge’ results suggest that such trials could be used to test vaccines when Zika incidence is low.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Research Highlight |
Hope rises that a vaccine can shield people with HIV from a deadly threat
Tests on monkeys with a simian version of the virus show that the BCG vaccine provides protection against the bacterium that causes TB.
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Editorial |
Half a million children die of malaria every year. Finally we can change that
With two vaccines available, this killer disease could now be eliminated — but will the world pull together to make it happen?
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News |
How AlphaFold and other AI tools could help us prepare for the next pandemic
Researchers are using machine-learning programs to predict the evolution of viruses and design vaccines.
- Ewen Callaway
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News Feature |
Why rings of RNA could be the next blockbuster drug
The commercial success of RNA vaccines for COVID-19 has revved up interest in circular RNAs as the next generation of therapies.
- Elie Dolgin
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News |
Second malaria vaccine to win global approval is cheaper and easier to make
The World Health Organization has recommended a shot called R21 to prevent the disease in children.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News Explainer |
mRNA COVID vaccines saved lives and won a Nobel — what’s next for the technology?
Nature talks to experts about how messenger RNA is transforming medicine.
- Elie Dolgin
- & Heidi Ledford
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Outlook |
RSV treatments are here: now the work begins
Efforts to prevent infections and keep vulnerable people out of hospital are beginning to pay off, but deploying these strategies presents new challenges.
- Benjamin Plackett
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Outlook |
Antibody therapies set to transform respiratory syncytial virus prevention for babies
Drugs that counter RSV infection can safeguard newborns, offering another mode of protection alongside vaccines.
- Elie Dolgin
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Outlook |
Better awareness of RSV in older adults is needed to fight a growing burden
Respiratory syncytial virus is usually associated with babies, but the virus can also cause serious disease in older adults and people with chronic medical conditions.
- Rachel Nuwer
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Outlook |
Vaccines could offer fresh hope against respiratory syncytial virus
If deployed effectively and equitably, this latest generation of vaccines could help to prevent countless deaths and hospitalizations among the young and old.
- Michael Eisenstein
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News |
COVID vaccines linked to unexpected vaginal bleeding
A large cohort study measured how frequently women reported bleeding after receiving COVID-19 jabs.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Book Review |
Vaccine specialist Peter Hotez: scientists are ‘under attack for someone else’s political gain’
The physician-researcher who spoke out against misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic says attacks against science are formidable — and getting worse.
- Julian Nowogrodzki
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News |
COVID boosters are back: what scientists say about whether to get one
As many countries head into autumn, they are targeting vaccinations at people in high-risk categories, leaving those at lower risk uncertain about what to do.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Nature Index |
Four ways research aims to outwit cancer’s evasion tactics
From AI-enabled drug discovery to therapeutic vaccines, science is opening up fresh angles of attack against the disease.
- Michael Eisenstein
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World View |
A new model for public health in Africa can become a reality
As Africa emerges from the COVID pandemic, combating infectious diseases must be a priority — along with treating non-communicable and mental health conditions.
- Jean Kaseya
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Article
| Open Access
Neutralization, effector function and immune imprinting of Omicron variants
Convergent mutations in hot spots of the spike proteins of currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants increase the binding affinity for the host receptor and promote more efficient fusion with host cell membranes.
- Amin Addetia
- , Luca Piccoli
- & David Veesler
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Outlook |
In search of a vaccine for leishmaniasis
Researchers hope that immunization will provide much needed protection against the neglected parasitic disease in conflict zones.
- Anthony King
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News |
Can the world really stop wild polio by the end of 2023?
Given that global efforts to eradicate the poliovirus were recently described as unsuccessful, how are Afghanistan and Pakistan now on the verge of eliminating it?
- Clare Watson
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Obituary |
Harald zur Hausen, virologist who linked viruses to cancer (1936–2023)
Nobel laureate who laid the foundations for vaccines to prevent cervical cancer.
- Michael Baumann
- & Magnus von Knebel Doeberitz
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News Explainer |
Disinformation researchers under investigation: what’s happening and why
US researchers have spent years studying how conspiracy theories spread. Now they are accused of helping to suppress conservative opinions.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News |
Tasmanian devil cancer vaccine approved for testing
The vaccine was inspired by COVID jabs, but if it is approved, it will be delivered in edible bait.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
New COVID jabs are coming — who should get them?
Countries rolling out updated vaccines weigh up whether to restrict them to high-risk individuals.
- Max Kozlov
Video: Cancer-busting vaccines