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The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Scientists couple the zero-phonon line of individual nitrogen-vacancy centres to the modes of microring resonators fabricated in single-crystal diamond using standard semiconductor techniques, paving ways towards integrated diamond photonics.

The role of type I interferon signalling in the control of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) activity remains controversial. Here the authors show that downregulation of type I interferon receptor is observed in MDSC from cancer patients and tumor-bearing mice and is required for the activation of their immune suppressive properties.

Non-invasive monitoring of solid tumour growth in mice is difficult. In this study, the authors develop a system for monitoring the secretion of luciferase either from Gaussia princeps or Cypridina noctiluca in the blood of mice harbouring luciferase-labelled tumour cells, thus providing a system to monitor two different cell populations in vivo.

Slide-tags enables multiomic sequencing of single cells and their localization within tissues.

An ultraviolet- and carbon-rich environment is needed to explain the bright emission coming from complex organic molecules observed near the midplane of protoplanetary disks. This implies that the gaseous reservoir from which actively forming planets accrete is carbon and organic rich.

It is unclear how often genetic mosaicism of chromosome X arises. Here, the authors examine women with cancer and cancer-free controls and show that X chromosome mosaicism occurs more frequently than on autosomes, especially on the inactive X chromosome, but is not linked to non-haematologic cancer risk

Genetic variants associated with susceptibility to pancreatic cancer have been identified using genome wide association studies (GWAS). Here, the authors combine data from over 9000 patients and perform a meta-analysis to identify five novel loci linked to pancreatic cancer.

Luis Pérez-Jurado, Stephen Chanock and colleagues detect clonal chromosomal abnormalities in peripheral blood or buccal samples from individuals in the general population. They show that the frequency of such events increases with age and is associated with elevated risk of developing subsequent hematological cancers.

Despite large sequencing and data sharing efforts it often remains challenging to provide a genetic diagnosis for individuals with suspected Mendelian (single-gene) disorders. Here, the authors describe their experiences in identifying likely causal genetic variants in thousands of families and highlight the need to consider a wide range of challenges rather than a narrow focus on sequencing technologies.

Alison Hardcastle et al. report a genome-wide meta-analysis of keratoconus, a condition affecting the cornea that causes blurred vision and often leads to blindness. They identify 36 genomic regions associated with keratoconus, 31 of which are novel, and show that the genes in these regions implicate genetic pathways involved in collagen matrix integrity and cell differentiation.

Contrary to the view that urbanization is a major driver of the global rise in obesity, the global increase in body-mass index is shown to be mostly due to increases in the body-mass indexes of rural populations.

Genetic variants at multiple loci of chr5p15.33 have been associated with susceptibility to numerous cancers. Here the authors show that the association of one of these loci may be explained by a variant, rs36115365, influencing telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) expression via ZNF148.

Previous studies have shown that both rare pathogenic mutations and common genetic variants contribute to the familial risk of developing colorectal cancer. Here, the authors carry out a two-stage genome-wide association study and identify six new loci associated with colorectal cancer.

Rare earth elements are used in electronics, but increase in demand could lead to low supply. Here the authors conduct experiments on the International Space Station and show microbes can extract rare elements from rocks at low gravity, a finding that could extend mining potential to other planets.

Steve Brown and colleagues report an analysis of 20 phenotyping tests, including 413 data parameters, across 449 mutant mouse alleles. They identify widespread pleiotropy and assign putative functions to genes that lacked previous phenotypic annotation.

Large scale sequencing study is of paramount importance to unravel the heterogeneity of colorectal cancer. Here, the authors sequenced 205 cancer genes in more than 2000 tumours and identified additional mutated driver genes, determined that mutational burden and specific mutations in TP53 are associated with survival odds.

Synthetic active particles with inter-particle propulsion have been served as a model system to study the collective animal behaviors. Here, Khadka et al. add complexity to the model by spatially controlling particle motions through a laser feedback loop in response to the collective dynamics of particles.

Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, Laufey Amundadottir and colleagues report a genome-wide association study of pancreatic cancer. They identify four new susceptibility loci.

In this work, the authors report NMR lipids Databank to promote decentralised sharing of biomolecular molecular dynamics (MD) simulation data with an overlay design. Programmatic access enables analyses of rare phenomena and advances the training of machine learning models.

AlphaFold 3 has a substantially updated architecture that is capable of predicting the joint structure of complexes including proteins, nucleic acids, small molecules, ions and modified residues with greatly improved accuracy over many previous specialized tools.

Gene drives have the potential to support malaria control by suppressing vector populations, but their impacts will depend on local ecology and epidemiology. Here, the authors incorporate location-specific data to model how gene drives could perform in sixteen diverse African settings.

Stephen Chanock and colleagues report a genome-wide association study of pancreatic cancer. They identify common variants at the ABO blood group locus associated with susceptibility to pancreatic cancer, consistent with previous epidemiological evidence suggesting that individuals with A or B blood types have greater risk of this cancer than individuals with blood type O.

A randomized trial in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showed no benefit and potentially increased harm associated with the use of convalescent plasma, with subgroup analyses suggesting that the antibody profile in donor plasma is critical in determining clinical outcomes.

Stephen Chanock and colleagues identify three new susceptibility loci for pancreatic cancer on chromosomes 13q22.1, 1q32.1 and 5p15.33. The association signal at 13q22.1 maps to a large nongenic region, whereas the signals at 1q32.1 and 5p15.33 map near the NR5A2 gene and CPTM1L-TERT region, respectively.

Tc toxins of Yersinia entomophaga are assembled only in a subpopulation of cells, followed by a suicide mechanism that results in the release of the toxins.