Search

This study mapped normative growth trajectories of 28 fetal brain phenotypes derived from 4,205 3D ultrasound scans collected across 7 international sites. The low variance between sites reinforces the principle that the brain develops similarly when environmental constraints are minimal.

Understanding interfaces at sub-nanometer scales is vital for complex chemical reactions. Here, the authors advance Pattern-enhanced Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering, enabling efficient operando probing of chemical and structural dynamics at solid-liquid interfaces.

The mediobasal hypothalamus plays a central role in integrating nutritional and sex-related signals to regulate energy homeostasis. Here, through snRNA-seq of the mediobasal hypothalamus in female and male mice across nutritional states, authors show that Agrp neurons are nutrition-sensitive, DA neurons exhibit transcriptional differences in a sex-dependent manner, and KNDy neurons are responsive to both sex and nutrition.

Brief ultrasound to human frontal eye fields, but not motor cortex, rapidly biases eye movement contralaterally in a perceptual choice task. The size of this effect scales with individual baseline FEF inhibitory tone.

By generating whole genomes of 150 participants representing 12 Khoe-San click-speaking groups, the authors, reveal over 1.3 million unknown DNA variants, distinct San and here described Damara genetic trajectories, while achieving century-long global predominance.

Using large-scale genetics and Genomic SEM/E-SEM, the study shows broad shared genetic risk between many physical illnesses and internalizing, neurodevelopmental, and substance-use disorders, revealing a transdiagnostic illness factor and cross-cutting disease pathways.

ATF6α activation in human and preclinical models of hepatocellular carcinoma is significantly associated with an aggressive tumour phenotype characterized by reduced survival, glycolytic reprogramming and local immunosuppression.

The Mouse Cancer Cell line Atlas (MCCA) provides major advances towards a mechanistic understanding of cancer genomes.

Researchers report a solid that is amorphous in two dimensions but crystalline in the third, made of stacked disordered atomic layers. This shows that crystalline and amorphous order can coexist within a single material depending on direction.

Cyanobacteria are highly taxonomically and ecologically diverse species that have survived for billions of years. Here, authors show key structural features have remained within their light harvesting components to ensure their continual survival within diverse natural environments.

Recent work has revealed quantum coherent phase slips and current quantization in superconductors, phenomena dual to Cooper pair tunneling and voltage quantization. By combining the two effects, the authors demonstrate a Bloch transistor, a device that delivers quantized current and features a unique phase-locking mechanism.

A technique called condense-seq has been developed to measure nucleosome condensability and used to show that mononucleosomes contain sufficient information to condense into large-scale compartments without requiring any external factors.

Plant diversity plays a key role in regulating ecosystem processes, yet its influence on global soil carbon release remains unclear. This study suggests that higher plant species richness is associated with greater soil respiration in low- to mid-productivity forests but has little effect in highly productive systems.

Neuropathic pain is commonly treated with opioids due to limited alternatives. Here, authors determine cryo-EM structures of the neuronal glycine transporter GlyT2 and develop a reversible inhibitor that provides analgesia in vivo without side effects.

Exhaustion is a functional state that hampers anti-cancer and antiviral CD8 T cell activity, and is preceded by a stem-like state, maintained by the transcription factor TCF1. Here authors develop mouse models that allow a precise understanding of the developmental trajectory between the stem-cell-like and exhausted states of CD8 T cells and find that while constitutive overexpression of TCF1 expands the stem-like T cell pool, TCF1 expression specifically in already exhausted cells is unable to promote dedifferentiation.

Traditional scientific methods struggled to identify causes of seagrass losses in Canada (Eeyou Istchee). Here the authors combine Indigenous and scientific knowledge and find that eelgrass losses were caused by local hydroelectric development compounded by extreme climate events.

Gu et al. introduce a cardiac foundation model that learns from millions of heart signals and textual interpretations, enabling it to handle heart data collected either in hospitals or at home. It offers clear and reliable insights across different devices and settings.

The operational stability of perovskite solar cells remains a challenge. Zhang et al. incorporate photoswitchable isomers at grain boundaries to improve their resilience and the stability of the solar cells under light cycling and ultraviolet exposure.

This study shows that strain-stabilized interfacial polarization in metallic RuO₂/TiO₂ heterostructures modulates the work function by over 1 eV and the metallicity, establishing a new route to control the electronic properties of functional metals.

The transformations for aragonite precursors in coral are not fully understood but have implications in bio, biogenic and geological mineralization. Here, the authors use high-resolution mapping and observe exponential decay from the edge of four precursors to coral aragonite skeleton in Stylophora pistillata.

Lazarevic et al. reveal a shared loss of a TBX5-dependent atrial gene network in cardiomyocytes and a disease-specific network gain in activated fibroblasts across atrial fibrillation and heart failure models.

Higher incomes are associated with higher well-being. Here, in a 109-nation study, the authors show that the rank of income, rather than income itself, is associated with higher well-being, especially in nations with lower social capital.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of three large ornate natural bacterial RNA molecules reveal their quaternary structures and intra- and intermolecular interactions that stabilize them.

The choanoflagellate Choanoeca flexa forms motile and contractile cell monolayers purely clonally, purely aggregatively or through a combination of both processes depending on environmental conditions.

