Humans and other animals wittingly or unwittingly run risk–benefit analyses daily. For animals of reproductive age, a prime example of such analysis is assessing the benefit of reproductive success versus the cost of being preyed upon. The scale needs to be sensitive: over-prioritize survival at the risk of a lack of progeny, or undermine danger at the risk of perishing. While previous studies and

As 2024 closes, we take this opportunity to reflect on the highlights of our 30th anniversary year and consider what the future holds for the field.

Structural biology beats at the heart of modern science. It reveals the molecular mechanisms underlying disease processes, facilitating drug and vaccine development, and improving existing therapies. Beyond healthcare, it has an important role in agriculture, biotechnology, food safety and environmental sustainability. Therefore, structural biology is integral to achieving the United Nations Sustainable

Structural biology has continued to advance over the past decades, owing to the development of improved and new technologies. The launch of Nature Structural Biology (NSB) in 1994 provided a much-needed avenue for the dissemination of these advances. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the journal, now named Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. Although it has expanded far beyond the initial

Using data from the UK Biobank the researchers analyzed the rare variants in the protein coding region in the genomes of 106,973 women. They identified rare variants that disrupt the function of nine genes that are associated with ANM. Four of these were already known while five were linked to ANM for the first time. Three of the five new genes (PALB2, ETAA1 and HROB) are involved in the DNA damage

Dong et al. relied on a mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell line where the cohesin subunit, RAD21, had been tagged with an auxin-inducible degron, thereby enabling them to induce depletion of cohesin in mouse ES cells. Next, they performed single-cell transcriptomics and single-cell ATAC-seq in control or cohesin-depleted mouse ES cells and used these data to define 776 ACDs across the mouse genome. In