SCIENCE science.org 3 JUNE 2022 • VOL 376 ISSUE 6597 1065IMAGE: MICHAEL ABBEY/SCIENCE SOURCE
phosphorylation. The phos-
phorylation state of proteins,
which often regulates their
activity, was more correlated
with the biological state of the
cell than was protein or mRNA
abundance. Extending such a
strategy to human cells could
enhance our ability to interpret
mutations identified in genome-
wide association studies of
complex diseases. —LBR
Mol. Syst. Biol. 18 , e10712 (2022).CANCER
Amyloid aids melanoma
Metastasis occurs when cancer
spreads from the primary tumor
throughout the body. Melanoma
is a skin cancer that preferen-
tially spreads to the brain, but
what facilitates brain metastasis
is not well understood. Kleffman
et al. report that the amyloid
beta (Ab) protein, which is amajor contributor to neuro-
degeneration in patients with
Alzheimer’s disease, is required
for melanoma growth in the
brain parenchyma. Targeting
amyloid precursor protein
(APP) or APP cleavage products
created an anti-inflammatory
environment that allowed
melanoma cells to avoid phago-
cytic clearance by microglia.
Pharmacological inhibition of
Ab reduced melanoma metasta-
sis. —PNK
Cancer Discov. 12 , 1314 (2022).MACHINE LEARNING
Crystal structures from
chemical shifts
In recent years, machine learning
(ML) has been actively promoted
as a key factor in accelerating the
development of various materi-
als, processes, and methods. Notsurprisingly, once ML methods
are introduced to a certain field,
there is considerable interest
in advancing their practical
applications. Crystal structure
determination of organic solids
is one of the most challenging
tasks in chemistry. Balodis et al.
combined a recently introduced
ML model to predict chemical
shifts with an annealing structure
determination protocol and
showed that the problem of
crystal structure determination
can be solved without any prior
structural hypothesis or knowl-
edge of candidate structures.
The proposed approach was suc-
cessfully illustrated for several
organic solids, including a rather
challenging example of polymor-
phic forms of AZD8329. —YS
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 144 , 7215 (2022).PARASITOLOGY
Correcting a life cycle
Cryptosporidium, a gut parasite
related to the malaria parasite
Plasmodium, is one of the
three most common causes
of childhood diarrhea. Malaria
parasites have complicated
and flexible life cycles that
depend on intermediate
vectors and prevailing condi-
tions, but the details of the
Cryptosporidium spp. are less
well understood. Using long-
term live-cell microscopy and
cell-fate mapping, English et
al. found that Cryptosporidium
parvum has a precise intrinsic
succession of three 12-hour
intervals of replication in host
enterocytes followed by a single
sexual phase. Oocysts arereleased, replication is reset,
and infection then chronically
cycles. Gametes develop from
asexual stages that produce
eight merozoites, two to
three of which will be male.
Interestingly, one of the few
drugs that is currently used
to treat C. parvum targets a
calcium-dependent kinase that
strictly regulates cell cycling.
—CA
PLoS Biol. 20 , e300164 (2022).GENDER GAPS
Sexual harassment
doesn’t pay
Approximately 10% of the
gender wage gap may be driven
by workplace sexual harass-
ment. Combining national
survey and administrative
data from Sweden, Folke and
Rickne found that women
reported more harassment
in male-dominated, higher-
wage workplaces, and men
reported more harassment in
female-dominated, lower-wage
workplaces. A survey experi-
ment showed that men and
women value harassment risks
similarly, but if risk was higher
for one’s own sex, then the
job valuation was equivalent
to a 17% lower wage, whereas
higher risk for the opposite
sex was valued just 6% lower.
Women who report harassment
are more likely to switch jobs,
taking lower pay in
order to have more female
coworkers. —BW
Q. J. Econ. 10.1093/
qje/qjac018 (2022).Binary black hole systems (artist’s
conception shown) can be studied by
observing how their members warp the
light from each other’s accretion disks.BLACK HOLESRay tracing black hole
binaries
M
ore exoplanets have been
discovered using the transit
method than with any other
technique. As suggested
by its name, the transit
method measures the dimming of
a host star as an exoplanet passes
in front of it, which allows astrono-
mers to detect exoplanets too far
away to be imaged. Davelaar and
Haiman have devised a method
for studying distant supermassive
black hole binaries along the same
veins. By modeling how black hole
binaries warp the light coming
from each other’s gas accretion
disks, as one black hole passes in
front of the other, the method can
help glean information from 1%
of the 150 known but otherwise
unresolvable supermassive black
hole binaries. —YY
Phys. Rev. 105 , 103010 (2022).Light micrograph of the diarrhea-causing Cryptosporidium parvum, which has a
much simplified life cycle compared with its relatives, the malaria parasites.