Search

A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

Polygenic risk scores can help identify individuals at higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Here, the authors characterise a multi-ancestry score across nearly 900,000 people, showing that its predictive value depends on demographic and clinical context and extends to related traits and complications.

A Telluride Science Workshop on electrochemical separations was convened in early 2025. In this Feature, 17 of the workshop participants share their perspectives and future outlooks on this rapidly growing research area.

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).

Using well-calibrated statistical methods the authors jointly analyze Undiagnosed Diseases Network genomes, identifying known and novel disease genes. Software is publicly available to support future cross-cohort rare disease discovery efforts.

A combination of mouse model data and data from a randomized phase 2 trial in patients with breast cancer in remission demonstrates feasibility, safety and a reduction in residual tumor cells following treatment with hydroxychloroquine and/or everolimus.

LaFleur, Milling et al. perform an in vivo CRISPR screen of CD8⁺ T cells responding to tumors. They identify the E3 ubiquitin ligase STUB1 as a potent negative regulator of CD8⁺ T cell responses in tumors.

Analysis of samples from the asteroid Ryugu provide evidence of late fluid flow in a carbonaceous asteroid, indicating that such bodies may have retained two to three times more water than previously thought.

A global land surface phenology map predicts complex geographical discontinuities in flowering phenology, genetic divergence and harvest seasonality across a range of taxa.

Structural analyses of antibody-virus complexes offer critical insights into immune recognition mechanisms. In this report, we present how a patient-derived IgG recognizes a quaternary epitope on EEEV particles through strictly bivalent interactions.

Here the authors apply machine learning approaches to Alzheimer’s genetics, confirm known associations and suggest novel risk loci. These methods demonstrate predictive power comparable to traditional approaches, while also offering potential new insights beyond standard genetic analyses.

Identifying genes involved in MYC-driven lymphoma reveals therapeutic vulnerabilities. Here, the authors show by using CRISPR knockout screens in primary cells in vivo that the GATOR1 complex suppresses MYC-driven lymphomagenesis, and that GATOR1-deficient lymphomas are sensitive to mTOR inhibitors.

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.

A high-resolution, global atlas of mortality of children under five years of age between 2000 and 2017 highlights subnational geographical inequalities in the distribution, rates and absolute counts of child deaths by age.

Geospatial estimates of the prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age across 82 low-income and middle-income countries reveals considerable heterogeneity and inequality at national and subnational levels, with few countries on track to meet the WHO Global Nutrition Targets by 2030.

An investigation using various methods reports an association between adeno-associated virus 2 and paediatric hepatitis of unknown aetiology.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

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.

Relapsed and/or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) postallogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation has limited treatment options. Here the authors report the clinical results and immune correlates of a phase I/II trial of adoptively transferred virus-specific donor CD8 + T cells engineered to express a WT1-specific T cell receptor in patients with acute myeloid leukemia and active disease post-allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) onsets in COVID-19 patients with manifestations similar to Kawasaki disease (KD). Here the author probe the peripheral blood transcriptome of MIS-C patients to find signatures related to natural killer (NK) cell activation and CD8+ T cell exhaustion that are shared with KD patients.

Rao and Cai et al. perform a detailed metabolic comparison between primary tumours from patients and their matching xenografts, which identify conserved as well as divergent metabolic patterns.

Polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease derived from individuals of European ancestry can show improved performance in multiancestry settings after incorporating genome-wide association summary statistics from diverse populations.

This manuscript evaluates forecasts of laboratory-confirmed influenza hospital admissions, a new target for influenza forecasting in the United States. Across two influenza seasons, the FluSight ensemble is robust compared to submitted models.

Here, the authors develop hydrocarbon-stapled paxillin-mimetic peptides that act as selective and potent focal adhesion kinase (FAK) scaffold inhibitors to displace FAK from focal adhesions. Treatment shows reduced cancer cell survival in vitro and reduced tumor burden in vivo.

The expression of oncogenic MYC paralogs in small cell lung cancer is mutually exclusive. In this study, the authors show that MYC, but not MYCN or MYCL, represses BCL2, resulting in cells that are uniquely sensitive to apoptosis, and find that CHK1 and AURKA inhibitors may be useful for treating these cancers.

