Rising dust pollution across Europe in a changing climate

Researchers investigated whether desert dust pollution in Europe has been rising and what factors are driving this trend. By compiling a database of daily dust metal concentrations from monitoring sites across Europe, they derived reliable elemental ratios for transported mineral dust and then trained a machine learning model to estimate daily PM10 dust concentrations between 2012 and 2021. Estimated concentrations were substantially higher in southern Europe than in northern and central regions, and dust events in the south were linked to a measurable increase in daily mortality. Analysis of an Alpine ice core revealed a 110% rise in dust concentrations since pre-industrial times, largely attributable to North African desertification, while recent decade-scale intensification appears tied to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns. The findings indicate that both long-term land degradation and shifting weather systems are compounding dust exposure across Europe, with growing implications for public health and air quality targets.

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Identification of cross-stage, cross-species malaria CD8+ T cell antigens

Developing an effective malaria vaccine has long been hampered by insufficient knowledge of which parasite proteins trigger protective T cell responses. This study used immunopeptidomics to identify parasite-derived peptides displayed on HLA class I molecules on *Plasmodium vivax*-infected reticulocytes, which are known to be susceptible to CD8+ T cell killing. The researchers catalogued 453 unique peptides from 166 proteins, finding that 75 mapped to housekeeping proteins expressed throughout the parasite's life cycle and conserved across *Plasmodium* species. Several peptides were recognized across multiple HLA allele types, including the non-classical HLA-E. Critically, the identified epitopes provoked T cell responses in blood and liver samples from both *P. vivax*- and *P. falciparum*-infected humans and non-human primates, and two antigens conferred CD8+ T cell-mediated protection in rodent models. These findings point toward viable targets for a broad-spectrum malaria vaccine effective across parasite life stages and species.

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