Achieving toroidal magnetic moments in molecular systems is challenging. Now homochiral toroidal magnetic ground states have been realized in propeller-shaped chiral Dy(III)-based single-molecule toroics, enabling toroidal spin states to be detected through magneto-chiral dichroism.

Visible-light-mediated intramolecular [2+2] cycloaddition of aza-1,6-dienes gives bridged, not fused, heterocycles, in violation of the ‘rule-of-five’, which dictates that five-membered rings are preferentially formed. This method allows a variety of bridged bicyclic scaffolds to be accessed, enabling drug-relevant properties to be readily tuned.

Massively parallel reporter assays across five cell types identify thousands of causal, noncoding regulatory variants among 220,000 loci, revealing diverse regulatory mechanisms shaping complex traits and disease.

In this study, the authors present optimization and efficacy testing of apolipoprotein-based lipid nanoparticles for delivering various nucleic acid therapeutics in vivo to immune cells and their progenitors in the bone marrow.

Wu and colleagues present an integrated imaging workflow that combines signal amplification with multiplex immunostaining to improve detection of low-abundance proteins in human tissues, enabling detailed spatial profiling across many molecular markers.

A skeleton of the alvarezsauroid Alnashetri cerropoliciensis—representing a highly complete alvarezsauroid skeleton from South America—provides evidence on the evolution of the peculiar anatomy and miniaturization within this unusual theropod dinosaur clade.

Wide-field quantum sensing shows μm-scale inhomogeneous superconductivity in high-pressure La₃Ni₂O₇, linking local diamagnetic response to stress and stoichiometry and clarifying mechanisms that suppress or enhance superconductivity.

Loss of KRIT1 or CCM2 drives harmful KLF4 overexpression in brain vessels. Here, authors show a single KRIT1 must recruit two CCM2 proteins via dual PTB-NPxF interactions to suppress KLF4, revealing a previously unknown PTB clustering mechanism.

Here the authors present a compendium of avirulence genotypes for epidemiologically significant strains of wheat stem rust based on nuclear phased genome assemblies and functional assays to inform resistance gene deployment and pathogen surveillance.

Robust protein synthesis by the ribosome is required for rapid cancer growth. Here authors present interdictors, small molecule inhibitors of protein synthesis with context-dependent activity that inhibit MYC-driven cancer cell growth in a mouse model.

Performing pandemic-scale phylogenetic analysis poses multifaceted challenges. This study develops methods for identifying and accounting for mutation rate variation and recurrent sequence errors, leading to an improved global phylogenetic tree of >2 million severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 genomes.

Cholera remains a significant public health burden in sub-Saharan Africa, but the mechanisms of continental and regional spread remain undefined. Here, the authors investigate recent patterns of spread using Vibrio cholerae genomic surveillance data collected by a consortium of seven African Union member states from 2019-2024.

Here, the authors show that early-life high-fat/high-sugar diet induces sex-specific alterations in adult feeding behavior, hypothalamic transcriptome and blood metabolome, with Bifidobacterium longum and prebiotic FOS + GOS administration restoring these effects via distinct mechanisms, highlighting their therapeutic potential.

While the benefits of crop diversity are known, doubts remain as to whether replacing cereals in rotations reduces nutrient production. A comparison of 16 long-term field experiments across Europe shows no trade-off between functionally rich rotations and food productivity.

Improved red and green indicators for norepinephrine and their characterization are reported. These indicators allow detection of norepinephrine release in awake behaving mice in dual-color fiber photometry and two-photon imaging applications.

The APOE-ε4/ε4 genotype is the strongest genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. Here, Brutman et al. identify a deletion common in people of African ancestry that reduces the relative risk conferred by the APOE-ε4/ε4 genotype.

MASH is driven by the secreted GPNMB ectodomain, which binds hepatocyte RYK to activate ERK1/2 and promote lipid uptake and lipogenic programs; blocking the GPNMB–RYK axis prevented and treated MASH in preclinical models.

Molecular glue degraders have consistently been discovered retrospectively, despite their increasing importance. Herein, a high-throughput approach is described that modifies existing ligands into molecular glue degraders.

CRISPR–Cas9 screening identifies CLCC1 as a factor that increases neutral lipid flux to prevent hepatic steatosis and promotes nuclear pore complex assembly by promoting membrane bending and fusion.

The authors realize two- and three-site Kitaev chains in semiconducting quantum dots coupled via superconductors and tune them to the sweet spot where zero-energy Majorana modes appear at the chain ends. To assess Majorana localization, they couple the system to an additional quantum dot.

This study reveals that the malaria parasite Plasmodium uses a unique Aurora kinase complex to control cell division. This divergent machinery regulates spindle formation and is essential for parasite transmission.

Free fatty acids drive uncoupled respiration in white adipocytes, mediated in complex with ATP/ADP carriers, to modulate thermogenesis and cold tolerance in obese thermoneutral-adapted mice.

Wang et al. analyzed data from the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study to explore links between social adversity, post-traumatic stress and epigenetic regulation through blood-derived micro-RNA profiles.

The identification of ‘boosters’ that drive gene overexpression directly in a CAR construct provides a simple and scalable strategy for developing effective CAR-NK cell therapies for solid tumours.

Neuromorphic photonic systems can incur significant energy for moving and converting data between digital and analog domains. This work shows that integrating analog memory into these processors can save 26 × power over conventional digital-to-analog architectures while keeping  > 90% inference accuracy.