Selection of Early Life Codons by Ultraviolet Light.

How life developed in its earliest stages is a central but notoriously difficult question in science. The earliest lifeforms likely used a reduced set of codon sequences that were progressively completed over time, driven by chemical, physical, and combinatorial constraints. However, despite its importance for prebiotic chemistry, UV radiation has not been considered a selection pressure for the evolution of early codon sequences.

Adjusting for Ascertainment Bias in Meta-Analysis of Penetrance for Cancer Risk.

Multi-gene panel testing allows efficient detection of pathogenic variants in cancer susceptibility genes including moderate-risk genes such as ATM and PALB2. A growing number of studies examine the risk of breast cancer (BC) conferred by pathogenic variants of these genes. A meta-analysis combining the reported risk estimates can provide an overall estimate of age-specific risk of developing BC, that is, penetrance for a gene.

A Call for a Neoadjuvant Kidney Cancer Consortium: Lessons Learned from Other Cancer Types.

Neoadjuvant systemic treatment strategies have improved outcomes in several solid tumour types. This success has not yet been replicated in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). A consensus and international collaboration are urgently needed for the development of adaptive perioperative immunotherapy strategies for patients with RCC at high risk of recurrence.

Low agreement and frequent invalid controls in two SARS-CoV-2 T-cell assays in people with compromised immune function.

T-cell response plays an important role in SARS-CoV-2 immunogenicity. For people living with HIV (PWH) and solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients there is limited evidence on the reliability of commercially available T-cell tests. We assessed 173 blood samples from 81 participants (62 samples from 35 PWH; 111 samples from 46 SOT recipients [lung and kidney]) with two commercial SARS-CoV-2 Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) release assays (IGRA; SARS-CoV-2 IGRA by Euroimmun, and IGRA SARS-CoV-2 by Roche).