Search

Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

Several transmission-blocking vaccine candidates based on Pfs230 and Pfs48/45 are in clinical development, but it remains unclear whether they will demonstrate high efficacy. Here, the authors develop a stabilized chimeric antigen presenting potent epitopes from Pfs230 and Pfs48/45 in a single construct and demonstrate induction of transmission-reducing antibodies when female mice are immunized with the antigen in a self-assembling protein nanoparticle formulation.

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

This multidisciplinary response to investigate the large outbreak of unknown febrile illness in the Panzi Health Zone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in late 2024 suggests that the outbreak was largely associated with malarial cases and concurrent viral respiratory infections.

Hepatic glycogenolysis is essential for protein glycosylation and rhythmic secretion by the liver. Disruptions to hepatic glycogenolysis, caused by congenital diseases or physiological factors such as obesity, caloric restriction and changes to meal timing, alter hepatic protein secretion.

Variation in responses to bacterial and viral stimuli between Batwa rainforest hunter-gatherers and Bakiga agriculturalists from Uganda suggests population-level divergence under natural selection, with hunter-gatherers disproportionately showing signatures of positive selection.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Polyploidy and subsequent post-polyploid diploidization (PPD) contribute to evolutionary success of plant species. Here, using 11 genomes from all nine subfamilies of Malvaceae as an example, the authors provide evidence to support the “polyploidy for survival and PPD for success” hypothesis.

Several recent publications have attempted to detect novel unannotated microproteins using mass spectrometry proteomics. Here, the authors reassess these claimed microprotein detections, finding that many are poorly supported, while a subset represents likely genuine discoveries of novel proteins.

Authors show that all individuals have asymmetrically glycosylated IgGs—the glycans on each of the Fc protomers are not identical. Asymmetrically monofucosylated IgGs drive dengue disease and are functionally similar to afucosylated IgGs.

DOT1L slows transcription elongation and promotes RNAPII pausing, altering gene expression and creating conditions that enhance AID activity for antibody diversification but also facilitate off-target mutagenesis.

There is still a need for effective HIV vaccines. In this phase I clinical trial, the authors show that an HIV-1 vaccine candidate, ConM SOSIP.v7, is well-tolerated in HIV-negative adults and that it elicits a strain-specific neutralising antibody response that differed between female and male participants.

Variants in the PSMC5 gene impair proteasome function and cellular homeostasis, altering brain development in children. This study reveals underlying molecular mechanisms contributing to this neurodevelopmental phenotype, and suggests therapeutic leads for neurodevelopmental proteasomopathies.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

Cell surface receptors perceive immunogenic elicitors, triggering downstream signalling via receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases such as BIK1. Here the authors define and use the phosphorylation motif of BIK1 to find novel substrate candidates.

Mapping of the neutrophil compartment using single-cell transcriptional data from multiple physiological and patological states reveals its organizational architecture and how cell state dynamics and trajectories vary during health, inflammation and cancer.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

In this study the authors consider the structural variants (SVs) present within cancer cases of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. They report hundreds of genes, including known cancer-associated genes for which the nearby presence of a SV breakpoint is associated with altered expression.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.

Inversion of C3 stereochemistry of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs) has to occur at some point during their biosynthesis; however, the mechanism has remained unresolved. Here, the authors report an oxidase–reductase enzyme pair encoded within a gene cluster and demonstrate their collaborative role in inverting MIA C3 stereochemistry.

Genotype and exome sequencing of 150,000 participants and whole-genome sequencing of 9,950 selected individuals recruited into the Mexico City Prospective Study constitute a valuable, publicly available resource of non-European sequencing data.

The authors show that the CD4 mimetic CJF-III-288 stabilizes HIV-1 Env in an asymmetric “open” State-3 conformation, guiding anti-CoRBS antibodies to boost ADCC against infected cells and delay viral rebound in vivo, underscoring therapeutic promise.

Royer and colleagues find a principal dimension of neural dynamic similarity dissociating unimodal and association cortices. Systematic variations in local and macroscale constraints across the cortex also followed this pattern.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) variability and its phenotypic consequences aren’t well studied in relation to viral replication fitness and disease severity. Here, the authors identify a replication-enhancing domain in non-structural protein 5A, linking high replication fitness to severe disease outcomes, with implications for understanding HCV pathogenesis in immunocompromised patients.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

As presented at the ESMO Congress 2025: Results of the phase 2/3 AGITG DYNAMIC-III trial show that de-escalated chemotherapy based on ctDNA-negative status in patients with stage III colon cancer did not meet non-inferiority for 3-year recurrence-free survival when compared to standard of care, although it enables better informed treatment decisions.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

The characterization of 4,645 whole-genome and 19,184 exome sequences, covering most types of cancer, identifies 81 single-base substitution, doublet-base substitution and small-insertion-and-deletion mutational signatures, providing a systematic overview of the mutational processes that contribute to cancer development.

This study presents a new T cell therapy targeting spinal cord injury, providing a potential new approach for injured CNS.

Intramolecular coupling of extended biphen[n]arenes is developed to yield cycloparaphenylenes (CPPs). The modular nature of biphen[n]arenes makes it possible to customize CPP structures, which permits tuning of their photophysical properties. The syntheses are short and excellent yields are achieved. Moreover, postsynthetic functionalization is possible.

In somatic cells the mechanisms maintaining the chromosome ends are normally inactivated; however, cancer cells can re-activate these pathways to support continuous growth. Here, the authors characterize the telomeric landscapes across tumour types and identify genomic alterations associated with different telomere maintenance mechanisms.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

Some cancer patients first present with metastases where the location of the primary is unidentified; these are difficult to treat. In this study, using machine learning, the authors develop a method to determine the tissue of origin of a cancer based on whole sequencing data.

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

Federated learning (FL) algorithms have emerged as a promising solution to train models for healthcare imaging across institutions while preserving privacy. Here, the authors describe the Federated Tumor Segmentation (FeTS) challenge for the decentralised benchmarking of FL algorithms and evaluation of Healthcare AI algorithm generalizability in real-world cancer imaging datasets.

The choroid plexus is a vital brain ventricular organ that produces cerebrospinal fluid. This study shows how developmental origins and local niches shape the specialization of choroid plexus macrophages, a key first line of immune defense for the brain.