Francesca Cesari
@francesari.bsky.social
Chief Biological, Clinical and Social Sciences Editor of Nature Any views expressed here are my own
An exceptionally preserved fossil snake from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil, likely to have been a burrower, illuminates early ecological disparity in the group.🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Exceptional brain and ecological diversity in the earliest snakes - Nature
A well-preserved fossil snake from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil shows early ecological and brain shape disparity in the group.
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Isopropyl myristate, used in humans in moisturisers and to remove head lice, also acts in naked mole rats.Found in queens but not workers, it enforces reproductive suppression and enables rare eusociality in a mammal, a parallel to queen pheromones in social insects.🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal - Nature
Naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) queens produce isopropyl myristate, a low-volatility ester that high-ranking animals detect and avoid, which alters prolactin and progesterone in other females t...
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The first immunoproteome of a malaria parasite identifies previously undescribed antigenic targets conserved across malaria parasite species. Incorporating some of these newly-found antigens into vaccines is protective in a mouse model of malaria infection.🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Identification of cross-stage, cross-species malaria CD8+ T cell antigens - Nature
An immunopeptidomics analysis identifies numerous Plasmodium T cell antigens that are conserved across malaria parasite species and expressed at several phases of the parasite’s life cycle, with possi...
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A new study in Nature demonstrates that diet-induced modulation of the gut microbiota can serve as a strategy to improve immunotherapy outcomes 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Diet–microbiome synergy underlies obesity-associated immunotherapy efficacy - Nature
Diet shapes obesity-associated therapeutic responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors through gut microbial metabolism and host anti-tumour immunity, demonstrated in mouse custom-diet models&...
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A study in Nature shows that the Amazon’s biocultural heritage, its plant species, plant services and cultures, are at risk from climate change.🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The forest of knowledge under global change - Nature
The biocultural heritage of the Amazon, its plant species, plant services and cultures are at risk from climate change.
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New research shows LLMs can accurately predict & simulate social science survey experiment outcomes on par with human experts. The authors assess its use for pilot testing, intervention selection, identifying effects needing replication, and identifying risks.🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Large language models can predict the results of social science experiments - Nature
Large language models can be used to estimate the results of social science experiments about as accurately as a group of human forecasters—even for experiments published after the...
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A new study published in Nature develops a panel of intergenerational mobility indices based on data from Europe and shows how closely they link to innovation over two decades.🧪👇 nature.com/articles/s41...
Intergenerational mobility fosters innovation in Europe - Nature
The EUROPE-IGM-ATLAS reveals spatiotemporal trends that characterize the changing geography of opportunity in Europe and its relationship with regional innovation.
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A new study in Nature describes an ancient, secreted effector in Buchnera, an obligate bacterial endosymbiont of aphids, that is required for host embryo colonization, providing rare insights into how endosymbionts establishes and maintains their intracellular niche.🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A secreted endosymbiont protein essential for colonizing host cells - Nature
SyeA was present in the Buchnera ancestor, is secreted into the host cytoplasm, is homologous to secreted effectors of bacterial pathogens and is essential for Buchnera transmission.
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A ubiquitous Streptomyces biosynthetic megacluster encodes an arsenal of synergistic biotin-targeting antibiotics🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Antibiotic cocktail made by soil bacteria can kill superbugs
Four antibiotic compounds produced in Streptomyces bacteria attack multiple parts of an essential metabolic pathway.
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A study published in Nature identifies an electrocardiogram marker by using an AI model trained on electrocardiograms of individuals that experienced sudden cardiac death. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
An ECG biomarker for sudden cardiac death discovered with deep learning - Nature
A deep-learning model trained on electrocardiogram (ECG) waveforms identifies an easily visible biomarker that predicts sudden cardiac death more accurately than the current clinical state of the art.