Venous tumour thrombus can occur within renal cell carcinoma, and can require complex additional surgery and treatment. Here, the authors analyse multiparametric data from patients treated with axitinib and develop a machine learning model to predict neoadjuvant treatment response.

 A transcriptomic cell-type atlas of the whole adult mouse brain with ~5,300 clusters built from single-cell and spatial transcriptomic datasets with more than eight million cells reveals remarkable cell type diversity across the brain and unique cell type characteristics of different brain regions. 

An analysis of the impact of logging intensity on biodiversity in tropical forests in Sabah, Malaysia, identifies a threshold of tree biomass removal below which logged forests still have conservation value.

Study shows PTSD predisposition shares distinct genes and genomic regions with several cardiovascular conditions. Here the findings reveal neuronal, immune, and metabolic pathways, and repurposed drug targets that further the understanding of the comorbidity.

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 preinfusion circulatory inflammation biomarker-based signature predicts the likelihood of treatment failure in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who were treated with CAR-T cell therapy, with an inflammatory cluster assignment being prognostic of clinical response and survival outcomes.

By coupling robotic cell culture systems with artificial intelligence–powered image analysis, Schiff et al. identify previously unseen characteristics of Parkinson’s disease in patient skin cells that distinguish them from healthy controls.

Known genetic loci account for only a fraction of the genetic contribution to Alzheimer’s disease. Here, the authors have performed a large genome-wide meta-analysis comprising 409,435 individuals to discover 6 new loci and demonstrate the efficacy of an Alzheimer’s disease polygenic risk score.

The seeding of native species is critical to the success of dryland restoration efforts. Here the authors evaluate success of seeding establishment at 174 sites on six continents, finding that some sites had nearly 100% of species successfully recruit, while 17% of sites had zero seedling success.

A case–control study investigating the causes of recent cases of acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in 32 children identifies an association between adeno-associated virus infection and host genetics in disease susceptibility.

Here the authors analyze data from COVAIL trial participants receiving an mRNA second COVID-19 vaccine boost and show that, while neutralizing antibody titer is correlated with Omicron COVID-19 risk, the correlation is weak in naïve individuals compared to previously infected ones.

_

Vaccination is effective in protecting from COVID-19. Here the authors report immune responses and breakthrough infections in twice-vaccinated patients receiving anti-TNF treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, and find dampened vaccine responses that implicate the need of adapted vaccination schedules for these patients.

Genome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in ancestrally diverse populations implicate candidate causal genes and mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. Trans-ancestry genetic risk scores enhance transferability across populations.

Bhattacharjee and Schaeffer et al. map exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in 94 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), finding increased EBF practice and reduced subnational variation across the majority of LMICs from 2000 to 2018. However, only six LMICs will meet WHO’s target of ≥70% EBF by 2030 nationally, and only three will achieve this in all districts.

Axonal transcriptomes have been characterized, but their regulation and role in neuronal circuits remain unclear. Here authors uncover activity-dependent RNA localization in axons important for memory consolidation.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide analyses identify 95 loci associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and implicate candidate genes, pathways and neurobiological systems underlying its pathophysiology.

The H₂ roaming mechanism in organic molecules is involved in the formation of \({{{{{{{{\rm{H}}}}}}}}_{3}}^{+}\), one of the most abundant molecular ions in the universe, but its direct visualization has been challenging. Here the authors obtain direct insights into these complex dynamics by tracking the roaming H₂ molecules in acetonitrile with time-resolved Coulomb explosion imaging.

Current applications of CD40-directed cancer immunotherapy rely on the release of endogenous tumor antigen for T cell priming and activation. Here the authors develop a bispecific CD40 agonistic antibody for modular delivery of antigenic peptides combined with CD40 stimulation and find that this improves T cell expansion and anti-tumor response in mice.’

Using cryo-electron microscopy, the structures of mammalian fatty acid synthase reveal how the acyl carrier protein dynamically shuttles intermediates between selected active sites.

Regulation of tissue growth is crucial for development, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, the authors identify a role for deubiquitylating enzymes in the regulation of the function of the atypical cadherin Fat and Hippo signalling.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of type 2 diabetes (T2D) identifies more than 600 T2D-associated loci; integrating physiological trait and single-cell chromatin accessibility data at these loci sheds light on heterogeneity within the T2D phenotype.