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Integrated multi-omic analyses using samples from the TRACERx study highlight cross-talk between DNA hypermethylation and genomic lesions in non-small cell lung cancer.

Here, the authors perform large trans-ancestry fine-mapping analyses identifying large numbers of association signals and putative target genes for colorectal cancer risk, advancing our understanding of the genetic and biological basis of this cancer.

A lithium niobate nonlocal metasurface with high-Q (~8000) resonances demonstrates efficient GHz-rate reflectivity modulation (~0.1) and one order of magnitude second harmonic modulation using sub-10V driving voltages, offering promising applications in high-speed nanophotonics.

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.

Most genetic studies have been done on European cohorts, which affects the efficacy of polygenic risk scores in non-European populations. Here, the authors demonstrate that a colorectal cancer PRS including Asian and European ancestries has improved performance over the European-centric PRS across racial and ethnic groups.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association study meta-analysis, combined with transcriptome- and methylome-wide association analyses, identifies risk loci associated with colorectal cancer. Credible effector genes and their target tissues are also highlighted, showing that over a third probably act outside the colonic mucosa.

The study of dissipative solitons is not only increasing our understanding of nonlinear systems but may also help develop high-performance short-pulse lasers and devices for optical information processing.

Bosonic qubits can be engineered to feature intrinsic protection against certain kinds of errors, which makes quantum error correction across many bosonic qubits possible with less overhead.

Circulating tumour DNA profiling in early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer can be used to track single-nucleotide variants in plasma to predict lung cancer relapse and identify tumour subclones involved in the metastatic process.

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

Immune lymphocyte estimation from nucleotide sequencing (ImmuneLENS) infers B cell and T cell fractions from whole-genome sequencing data. Applied to the 100,000 Genomes Project datasets, circulating T cell fraction provides sex-dependent and prognostic insights in patients.

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) loss of heterozygosity, allele-specific mutation and measurement of expression and repression (MHC Hammer) detects disruption to human leukocyte antigens due to mutations, loss of heterogeneity, altered gene expression or alternative splicing. Applied to lung and breast cancer datasets, the tool shows that these aberrations are common across cancer and can have clinical implications.

Mixed responses to targeted therapy within a patient are a clinical challenge. Here the authors show that TP53 loss-of-function cooperates with whole genome doubling which increases chromosomal instability. This leads to greater cellular diversity and multiple routes of resistance, which in turn promotes mixed responses to treatment.

Swanton and colleagues present a clonal expression signature, ORACLE, which, in combination with clinicopathological and molecular risk factors, can predict survival of patients with lung adenocarcinoma, and they prospectively validate its prognostic value.

Combination of epidemiology, preclinical models and ultradeep DNA profiling of clinical cohorts unpicks the inflammatory mechanism by which air pollution promotes lung cancer

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.

Analyses of multiregional tumour samples from 421 patients with non-small cell lung cancer prospectively enrolled to the TRACERx study reveal determinants of tumour evolution and relationships between intratumour heterogeneity and clinical outcome.

Openshaw and colleagues find myeloid inflammation and complement activation signatures in patients with long COVID who were previously hospitalized.

In the TRACERx cohort of 171 patients with lung cancer, the ultrasensitive detection of ctDNA improves preoperative patient stratification, also in early-stage disease.

The burden of chemotherapy-associated toxicity is well recognized, but we have relatively few tools that increase the precision of anticancer drug prescribing. This article proposes that broader agnostic analyses to systematically correlate germline genetic variants with adverse events in large, well-defined cancer populations might improve the current situation.

Analysis of colorectal cancer bulk gene expression data at the pathway level identifies a poor-prognosis subtype associated with cell differentiation. The subtypes are reproducible in single-cell data and offer biological insights beyond existing stratification strategies.

Analyses of in vivo models, cell lines and patient-derived samples show that apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing catalytic subunit 3B (APOBEC3B) not only restrains lung tumor initiation but also that its upregulation is associated with resistance to targeted therapies. This study highlights the complex and context-dependent role of APOBEC3B in lung cancer.