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A vast whale graveyard discovered on the floor of the Indian Ocean comprises 476 whale fossil sites (with 5 active whale falls) extending ~1,200 km along the seafloor at depths between 4,200 and 7,000m. Whale falls have occurred there for at least 5.3 million years.🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone - Nature
Researchers uncovered an enormous deep-sea accumulation of whale remains in the southeastern Indian Ocean, showing long-term, specialized ecosystems and an extensive fossil record that offers new insi...
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Using mouse models of clonal hematopoiesis, a study in Nature finds that sleep and exercise can curb cardiovascular complications of the disease🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mutation-dependent responses to sleep and exercise in clonal haematopoiesis - Nature
Sleep and exercise can slow clonal haematopoiesis and limit mutant cell-driven atherosclerosis.
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The first multinational representative dataset from LMICs on child sexual exploitation and abuse shows the role of technology, individual, familial and sociocultural factors in facilitating it.🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41... Read the full paper here www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Child sexual abuse enabled by digital technologies is widespread and under-reported
One in six Internet-using adolescents in parts of Africa and Asia faced technology-facilitated sexual abuse in 2020–21. As digital access expands globally, better protection is crucial.
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Plants need nitrogen but use it inefficiently. A new study shows that, in maize, the plastoglobule droplets within chloroplast organise key nitrogen-fixation enzymes, supercharging nitrogen use. The findings could be relevant to growing crops using less fertiliser. 🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Plastoglobules compartmentalize nitrogen assimilation in maize - Nature
Chloroplast plastoglobules act as nitrogen-assimilation hubs in maize, with key enzymes enhancing nitrogen-use efficiency and offering new strategies for developing high-yield, sustainable crops.
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A new study in Nature quantifies mining-induced deforestation of dense forest across sub-Saharan Africa. For each hectare of deforestation attributed to the mine an additional 34 hectares of forest were lost to offsite drivers such as agricultural expansion. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mining triggers extensive additional deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa - Nature
Extensive mining activity leads to large-scale deforestation of dense tropical forests across sub-Saharan Africa, driven particularly by key energy transition minerals such as cobalt.
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A study in Nature details a machine learning model that can use front facing smartphone cameras to approximate heart rate 🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Passive heart-rate monitoring during smartphone use in everyday life - Nature
A machine-learning model that uses smartphone cameras to measure heart rate in the background during normal daily phone use and subsequently estimate resting heart rate could make it easier for p...
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The oldest known eukaryotes, living around 1.75 billion years ago, were largely restricted to oxygenated bottom waters, only expanding into planktonic habitats during the Neoproterozoic Era (from a billion to 540 million years ago)🧪 See new study published in Nature👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Early fossil eukaryotes were benthic aerobes - Nature
Integrated palaeontological, sedimentological and geochemical analyses of ancient rocks from Australia show that early eukaryotes were largely restricted to oxygenated benthic habitats, probably posse...
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A study in Nature quantifies the contribution that insect pollinators make to nutrient intake and income in smallholder farming communities in Nepal > they are responsible for 44% of people’s farming income and over 20% of their intake of key micronutrients.🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Pollinators support the nutrition and income of vulnerable communities - Nature
Quantification of links among insect pollinators, crop plants, nutrient intake and income of smallholder communities in Nepal show that pollinators substantially contribute to their income and micronu...
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A new study shows that individuals listening both to language and auditory stimuli while anesthetized still showed neural responses in the hippocampus indicating that the information was still being processed, despite the fact that patients were seemingly unconscious.🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Plasticity and language in the anaesthetized human hippocampus - Nature
In the hippocampus, complex processing of sensory stimuli occurs even in the unconscious state.
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A study in Nature suggests that in the absence of deforestation the Amazon forest could transition to a non-forest state with 3.7-4.0oC of global warming. With 22 to 28% deforestation a more widespread transition could occur with 1.5-1.9oC of warming🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Deforestation-induced drying lowers Amazon climate threshold - Nature
The Amazon forest faces a near system-wide transition of 62−77% of the area under a combination of 1.5–1.9 °C global warming and 22−28% deforestation.
