Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and colleagues have demonstrated that rare variants in the ANK2 gene, consistently found in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), can alter architecture and organization of neurons, potentially contributing to autism and neurodevelopmental comorbidities.

Twenty years ago, clinicians first attempted to regenerate a failing human heart by injecting muscle myoblasts into the heart during a bypass operation. Despite high initial hopes and multiple experimental and clinical studies since then, outcomes have been neutral or marginally positive for a wide variety of attempts to remuscularize an injured heart. Yet hope remains that current and future strategies will yield clinical regenerative heart therapies, nine experts explain in a Journal of the American College of Cardiology state-of-the-art review, “Basic and translational research in cardiac repair and regeneration.”

A natural experiment carried out during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic found that vital records of births and maternal deaths in Argentine have reached sufficient sensitivity to detect specific effects of new pandemic viruses during pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium. The results are relevant for epidemiological surveillance of other emerging viruses in the region, including SARS-CoV-2.

• Researchers at CNIO and IRB Barcelona reveal the function of HAT proteins, which serve as gates for the cellular entry and exit of amino acids. • Using cryo-electron microscopy, they have uncovered the mechanisms by which some HAT proteins transport certain amino acids and not others. • These results help to understand why distinct HAT proteins participate in specific diseases such as cancer in some cases, or neurological diseases such as strokes, Alzheimer´s disease, and deafness in others. • The researchers now face the challenge of disrupting these proteins to treat these diseases, which pose a serious health problem.

Monash University researchers have expanded their knowledge of how T cells might recognise infections or disease, providing key insight into how an often-overlooked T cell lineage becomes activated when encountering pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, and cancers.

When a fire broke out on the deck of the M/V XPress Pearl cargo ship on May 20, 2021, an estimated 70-75 billion pellets of preproduction plastic material, known as nurdles, spilled into the ocean and along the Sri Lankan coastline. That spill of about 1,500 tons of nurdles, many of which were burnt by the fire, has threatened marine life and poses a complex clean-up challenge.

Using a new microspectroscopic technique, collaborating scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Nanjing University in China have found that steam disinfection of silicone-rubber baby bottle nipples exposes babies and the environment to micro- and nanoplastic particles.

Professor John Reynolds and Senior Postdoctoral Fellow Tom Franken have made headway into understanding how the brain decides which side of a visual border is a foreground object and which is background. The research, published on November 30, 2021 in the journal eLife, sheds light on how areas of the brain communicate to interpret sensory information and build a picture of the world around us.

A team of international researchers from Canada, Colombia, and Germany has discovered a new marine reptile. The specimen, a stunningly preserved metre-long skull, is one of the last surviving ichthyosaurs – ancient animals that look eerily like living swordfish.