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The authors summarize the data produced by phase III of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, a resource for better understanding of the human and mouse genomes.

Although phase-change materials are of significant importance for optical and electronic information storage applications, the search for new materials so far has been based on empirical methods. Now, the discovery that their crystalline phase shows resonant bonding opens the way to a deterministic search for new phase-change materials.

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

DNA circulating in the plasma of cancer patients carries features of the primary tumour, however such DNA is found in low levels in brain cancer patients. Here, the authors show that circulating tumour DNA can be detected in the cerebral spinal fluid of cancer patients and that this better recapitulates the primary tumour compared to DNA from the plasma.

This overview of the ENCODE project outlines the data accumulated so far, revealing that 80% of the human genome now has at least one biochemical function assigned to it; the newly identified functional elements should aid the interpretation of results of genome-wide association studies, as many correspond to sites of association with human disease.

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.

Fine-mapping of causal variants and integration of epigenetic and chromatin conformation data identify likely target genes for 150 breast cancer risk regions.

A patient with newly diagnosed glioblastoma was safely treated with neoadjuvant nivolumab, relatlimab and ipilimumab before maximal resection, with comprehensive immune profiling showing the induction of overall immune activation early during treatment. The patient had no definitive evidence of recurrence at 17 months after treatment.

The authors present a multiomics study of type 2 diabetes and quantitative blood lipid and lipoprotein traits in Hispanic/Latino populations. They demonstrate how integrating GWAS with omics characterization can advance precision medicine.

The bacterium Helicobacter pylori, often found in the human stomach, can be classified into distinct subpopulations associated with the geographic origin of the host. Here, the authors provide insights into H. pylori population structure by collecting over 1,000 clinical strains from 50 countries and generating and analyzing high-quality bacterial genome sequences.

Ultrafast breaking of the molecular symmetry is a key process in photochemistry. Here the authors show direct observation during internal conversion of a heterocyclic molecule using Coulomb explosion imaging supported by simulations.

Matthew M. Hernandez and Ana S. Gonzalez-Reiche and colleagues report evidence of SARSCoV-2 infections in respiratory pathogen-negative nasopharyngeal specimens collected in New York, which date back to over one month before the first officially documented case in the state. The findings provide insights in to the origins of the virus in New York.

Here, the authors show that Bilophila wadsworthia uses bacterial microcompartments and anaerobic respiration of host-derived compounds to thrive in the inflamed gut, uncovering metabolic strategies that enable its colonization and links them to disease-relevant functions.

The accelerated liquid–gel transition of collagen induced by an inert crowding agent enables the rapid and versatile fabrication of collagenous tissues under biocompatible and bioactive conditions for tissue engineering applications.

The authors investigated associations of brain-derived-tau (BD-tau) with Aβ pathology, changes in cognition and MRI signatures. Staging Aβ-pathology according to neurodegeneration, using BD-tau, identifies individuals at risk of near-term cognitive decline and atrophy.

What is the state of trust in scientists around the world? To answer this question, the authors surveyed 71,922 respondents in 68 countries and found that trust in scientists is moderately high.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

Cheek swabs are widely used in pediatric epigenetic studies, but changes in their cellular composition with age are unclear. Here the authors show that buccal epithelial cells decline with age until adolescence, then stabilize, while variability increases with age, impacting the precision of tools like the PedBE clock in pediatric epigenetics.

A rare variant burden analytical framework for Mendelian diseases was developed and applied to data from the 100,000 Genomes Project, identifying 69 probable new disease–gene associations.

Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) is still not well understood. Here the authors provide patient reported outcomes from 590 hospitalized COVID-19 patients and show association of PASC with higher respiratory SARS-CoV-2 load and circulating antibody titers, and in some an elevation in circulating fibroblast growth factor 21.

Penetrance of variants in monogenic disease and clinical utility of common polygenic variation has not been well explored on a large-scale. Here, the authors use exome sequencing data from 77,184 individuals to generate penetrance estimates and assess the utility of polygenic variation in risk prediction of monogenic variants.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

Targeted degradation has emerged as a powerful therapeutic modality. In this study, the authors develop a lipid-based platform to deliver recombinant bioPROTACs into cells for targeted protein degradation, providing a platform for efficient intracellular degradation of proteins that may elude chemical inhibition.

Clinical studies have suggested that the therapeutic potential of polyclonal convalescent plasma is highest in the first days of symptoms. Here, the authors present results from a pooled analysis of two clinical trials in COVID-19 outpatients that did not provide conclusive evidence in favor of convalescent plasma.

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.

Single-cell profiling in the human cortex reveals aging-associated transcriptomic changes across all brain cell types, which overlap with effects with Alzheimer’s disease and show a convergent signature with psychopathology across multiple cell types.

Exome-sequencing analyses of a large cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes and control individuals without diabetes from five ancestries are used to identify gene-level associations of rare variants that are associated with type 2 diabetes.