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Androgens generally dampen anti-cancer immunity. A new study finds that in brain tumours they counteract a neural pathway that would otherwise suppress anti-tumour responses, making androgen signalling protective within the brain. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41... and www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Androgen loss accelerates brain tumour growth via HPA axis activation - Nature
Androgens have distinct roles in the brain, acting as immune-based tumour suppressors through neuroinflammation and neuroendocrine mechanisms.
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Published in Nature, the results of the PEACE project, a clinical autopsy program to study the evolution of lung cancer. www.nature.com/articles/s41... and www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪
Evolutionary characterization of lung cancer metastasis - Nature
DNA-sequencing data from primary tumours and paired metastases from participants in the TRACERx lung study and PEACE autopsy programme are used to analyse the metastatic diversity of advanced non-smal...
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A study in Nature compiles data on wild meat consumption in Central Africa from over 12,000 households spanning 252 locations. Wild meat consumption increased from 0.73 to 1.10 million tonnes between 2000 and 2022, with an increasing demand from towns and cities.🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Increase in wild animal consumption across Central Africa - Nature
Wild meat is a fundamental component of the diets of rural Central African populations, accounting for 20% of the recommended daily protein intake, compared with 13% and 6% for those living in towns a...
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This longitudinal study shows that racial diversity in higher education is associated with higher student salaries in top earning professions like law and business.👇🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Racial diversity in higher education is associated with higher student salaries - Nature
A longitudinal study shows that racial diversity in higher education is associated with higher student salaries at graduation, indicating that policies to increase or leverage racial diversity enhance...
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Through a decade-long warming experiment, a study in Nature demonstrates that warming significantly increases antibiotic resistances in grassland soils🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Decade-long warming accelerates antibiotic resistance in grassland soils - Nature
Decade-long warming increased soil antibiotic-resistance genes by about 24%, enriching resistant microbes and gene transfer, driven by selection for thermal tolerance and linked traits, with implicati...
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Hundreds of loci under selection are discovered in ancient genomic data of West Eurasians in a new Nature paper 🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia - Nature
Analysis of 15,836 ancient West Eurasian genomes reveals hundreds of instances of directional selection, showing that sustained changes in allele frequency were widespread, rather than being...
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A study in Nature describes a modular tool for targeted transfer of mitochondria to different cell types 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41... and News & Views piece 👇https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00910-4
Cell-type-targeted mitochondrial transplantation rescues cell degeneration - Nature
MitoCatch is a cell-type-specific mitochondrion-targeting system that links mitochondria and the cell surface by protein binders and delivers mitochondria into the target cell.
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A Nature paper reports the identification of a genetic locus that is associated with the efficacy of GLP-1 medication for weight loss 👇🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genetic predictors of GLP1 receptor agonist weight loss and side effects - Nature
Identification of genetic variants associated with the efficacy and side effects of GLP1 medications could underpin development of precision medicine approaches in the treatment of obesity.
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A study published in Nature presents CHARM, a single-cell 'four-omics' sequencing method that profiles genome conformation, histone modifications, chromatin accessibility, and gene expression within the same cell.🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Gene regulatory landscape dissected by single-cell four-omics sequencing - Nature
Combining single-cell parallel profiling of genome conformation, histone modifications, chromatin accessibility and gene expression reveals dynamics and intranuclear spatial clustering of epigenome pr...
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A unique strategy to target glioma stem cells uses a synthetic superenhancer selectively expressed in these cells. The combination of cytotoxic and immune-modulatory payloads elicits significant anti-tumour effects and prevents recurrence in mouse models. 🧪👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Synthetic super-enhancers enable precision viral immunotherapy - Nature
Synthetic super-enhancers enable specific delivery of anticancer payloads, achieving tumour elimination after a single dose in a mouse model of aggressive glioblastoma.
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