As organisms adapt to their environment, adaptations that serve them in their current environment can become liabilities if that environment changes. The control of traits that are an asset in one situation and a liability by the same gene is called antagonistic pleiotropy. In the March 16, 2020, online issue of Nature Genetics, researchers reported a method to systematically identify mutations that conferred antagonistic pleiotropy – in the form of resistance to one drug, but heightened sensitivity to another – in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: How the eye cleans itself up; In blood stem cells, selection drives driver mutations early on; Dead cells do tell tales; Selective TGF-beta inhibition helps checkpoint blockade; How lung tumors seed to brain; Butyrate affects regulatory B cells, rheumatoid arthritis; Lamin A/C’s presence in nucleus, absence from membrane both problematic in progeria; Females, males have different metabolic response to intermittent fasting; Ditching PAMs expands CRISPR.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Heparan sulfate DAMPens acetaminophen toxicity; Study links GABA, mitochondria, social defects; Recruiting NK cells to the antitumor battle; Potassium channel blocker improves motor learning in fetal alcohol syndrome; A20s inflammation-fighting properties decoded; Brown fat activity without fat browning; Agonists selectively wake up melatonin receptor subtypes; Multistep method wrests causality from GWAS; BET on BD1 for cancer, BD2 for inflammation.