earliest activated SOS mol-
ecules initiate signaling more
quickly than molecular kinetics
would indicate and may be a
common feature in other cel-
lular signaling systems. —LBR
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 118 ,
e2103598118 (2021).
DISEASE GENOMICS
Driver genes differ
in type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is charac-
terized by high blood glucose
levels resulting from cellular
insulin resistance. Untreated,
insulin resistance can lead to
serious health problems. T2D
has been the object of many
genetic analyses to determine
risk genes or genetic variants
across populations. Mansour
Aly et al. delved into the clini-
cal variables associated with
T2D in a Swedish cohort of
adult patients. Five clusters of
clinical characteristics, disease
progression, and outcome
became apparent. Genetic
and familial analyses showed
different heritability among the
T2D subtypes. Genome-wide
analyses coupled with phe-
notype, such as body mass
index, were used to determine a
polygenic risk score. From this,
three severe T2D subtypes with
distinct genetic backgrounds
and pathology were identi-
fied, emphasizing how more
thorough phenotyping can
illuminate how genetic risk con-
tributes to polygenic disease.
—LMZ
Nat. Genet. 53 , 1534 (2021).TEXTILES
A powerful cloth
A textile that can function as
an energy harvester would be
of great interest for power-
ing things such as wearable
electronic devices. Wang et al.
developed a scalable and flexible
magnetoelectrical clothing gen-
erator that works by swinging
the arms. Magnetic fibers were
developed by directly mixing
magnetic particles into the
polymer. These fibers were used
in the arms of a jacket to enable
a current to be generated in coils
integrated into the jacket sides.
The power generated was suf-
ficient to light several hundredlight-emitting diodes or charge
up a commercial capacitor. —BG
Adv. Funct. Mater. 10.1002/
adfm.202107682 (2021).INTEGRATED PHOTONICS
Local fixes for global
performance
Complex networks of optical
components patterned into
silicon dioxide are used to make
beam splitters, phase shift-
ers, interferometers, and logic
gates, and are finding appli-
cation in optical computing,
communication, and machine
learning. However, small-scale
errors caused by fabrication
imprecision in the individual
components propagate through
the system and can com-
promise global functionality.
Bandyopadhyay et al. present an
approach to mitigate for these
hardware errors by homing in
on the individual components
and correcting them locally. By
breaking down the network into
individual parts, they charac-
terized the performance and
function of each component and
then corrected for any errorsthat might be found. Reassembly
resulted in resilient global perfor-
mance. The approach provides
a route to scale up integrated
photonics, allowing the fabrica-
tion of large-scale and complex
circuits in optical chips. —ISO
Optica 8 , 1247 (2021).PLASTIC WASTE
A cost of contagion
Plastic pollution is a serious
environmental problem, and
the increased use of single-use
plastics caused by the COVID-
19 pandemic has made it even
worse. Peng et al. report that
the pandemic has resulted in
the generation of more than
eight million tons of plastic
waste, which is 1 to 2% of the
global total. More than 25,000
tons of this waste has entered
the ocean. Hospital waste
accounts for nearly 75% of the
global discharge, and Asia is
responsible for more than 70%
of the total. The fraction con-
tributed by personal protection
equipment and online-shopping
packaging is minor. —HJS
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 118 ,
e2111530118 (2021).Intratumoral
Peptostreptococcus
bacteria, shown here
in a digital image,
promote oral antitumor
immune responses.PHOTO: SCIEPRO/SCIENCE SOURCERESEARCH | IN OTHER JOURNALS
1212 3 DECEMBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6572 science.org SCIENCE
IMMUNOTHERAPYTweaking the oral microbiota
O
ral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC)
has a poor prognosis and shows lim-
ited responses to immune checkpoint
blockade, even though features of OSCC
indicate that it should be responsive.
Zheng et al. investigated the microbial composi-
tion of OSCC patient samples and found that
high amounts of intratumoral Peptostreptococcus
anaerobius bacteria correlated with survival
and promoted antitumor immune responses.
However, injection of OSCC tumors in mice with
P. anaerobius had no therapeutic effects, pos-
sibly because preexisting microbiota prevented
colonization. To promote responsiveness, the
authors searched for a nanomaterial that would
inhibit bacterial species other than P. anaerobius.
A hydrogel-silver nanoparticle formulation was
discovered, which, when injected into OSCCs
in mice along with patient OSCC microbiota sam-
ples, reduced tumor growth and improved the
efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade. —GKA
Nat. Biomed. Eng. 10.1038/s41551-021-00807-9 (2021).