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Matrix stiffness induced nuclear deformation regulates gene expression. This study finds that cell spreading on a stiff matrix induces tension in the nuclear lamina which promotes nuclear localization of yes associated protein (YAP), a transcriptional co-activator.

A statistical mechanics approach unveils how urban layout influences flood hazards linking flood risk to factors like ground slope, porosity, building arrangement symmetry, and chord length, offering a scalable model applicable worldwide.

Defects in perovskite materials are detrimental to their carrier dynamics and structural stability. Here, the authors incorporate 6H polytype perovskite into bulk to reduce defects and improve structural integrity, realizing efficient solar cells and modules with long-term stability.

The catalytic power of DNA polymerases for artificial genetic polymer (XNA) synthesis remains underdeveloped. Now, the evolution and structure of an α-l-threofuranosyl nucleic acid polymerase is described that achieves XNA synthesis with ∼1 nt s⁻¹ and >99% template-copying fidelity.

Psychophysical studies predict that retinal cone-opponent mechanisms interact in specific combinations to generate color perception. Here, the authors show that the predicted interactions are implemented by organized circuits in primary visual cortex.

Hundreds of genetic loci associated with age at menopause, combined with experimental evidence in mice, highlight mechanisms of reproductive ageing across the lifespan.

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.

SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals and reinfections in those with prior infection are a public health concern. Here, the authors show that viral loads of vaccine breakthrough infections and reinfections are generally lower than primary infections of unvaccinated individuals, potentially indicating lower infectiousness.

Federated learning, a method for training artificial intelligence algorithms that protects data privacy, was used to predict future oxygen requirements of symptomatic patients with COVID-19 using data from 20 different institutes across the globe.

Heart rate variability (HRV) describes the individual variation in cardiac cycle duration and is a measure of vagal control of heart rate. Here, the authors identify seventeen single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with HRV, lending new insight into the vagal regulation of heart rhythm.

A diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 experts in COVID-19 response from 112 countries provides health and social policy actions to address inadequacies in the pandemic response and help to bring this public health threat to an end.

Analysis of whole-genome sequences of 25,465 individuals of European ancestry shows that rare variants contribute substantially to the heritability of height and body mass index.

An expanded GWAS of birth weight and subsequent analysis using structural equation modeling and Mendelian randomization decomposes maternal and fetal genetic contributions and causal links between birth weight, blood pressure and glycemic traits.

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.

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.

The authors analyzed the whole-exome sequences of over 16,000 individuals and found that very rare variants predicted to disrupt the SETD1A gene confer substantial risk for schizophrenia. Damaging variants in SETD1A were also associated with diverse, severe developmental disorders, providing an important genetic link between schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Efficiency roll-off in organic light-emitting diodes under elevated current densities not only results in high power consumption but also device degradation. Here, the impact of polaroninduced quenching in efficiency roll-off was investigated and strategies to reduce efficiency roll-off were proposed.

South Asia is home to almost 2 billion people but is extremely underrepresented in human genetics. This study uses genomes from ~5,000 South Asians to characterize genetic variation and help facilitate future South Asian genetic studies.

Polymyxins are often the last therapeutic option for multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria, but have suboptimal safety and efficacy. Here the authors report the discovery and development of a synthetic lipopeptide with an improved safety and efficacy against top-priority MDR Gram-negative pathogens.

An integrated analysis of de novo and inherited coding variants in 42,607 individuals with autism spectrum disorder identifies 60 risk genes of which five have not previously been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Chronic infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to the emergence of viral variants that show reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies in an immunosuppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma.

Human brain structure changes throughout the lifespan. Brouwer et al. identified genetic variants that affect rates of brain growth and atrophy. The genes are linked to early brain development and neurodegeneration and suggest involvement of metabolic processes.

Sera from vaccinated individuals and some monoclonal antibodies show a modest reduction in neutralizing activity against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2; but the E484K substitution leads to a considerable loss of neutralizing activity.

Mosaic copy number gains arising from an extra parentally derived chromosome 1q allele are found in brain tissue from five individuals with focal epilepsy. These copy number gains are strongly enriched in astrocytes, indicating somatic rescue in other tissues during development.

Although some fungal mitochondria lack the calcium uniporter, many intriguingly encode homologs of the uniporter assembly factor MCUR1. Here, the authors show that in budding yeast, the MCUR1 homologs Put6 and Put7 regulate mitochondrial proline metabolism, a function also conserved in human MCUR1.

A synergistic dopant-additive combination strategy using methylammonium chloride as the dopant and a Lewis-basic ionic-liquid additive is shown to enable the fabrication of perovskite solar modules achieving record certified performance and long-term operational stability.

Genetic and testing data from England show that the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7 has a transmission advantage over other lineages.

EPIC-seq predicts expression of individual genes from cell-free DNA.

Retaining high performance of perovskite solar cells over large areas is a challenge. Yang et al. use a thermotropic liquid crystal with high diffusivity that does not co-crystallize with the perovskite, suppressing defect formation and enabling large-area solar modules with improved stability and efficiency.

A genetic study identifies hundreds of loci associated with risk tolerance and risky behaviors, finds evidence of substantial shared genetic influences across these phenotypes, and implicates genes involved in neurotransmission.

Megacities rely on groundwater from aquifers that may be over-exploited and be at risk of contamination. Khan et al. evaluate the complex aquifers supplying Dhaka, Bangladesh and show that extensive groundwater pumping could lead to unpredictable future arsenic contamination in deep aquifers outside the city.

The Human Endometrial Cell Atlas integrates single-cell transcriptomic datasets from women with and without endometriosis. Novel and known cell types are registered using spatial transcriptomics to provide a comprehensive map of the human endometrium in controls and endometriosis cases.

The protein corona on nanoparticles has potential for application in protein diagnostics. Here, the authors report on the use of small molecules to change the protein and proteoform patterns of protein corona on otherwise identical nanoparticles, which can be leveraged to significantly enhance the depth of plasma proteome profiling.

Somatic mutations are crucial to the understanding of cancer genesis, progression, and treatment, but are still challenging to detect. Here the authors present NeuSomatic, a convolutional neural network approach for accurate somatic mutation detection across various sequencing scenarios.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

The components of the tumour microenvironment contribute to prostate cancer initiation and progression. Here the authors perform single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics analysis of prostate cancer stroma from mouse models at different stages of the disease and develop a gene signature to predict distant metastasis in patients.

Mokry et al. performed bulk RNA sequencing of 654 advanced human carotid plaques from the Athero-Express biobank and 162 coronary samples, and they show that unsupervised clustering defines plaque types corresponding to different cell compositions and clinical presentations. Circulating biomarkers can be potentially used to mark the different transcriptomic-defined plaque phenotypes.

A machine learning algorithm, developed to detect occlusion myocardial infarction with no-ST elevation from electrocardiogram, outperforms clinicians in diagnostic assessments.