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Julie Gould explores some of the theories and frameworks to help identify future work goals and achieve them.

A study examines the effects of mutations that occur naturally in T cell cancers, reporting that such mutations can potentially be exploited to increase the potency of T cell therapies.

Here the authors perform a trans expression quantitative trait locus meta-analysis study of over 3,700 people and link a USP18 variant to expression of 50 inflammation genes and lupus risk, highlighting how genetic regulation of immune responses drives autoimmune disease and informs new therapies.

Mark Dodgson and Lee Cronin discuss the revolutionary potential of artificial intelligence on university teaching, research, and scientific careers.

Proximity-ligation-based sequencing from 111 samples and 5 environments reveals that a substantial proportion of phages infect multiple species.

This study reveals that plant proteins MAIL1, MAIN and MAIL2 function as anti-silencing factors that maintain active gene expression. They bind specific DNA motifs to prevent Polycomb-mediated repression, which is crucial for normal development.

Nimbus, a deep learning model, uses a large multiplexed imaging dataset to predict the likelihood of marker positivity in single cells.

Julie Gould hears how a technical university in the Netherlands took radical measures to boost the number of female academics.

How governments decide when to boost basic research funding, and when to scale back support.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

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.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

The rapid chromosomal movements during meiotic prophase in Arabidopsis thaliana depend on telomere-to-cytoskeleton attachment through the nuclear envelope via a protein complex composed of the kinesin PSS1, the KASH protein SINE3 and the carboxy-terminal SUN-domain proteins.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

In an updated report on 70 laboratory-confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza A H5N1 cases in the USA between March 2024 and May 2025, the absence of human-to-human transmission to date was confirmed, with no known mutations of resistance to neuroaminidase inhibitors.

An expert guide for early career researchers to UK Research and Innovation, the UK's new central funding agency.

Wind power for energy generation is projected to decrease in northern mid-latitudes and increase in the tropics and Southern Hemisphere, suggests an analysis of climate model simulations utilizing an industry wind turbine power curve.

This study provides a continent-wide assessment of surface meltwater area in Antarctica between 2006 and 2021, highlighting recent increases in magnitude and variability in East Antarctica, with indications that the ice-sheet surface is becoming increasingly prone to further meltwater ponding.

The role of cohesion is vital to our understanding of how sedimentary bedforms evolve. Here, the authors show that microorganisms within the sediment affect cohesion and demonstrate that ripples can take up to one hundred times as long to develop when extracellular polymeric substances are present.

Observations of the Phoenix cluster using the James Webb Space Telescope reveal rapid cooling in galaxy cluster cores, driven by black hole jets, with gas temperatures mapped between 10⁵ K and 10⁶ K and cooling rates of 5,000–23,000 M_⊙ yr⁻¹.

An oceanic plate joint, where two sets of plate fabrics intersect, may have led to weakening, tearing and a window opening in the slab subducting beneath the Alaska Peninsula, according to ambient noise seismic tomography.

The dwarf planet Ceres is thought to have an ice-rich layer in its shallow subsurface. The morphologies of craters, however, suggest little relaxation by viscous flow has occurred and instead indicate a subsurface that is less than 40% ice.

Sustainable lighting requires balancing the preservation of biodiversity with the needs of urban residents. This study offers a valuable tool and meaningful insights to assist urban planners in achieving this equilibrium.

Here the authors characterize a single-domain antibody that broadly neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 variants with high potency by targeting the heptad repeat 2 (HR2) coiled coil, conserved in sarbecoviruses. Binding to its quaternary epitope blocks membrane fusion, by locking HR2 in its prefusion conformation.

Upon emerging from their pupal case, insects swiftly deploy their wings from a compact origami-like structure to a fully extended blade. Here, authors use a combination of imaging and mechanical tests to model the kinematics and dynamics of wing deployment in Drosophila.

Relationships among variables such as innovation and crime and the population sizes of cities are a cornerstone of urban science. This study creatively looks over time at how economic activities evolved as a single, iconic city, Paris, grew between 1829 and 1907.

Climate model simulations suggest that both anthropogenic aerosols and tropical ocean warming have contributed to reduced precipitation over the southwestern United States in recent decades, thus making the current drought more likely than previously thought.

McDonald et al. review studies of lymphatic vessels in the dural layer of the meninges and discuss the role of lymphatics in the function and maintenance of the central nervous system, aging, neuroimmunity and the progression of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

MultiSTAAR provides a general and flexible statistical framework for functionally informed multi-trait rare variant analysis of biobank-scale sequencing studies by jointly analyzing multiple traits and incorporating annotation information.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

PEGylated liposomal accumulation in inflamed regions has mainly been attributed to the enhanced permeation and retention effect. An arthritis model that chemotactically attracted myeloid cells shows that monocytes and neutrophils play an essential role in liposome delivery towards inflamed joints.

Data from acute hospitals in England are used to quantify hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections, evaluate likely pathways of spread and factors associated with heightened transmission risk, and explore the impact on community transmission.

Immunization has always been a proxy for wider fears about social control, a history reminds us. By Julie Leask

Plant RNA Pol V is involved in the RNA-directed DNA-methylation pathway that leads to heterochromatic silencing at some endogenous loci. Now the genomic regions targeted by Pol V in Arabidopsis thaliana are determined by ChIP-seq analyses revealing Pol V's enrichment at evolutionarily recent transposons.

Harty and colleagues report that physiological microbial exposures in mice can enhance memory T cell presence in the brain and influence neurological disease outcomes.

Changes in bubble foam structure influence magma strength. Here, Bakeret al. measure bubble size and wall thickness of basaltic foams and find that basaltic magmas are most likely to fail immediately upon vesiculation, but a permeability increase within a few seconds may reduce the risk of explosive eruptions.

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.

In an analysis of long-term safety events in 783 patients treated with T cell therapy in 38 trials, 2.3% of patients developed second primary malignancies, and vector integration analyses revealed no pathological insertions.

As presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting, intracerebroventricular infusion of bivalent CAR T cells targeting EGFR and IL-13Rα2 in patients with multifocal, recurrent glioblastoma was feasible and well tolerated, with the maximum tolerated dose identified, one patient with a partial response and one patient with durable stable disease.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

Here, the authors perform a genome-wide association study to identify 157 significant testosterone genetic variants in male veterans, of which 8 are ancestry-specific. Men with higher testosterone genetic scores have lower odds of diabetes, hyperlipidemia, gout, and cardiac disorders.

Here, the authors perform large trans-ancestry fine-mapping analyses identifying large numbers of association signals and putative target genes for colorectal cancer risk, advancing our understanding of the genetic and biological basis of this cancer.

Bennett et al. conducted a population-based study in adolescents and young adults with gliomas, revealing the specific molecular alterations and identifying potential subclassifications and targets.