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

The understudied lipid kinase PIP4K2C binds SARS-CoV-2 nonstructural protein 6 and regulates virus-induced autophagic flux impairment, suppressing viral protein degradation. PIP4K2C inhibition is a candidate strategy to combat emerging viruses.

In an updated report on 70 laboratory-confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza A H5N1 cases in the USA between March 2024 and May 2025, the absence of human-to-human transmission to date was confirmed, with no known mutations of resistance to neuroaminidase inhibitors.

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.

Layered black phosphorous has gained significant attention in the 2D materials community, and dynamical control of its bandgap is key to enable novel applications. Here, the authors demonstrate continuous electrical bandgap tuning using moderate displacement fields.

Computational methods are becoming an increasingly important part of biological research. Using the Rosetta framework as an example, the authors demonstrate how community-driven development of computational methods can be done in a reproducible and reliable fashion.

Genome-wide analyses in over one million self-reported cases and controls identify genetic variants associated with stuttering and find genetic correlations with autism, depression and impaired musical rhythm, supporting a potential neurological basis for stuttering.

Analysis of snRNA genes in individuals with rare disorders identifies de novo and recurrent variants in RNU5B-1 and RNU5A-1, in addition to previously unreported cases with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in RNU4-2.

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.

Pertea et al. describe a protocol to analyze RNA-seq data using HISAT, StringTie and Ballgown (the ‘new Tuxedo’ package). The protocol can be used for assembly of transcripts, quantification of gene expression levels and differential expression analysis.

GRB2 is an adaptor protein that plays a role in cell signal transduction. Here, the authors reveal an attenuation of GRB2 in endometrium from infertile women and show GRB2 knockout in mice results in infertility due to implantation and decidualization defects.

Early cancer detection by cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is challenged by the low amount of tumour DNA in cfDNA, tumour heterogeneity and the small patient cohorts. Here, the authors develop a method, cfMethyl-Seq, for cost-effective methylome profiling of cfDNA and for detecting and locating cancer.

Michita et al. show that Zika virus (ZIKV) NS1 induces tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) in placental cells, which facilitate viral spread and transport of mitochondria in placental cells. Infection with a NS1 mutant ZIKV not inducing TNTs results in a higher interferon response than wild-type ZIKV infection.

A study generates a clinicogenomics dataset resource, MSK-CHORD, that combines natural language processing-derived clinical annotations with patient medical data from various sources to improve models of cancer outcome.

The synthesis of polymers with diverse properties is often limited by the lack of methods to produce the required monomers. Now, the regio- and diastereoselective synthesis of 5,6-diaryl cyclooctene monomers is reported using nickel catalysis. The monomers can be used in ring-opening metathesis polymerization reactions to form polymers with head-to-head styrene dyads.

Estimating the contribution of different age groups to COVID-19 epidemic dynamics is complicated by changing variants, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and vaccination levels. Here, the authors use longitudinal social contact data from Belgium to characterise the contribution of age groups to transmission during different phases of the pandemic.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a disorder that occurs in ∼1% of live births. Here the authors describe a genome-wide allele-specific expression analyses in CHD patients, identifying five new genes involved in CHD and showing that paternally-expressed imprinted genes are monoallelic, while maternally-expressed imprinted genes are biallelic.

Improving the efficiency of reprogramming of somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells is of major interest. Here, the authors combine ascorbic acid and 2i (MAP kinase and GSK inhibitors) conditions and show increased efficiency and synchronicity in the reprogramming of fibroblasts and partially reprogrammed cells, and study epigenetic effectors and signalling pathways responsible for this effect.

In this randomized, controlled integrated phase 1/2/3a/3b clinical trial, the authors show that the self-amplifying mRNA COVID-19 vaccine ARCT-154 shows good immunogenicity and is safe and efficient against COVID-19 (57% against any COVID-19, and 95% against severe COVID-19).

In Alzheimer’s disease (AD) tau and neurodegeneration have complex regional relationships. Here, the authors show neuronal hypometabolism discordant with tau burden defines functional resilience or susceptibility to Alzheimer’s pathology via limbic/cortical axes. Susceptible groups have faster cognitive decline and evidence of non-Alzheimer’s pathologies.

Computational analyses integrating whole-genome sequencing, cardiac epigenomic data and RNA-binding-protein data identify a role for noncoding de novo mutations in congenital heart disease.

Mota et al. show that poor response to immune checkpoint blockade in mouse models of ALK-rearranged NSCLC can be overcome by vaccination with an immunogenic ALK peptide and identify immunogenic human ALK peptides for future translational study.

Discovery of a biochemical mechanism through which lactate binds and inhibits the SUMO protease SENP1, stimulating timed degradation of cell cycle proteins, and resulting in mitotic exit.

Rajderkar et al. provide a genome-wide compendium of transcriptional enhancers active in human craniofacial development, along with single-cell resources for studies of mammalian craniofacial morphogenesis.

An attractive route for carbon-negative synthesis of biochemical products is the reverse β-oxidation pathway coupled to the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. Here the authors use a high-throughput in vitro prototyping workflow to screen 762 unique pathway combinations using cell-free extracts tailored for r-BOX to identify enzyme sets for enhanced product selectivity.

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.

Exome sequencing of 2,871 probands with congenital heart disease (CHD) provides new insights into the genetic architecture of these disorders. The results implicate new genes in CHD pathogenesis and highlight striking overlap between genes with damaging de novo mutations in individuals with CHD and autism.

Schief and colleagues show that germline-targeting epitope scaffolds can elicit responses from rare broadly neutralizing antibody precursor B cells with predefined binding specificities and genetic features.

Using a battery of statistical tools, Alagöz et al. examine the genetic overlap between dyslexia and rhythm impairment and shed light on how the genome influences the neural bases of human language and musicality.

By November 2004, when the first issue of Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology was published, cancer immunotherapy had been successfully applied to the treatment of selected human cancers; however, dramatic progress in the following decade has moved immunotherapy from the sidelines of cancer treatment into the mainstream of modern oncology.

The understanding of molecular mechanisms in different subtypes of head and neck cancer (HNC) will define subtype-specific treatment options. Here the authors show that PI3K-phospho-YBX1 axis promotes tumour growth in basal subtype of HNC, while unphosphorylated YBX1 acts as a suppressor of metastasis in the mesenchymal subtype with inactive PI3K signalling.

Two industrial chemicals are sustainably produced at large scale by microbial gas fermentation.