In colorectal cancer (CRC), finding loci associated with risk may give insight into disease aetiology. Here, the authors report a genome-wide association analysis in Europeans of 34,627 CRC cases and 71,379 controls, and find 31 new risk loci and 17 new risk SNPs at previously reported loci.

Mordechai (Moti) Segev spoke with Nature Photonics about the fascinating topic of photonic time crystals — materials with a refractive index that is periodically modulated in time on ultrafast timescales — and their inspiring future ahead.

The US COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub produced medium to long term projections based on different epidemic scenarios. In this study, the authors evaluate 14 rounds of projections by comparing them to the epidemic trajectories that occurred, and discuss lessons learned for future similar projects.

Computational and machine-learning approaches that integrate genomic and transcriptomic variation from paired primary and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer samples from the TRACERx cohort reveal the role of transcriptional events in tumour evolution.

RNA sequencing data and tumour pathology observations of non-small-cell lung cancers indicate that the immune cell microenvironment exerts strong evolutionary selection pressures that shape the immune-evasion capacity of tumours.

A longitudinal evolutionary analysis of 126 lung cancer patients with metastatic disease reveals the timing of metastatic divergence, modes of dissemination and the genomic events subject to selection during the metastatic transition.

Patient-derived xenografts are important tools for cancer drug development. Here, the authors develop models from 22 non-small cell lung cancer patients. They show genomic differences between models created from different spatial regions of tumours and a bottleneck on model establishment.

Analyses of the TRACERx study unveil the relationship between tissue morphology, the underlying evolutionary genomic landscape, and clinical and anatomical relapse risk of lung adenocarcinomas.

The use of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colorectal cancer is well established, but the use of this approach in patients with stage II colon cancer is more controversial. Midgley and Kerr highlight data from the QUASAR 1 trial, which provide compelling evidence for the use of adjuvant chemotherapy. The use of combination therapeutic options, the rationale for considering morphologic or molecular features to select and individualize therapy, and the crucial question of which patients would benefit most from adjuvant chemotherapy, are discussed.

It remains critical to identify colorectal cancers (CRC) that will disseminate as early as possible. Here, the authors identify CRC tumours that are aggressive and prone to early dissemination, characterised by epithelial TGFβ and growth-factor signalling - which could be targeted with MEK/EGFR inhibitors.

Results of the TRACERx study shed new light into the association between body composition and body weight with survival in individuals with non-small cell lung cancer, and delineate potential biological processes and mediators contributing to the development of cancer-associated cachexia.

A robust, cost-effective technique based on whole-exome sequencing data can be used to characterize immune infiltrates, relate the extent of these infiltrates to somatic changes in tumours, and enables prediction of tumour responses to immune checkpoint inhibition therapy.

A survey of T cell repertoire evolution in the tumors, healthy tissue and blood of patients with early-stage untreated lung cancer offers an opportunity to monitor and identify neoantigen-specific T cells for personalized immunotherapy.

Yuan and colleagues developed an artificial intelligence-based method to derive growth patterns and morphological features from hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides of lung adenocarcinoma samples, for improved tumor grading and patient prognostication.

While organic agriculture has been found to outperform conventional methods on multiple sustainability measures, this Article examines the effects of farm size on agroecological practices and finds that as organic farms get larger, they exhibit more conventional traits.

Analysis of HbA1c and FPG levels across 117 population-based studies demonstrates regional variation in prevalence of previously undiagnosed screen-detected diabetes using one or both measures and suggests that use of elevated FPG alone could underestimate diabetes prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.

In lung adenocarcinoma, antibodies against endogenous retroviruses promote anti-tumour activity, and expression of endogenous retroviruses can predict outcomes of immunotherapy.

Measurements of subclonal expansion of ctDNA in the plasma before surgery may enable the prediction of future metastatic subclones, offering the possibility for early intervention in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association analyses and systematic variant-to-gene mapping strategies implicate new genes and pathways influencing lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk.

How ribosomes differ in composition and function to regulate gene expression is poorly understood. Here, the authors show that ribosome composition changes during stem cell differentiation and identify a ribosomal protein that regulates production of the mesoderm lineage.

Ceramic lasers look poised to make an impact in photonics thanks to the tantalizing possibilities of high output power, ultrashort-pulse generation and cost-effective production.