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Reduced glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is a hallmark of chronic kidney disease. Here, Pattaro et al. conduct a meta-analysis to discover several new loci associated with variation in eGFR and find that genes associated with eGFR loci often encode proteins potentially related to kidney development.

In silicon, quantum information can be stored in donors or quantum dots, each with its advantages and limitations—particularly in terms of fabrication. Here the authors coherently couple a phosphorous donor’s electron spin to a quantum dot, encoding information in the hybrid two-electron system’s state.

Reference assemblies of great ape sex chromosomes show that Y chromosomes are more variable in size and sequence than X chromosomes and provide a resource for studies on human evolution and conservation genetics of non-human apes.

Opioid therapy is limited by analgesic tolerance and hyperalgesia. Here, the authors show that FLT3 in primary sensory neurons drives morphine tolerance and hyperalgesia while its inhibition improves morphine analgesia optimizing pain treatment.

A genomic and transcriptomic analysis of 2,754 childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemias identifies 376 putative driver genes, and associations between disease subtypes and prognosis.

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

Ce(IV) organometallic compounds are rare due to Ce(IV) being a powerful oxidant. Herein, the authors explore the covalency of a pair of organocerium complexes bearing a Ce(IV)-C(aryl) bond and examine their structure by NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and computational calculations.

Analysis of 179 new Ebola virus sequences from patient samples collected in Guinea between March 2014 and January 2015 shows how different lineages evolved and spread in West Africa.

The first mammalian lipoxygenase crystal structure reveals the surprising presence of an N-terminal β-barrel domain that is highly similar to the C-terminal domain of pancreatic Upases. The non-haem iron-containing catalytic domain is a compact version of the soybean lipoxygenase-1 major domain.

Global ocean microbiome survey reveals the bacterial family ‘Candidatus Eudoremicrobiaceae’, which includes some of the most biosynthetically diverse microorganisms in the ocean environment.

Rapid diagnosis and implementation of treatments is crucial in many genetic conditions. Here the authors describe Genome-to-Treatment, a virtual disease management system that can achieve a rapid diagnosis by expedited whole genome sequencing in 13.5 hours and provide guidance to clinicians for possible therapies.

Two doses of the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 boost antibody responses and functions in phase 1/2 trial participants.

Which combination of current genome sequencing and assembly approaches results in high-quality, complete diploid genome assemblies is determined.

Circulating liver enzymes, like alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), are highly heritable and predictive of disease. Here, the authors perform a genome-wide association study on ALT and AST, revealing a rare variant in SLC30A10 associated with elevated ALT and AST.

Thus far, pleiotropy analysis using individual-level Electronic Health Records data has been limited to data from one site. Here, the authors introduce Sum-Share, a method designed to efficiently and losslessly integrate EHR and genetic data from multiple sites to perform pleiotropy analysis.

A trans-ancestry genome-wide association study of serum urate levels identifies 183 loci influencing this trait. Enrichment analyses, fine-mapping and colocalization with gene expression in 47 tissues implicate the kidney and liver as key target organs and prioritize potential causal genes.

MKL1 is a key transcriptional co-activator of actin cytoskeleton genes. Here the authors show that MKL1 activation in somatic cells reduces chromatin accessibility and hinders full reprogramming to pluripotency. Reduction of MKL1, disruption of actin cytoskeleton and its links to the nucleus relieve this repression.

There is currently no licensed SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Here, the authors generate an optimized DNA vaccine candidate encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen, demonstrating induction of specific T cells and neutralizing antibody responses in mice and guinea pigs. These initial results support further development of this vaccine candidate.

Previous studies identified an association between the 2q35 locus and breast cancer. Here, the authors show that a SNP at 2q35, rs4442975, is associated with oestrogen receptor positive disease and suggest that this effect is mediated through the downregulation of a known breast cancer gene, IGFBP5.

Cryptophane-A is a prototypical organic host molecule that binds reversibly to neutral guest molecules. Taratulaet al.report X-ray structures of cryptophane-A complexed with a range of host molecules to show that the cryptophane host–guest system exhibits ‘induced fit’.

The development of modern flexible electronics calls for new materials with extreme stretchability and high conductivity. Here, Mates et al. show a printable material made of commercially-available elastomers and carbon nanofibres, which exhibits low resistance and water-repellency at strain up to 500%.

Human metaplastic breast cancers (MpBC) are a rare, aggressive subclass of triple-negative breast cancers. Here, the authors show over-expression of histone reader TRIM24 is sufficient to generate tumors with a molecular signature of metabolic dysfunction and EMT in a mouse model of human MpBC.

Prioritizing drug repurposing candidates for downstream studies remains challenging. Here, the authors present a high-throughput approach to identify and validate drug repurposing candidates, integrating human gene expression, drug perturbation, and clinical data from publicly available resources.

Post-translational site-selective formation of boronoalanine in proteins enables applications of boron for binding partner capture, footprinting of interactions with reactive oxygen species, proteolytic control and mapping of transient structures.

As the performance of silicon-based qubits has improved, there has been increasing focus on developing designs that are compatible with industrial processes. Here, Jock et al. exploit spin-orbit coupling to demonstrate full, all-electrical control of a metal-oxide-semiconductor electron spin qubit.

Analysis of 1,988 cases of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia characterizes 23 subtypes defined by genomic features and shows that two of the subtypes have frequent PAX5 alterations.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association analyses identify new risk loci for Parkinson’s disease, and fine-mapping and co-localization analyses implicate candidate genes whose expression is associated with disease susceptibility.

The direct, selective conversion of linear alkanes to α-olefins — without isomerization — is an important reaction in the field of catalysis from both a fundamental and industrial perspective. Now, a detailed pathway has been described for how a base metal can promote such a reaction with several turnovers, in a non-oxidative set of C–H activation reactions, thus preventing olefin isomerization.

Rare earth elements are critical components of clean energy technologies, but less than 1% are recycled due to high costs of recovery. Here the authors develop a ligand that selectively precipitates rare earth elements from aqueous media as a function of pH to facilitate the separation of binary rare earth mixtures.

The full extent of the genetic basis for hearing impairment is unknown. Here, as part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, the authors perform a hearing loss screen in 3006 mouse knockout strains and identify 52 new candidate genes for genetic hearing loss.

The protein gephyrin is involved in organizing synapses. Here, the authors show how different transcripts of gephyrin form and regulate inhibitory synapses.

Sensitisation of dorsal root ganglia neurons contributes to neuropathic pain. Here the authors demonstrate the cytokine FL contributes to sensitisation of DRGs via its receptor FLT3 expressed on neurons, and identify a novel FLT3 inhibitor that attenuates neuropathic pain in mice.