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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.

Neuroinflammation following intracortical microelectrode implantation impairs long-term brain-machine interface performance. Here, the authors developed a nanoparticle-based therapy that improves local hemostasis and delivers dexamethasone, reducing inflammation.

Ammonia oxidizers contribute minimally to carbon fixation in the dark ocean despite their abundance at depth, according to enzyme inhibition experiments on water samples from two cruises.

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 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.

The Zika viral protease NS2B-NS3 is a crucial target for antiviral drug development due to its role in processing viral polyproteins. Here, the authors utilize crystallographic fragment screening and deep mutational scanning to identify binding sites for resistance-resilient inhibitors.

People living in rural areas of the United States have poorer outcomes from acute COVID-19. Here, the authors show that higher mortality rates among rural dwellers persist for up to two years after the initial infection, even after accounting for baseline risk factors.

Type 2 diabetes predisposes individuals to multiple comorbidities, but causal mechanisms are unclear. Here, the authors use Mendelian randomisation to show that distinct genetic pathways underlie diabetes-related risks, with ancestry-specific differences.

Infant KMT2A-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia is associated with poor overall survival rates. Here, the authors use WGS and WES of 36 relapsed KMT2A-rearranged ALL and AML patients and find alterations in drug response genes in ALL, which may correspond with relapse time. Longitudinal analyses of >250 samples could track residual leukemia cells, clonal drug responses, and the upcoming relapse.

Multiancestry fine-mapping of brain protein quantitative trait loci coupled with Mendelian randomization analyses identifies protein–trait pairs consistent with causal effects across neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Over 20 species of geographically and phylogenetically diverse bird species produce convergent whining vocalizations towards their respective brood parasites. Model presentation and playback experiments across multiple continents suggest that these learned calls provoke an innate response even among allopatric species.

Nagano et al. identify the third mitotic cohesin complex, STAG3–cohesin, which, with its unique biophysical properties, weakens insulation and rewires regulatory interactions of spermatogonial stem cells, shaping the male germline nucleome.

The authors use a high-resolution climate model and show that under global warming the Labrador Current strongly restricts the lateral spread of freshwater from the Arctic Ocean into the open ocean, suggesting a limited role of freshwater input in weakening the overturning circulation.

X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is crucial for gene regulation, yet the role of small non coding RNAs in this process was unclear. Here, the authors identify miR106a as a key XCI regulator and show its inhibition improves Rett syndrome symptoms in a mouse model.

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.

Gene regulatory network architecture and complex dosage effects from paralogue diversification converge to shape phenotypic space, producing the potential for both strongly buffered phenotypes and sudden bursts of phenotypic change.

In this Stage 2 Registered Report, Buchanan et al. show evidence confirming the phenomenon of semantic priming across speakers of 19 diverse languages.

Neonatal gyrated brains harbor an elaborate subventricular zone, termed the Arc, supporting cortical migratory streams of diverse interneurons.

Genotype-phenotype data from over 450,000 individuals was analyzed to discover 205 genomic loci where an allele associated with increase adiposity was associated with a lower cardiometabolic disease risk to an individual.

The authors report a meta-analysis of methylome-wide association studies, identifying 15 significant CpG sites linked to major depression, revealing associations with inflammatory markers and suggesting potential causal relationships through Mendelian randomization analysis.

Cocaine chemogenetics in rats is a selective approach for countering drug reinforcement by clamping dopamine release in the presence of cocaine.

A single dose of an adeno-associated virus vector encoding an HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody given shortly after birth results in persistent antibody expression and protection from infection in rhesus macaque models of human HIV-1 transmission through breastfeeding and sexual intercourse.

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.

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.

In a post-hoc analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) features from patients with metastatic prostate cancer treated with [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu–PSMA-617 or cabazitaxel in the randomized phase 2 TheraP trial, low ctDNA levels at baseline were predictive of clinical benefit from [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu–PSMA-617, and PTEN or ATM alterations were identified as potential biomarkers of response.

In this paper, the authors describe the energy state-dependent regulation of the PVN^GLP-1R to DVC circuit, resulting in altered food intake and metabolic health, mediated by GLP-1 receptor signalling.

Asymmetrical distribution of tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease is linked to asymmetrical amyloid-beta deposition, not reduced brain connectivity, suggesting regional vulnerability plays a key role in determining the distribution of tau pathology.

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.

The authors show that aberrant epithelial GREM1 expression remodels intestinal stroma to form ectopic stem cell niches in mice. Anti-GREM1 reversed these changes, highlighting a potential strategy for preventing polyposis in patients with HMPS.

Nature Biotechnology’s annual survey highlights academic startups that are, among other things, designing circular RNA therapeutics, tackling cancer with arenaviruses, creating psychedelics without the trip, editing genes and cells in vivo, harnessing the power of autoantibodies and editing the epigenome.

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.

Whether multimorbidity accelerates brain Aβ deposition in humans remains largely unknown. Here, the authors demonstrate that higher self-reported multimorbidity burden predicts increased brain Aβ accumulation rates in the ADNI cohort.

This systematic review and meta-analysis of 53 randomized controlled trials finds that educational interventions can help students reduce cognitive biases, with a small but statistically significant overall effect.

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

The diversity of ponerine ants varies widely across the globe. This study finds that the origin and early colonization in Gondwana’s tropical regions mainly shaped this distribution, while differences in diversification and dispersal have balanced regional diversity over time.

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 number of individuals in a given space influences animal interactions and network dynamics. Here the authors identify general rules underlying density dependence in animal networks and reveal some fundamental differences between spatial and social dynamics.

Obesity promotes tumor growth yet simultaneously increases susceptibility to PD-1-targeted cancer immunotherapy.

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.

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.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.

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.

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.

Disulfide-based dimerization of modified identical and heterologous nanobody scaffolds enables higher-order assembly for high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy structure determination that is widely applicable to small protein targets.

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.