Nature Medicine

mRNA vaccines are now in the limelight as a key tool for tackling COVID-19, but the technology was originally developed for other diseases, such as cancer, that researchers are now hoping to treat. #CovidVaccine News feature from @techtyper. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01393-8

Combined analysis of mutations in the MC4R gene and associated anthropometric phenotypes in an unselected UK population provides evidence that these mutations are associated with excess adiposity in early life. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01349-y @StephenORahilly @nic_timpson #obesity

The world needs an intergovernmental panel on pandemic risk, modeled on the @IPCC_CH, argue @BenOppenheim @kaysiebrown & @Ron_Waldman. #COVID19 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01374-x

‘N of 1’ therapies need a better model. Oligonucleotides offer therapeutic potential for patients that carry unique genetic mutations, but developing individualized therapies is not supported by the current process for drug development, argues @oligogirl https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01380-z

Research Highlight: A brain implant in a paralyzed person allows them to communicate by translating neural activity into text, according to a new study published in @Nature #BCI #neuroscience https://www.nature.com/articles/d41591-021-00036-2

Liver metastases reduce clinical and preclinical immunotherapy efficacy through hepatic siphoning of circulating activated CD8+ T cells, but therapeutic benefit can be improved by combining immunotherapy with liver-directed radiotherapy https://go.nature.com/38ccQp4

Cabozantinib, an inhibitor of multiple receptor tyrosine kinases, has efficacy in a mouse model of #neurofibromatosis type I and has clinical activity in reducing plexiform neurofibroma volume in a phase II trial of patients with NF1. #NMEDClinical @IUMedSchool @wade_clapp https://go.nature.com/3suzDoz

An algorithmic, #machinelearning approach to measuring severe pain from #osteoarthritis applied to X-ray images of knees suggests that reported disparities in knee pain in underserved populations can be reduced by comparison with use of standard radiographic measures of disease severity. @UChicago @UCBerkeley @oziadias https://go.nature.com/3i6zAuc

Analysis of 10,900 whole-exome sequences linked to electronic health care records in the @PennMedicine Biobank enabled an exome-wide study of the phenotypic effects of rare loss-of-function gene variants, identifying new genedisease associations @JoeinGenes @danrader333 @MarylynRitchie https://go.nature.com/2N1xEaV

An in vitro human tonsil tissue-based system captures key features of a functional germinal center and can be used to study humoral immune responses to vaccines, new antigens and adjuvants @lisa_wagar @stanfordimmuno https://go.nature.com/3qiwM00