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Federated learning (FL) algorithms have emerged as a promising solution to train models for healthcare imaging across institutions while preserving privacy. Here, the authors describe the Federated Tumor Segmentation (FeTS) challenge for the decentralised benchmarking of FL algorithms and evaluation of Healthcare AI algorithm generalizability in real-world cancer imaging datasets.

Early life is a critical window for immune development, marked by shifts in cell composition and function. Age and sex influence this process and are associated with epigenetic differences in immune-related DNA methylation, based on analysis of whole blood samples collected at ages 1 vs. 5 from a Canadian longitudinal paediatric cohort

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

It is known that exercise influences many human traits, but not which tissues and genes are most important. This study connects transcriptome data collected across 15 tissues during exercise training in rats as part of the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium with human data to identify traits with similar tissue specific gene expression signatures to exercise.

Most rod-shaped bacteria elongate using a protein complex, the elongasome, that inserts new cell wall material into the cell sidewall. Here, Middlemiss et al. track the movement of individual elongasomes around the circumference of Bacillus subtilis cells, providing evidence for a molecular motor tug-of-war competition between oppositely oriented cell-wall synthesis complexes.

The sustainability of the majority of multispecies reef fisheries around the globe remains unassessed. This study provides context-specific sustainable reference points for coral reef fish using environmental conditions. Using these reference points, they show that most reef fish stocks have failed at least one fisheries sustainability benchmark.

A Bayesian method, called MAGICAL, that contrasts single cell multiomics data across conditions to accurately discover differences in gene regulatory circuits at cell type resolution is applied to specific host-based diagnosis of bacterial sepsis.

Analyses of the relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits across the tundra and over time show that community height increased with warming across all sites, whereas other traits lagged behind predicted rates of change.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

Primary angle-closure glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness. Here, the authors identify rare deleterious variants in UBOX5 as risk factors and implicate BIP ubiquitination as a potential disease mechanism.

An analysis of tree survival data from forest sites worldwide shows that in the tropics, rare tree species experience stronger stabilizing density dependence than common species, wheras no correlation of stabilizing density dependence and abundance exists in the temperate zone.

In this Review, Souza and Spechler describe the mechanisms, pathophysiology and cells of origin of Barrett oesophagus, a precursor of oesophageal adenocarcinoma, and discuss the clinical implications.

Antisymmetric exchange, or the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, has been a topic intense study in recent years, due to its critical role in stabilizing topological spin-textures such as Skyrmions. Here, using a combination of point group analysis and spin polarized electron microscopy Niu et al demonstrate the existence of an out-of-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, which was hitherto unobserved.

Heusler compounds are of great interest for spintronic applications. Here the authors report current driven domain wall motion in unit cell thick perpendicularly magnetized Heusler films with low current densities and show the velocity is dominated by the bulk chiral Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya exchange interaction.

Assessing the effectiveness of protected areas requires sufficient monitoring data inside and outside of protected areas; such data are lacking in many tropical regions. Here the authors use robust citizen science data on bird occupancy to show that protected areas are effective in maintaining bird species diversity across eight tropical biodiversity hotspots.

The mechanisms underlying bacterial chromosome configuration are not fully understood. Here, Spahn et al. show that the Escherichia coli nucleoid adopts a condensed, membrane-proximal configuration during rapid growth, with transcription and translation acting as main drivers of nucleoid organization.

Genome-wide data of 16 ancient human individuals from islands of the North Moluccas, Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara reveal diverse sources of admixture and support a scenario of multiple dispersals into Wallacea.

Red blood cells (RBCs) are phagocytosed in the spleen in sickle cell disease and malaria. Here, Cao et al. show that high mannose N-glycans, exposed on diseased or oxidized RBC surfaces, bind mannose receptor CD206 on host cells, mediating phagocytosis.

A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.

Investigating mesoscopic systems can offer insights into the crossover between few-body and many-body regimes. Atomic arrays inside an optical cavity are now shown to enable the controlled study of critical properties on mesoscopic scales.

Whole-genome sequencing and phenotype data sharing are introduced in a national health system to streamline diagnosis and to discover coding and non-coding variants that cause rare diseases.

The search for life in the universe is difficult due to issues with defining signatures of living systems. Here, the authors present an approach based on the molecular assembly number and tandem mass spectrometry that allows identification of molecules produced by biological systems, and use it to identify biosignatures from a range of samples, including ones from outer space.

Observations of the young supernova remnant SNR 0509-67.5 in the Large Magellanic Cloud reveal concentric shells of ionized calcium and sulfur that resemble hydrodynamical simulations of the double detonation of a sub-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf.

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

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

The size of thylakoid stacks in chloroplasts changes depending on the light conditions. Studying mutants defective in biochemical adaptations showed that these dynamics work synergistically with state transitions to regulate photosynthesis in variable light.

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.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

IL-27RA–IL-27 has a critical role in the immunity to EBV, and this defence is hijacked by Epstein–Barr virus to promote the expansion of infected transformed B cells

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.

In cancer many gene variants may contribute to disease etiology, but the impact of a given gene variant may have varied effect size. Here, the authors analyse summary statistics of genome-wide association studies from fourteen cancers, and show the utility of polygenic risk scores may vary depending on cancer type.

Analysis of diet and body size in terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates shows that a U-shaped relationship between body size and trophic guild prevails across extant vertebrates with the exception of marine mammals and seabirds. Analysis of fossil data shows that, for terrestrial mammals, this pattern has persisted for at least 66 million years, despite anthropogenic perturbance, which may have greater effects in the next centuries.

A TLAF is an archetypal geometrically frustrated magnetic system, which serves as the foundation for many exotic states, including quantum spin-liquids. Here, Park et al perform INS measurements on BLCTO, which, combined with theoretical calculations, reveal distinctive fingerprints of spinon excitations, thereby suggesting proximity to a spin liquid even in the presence of strong XXZ anisotropy.

Theory predicts that mating systems influence the relative strength of sexual selection before and after mating. Here, Morimoto and colleagues demonstrate that higher polyandry weakens precopulatory while strengthening post-copulatory sexual selection on males in Drosophila melanogaster.

The many strongly interacting degrees of freedom in transition metal oxides make it difficult to capture and describe the nature of their metal-insulator transitions. Li et al. show that a resonant magnetic X-ray nanoprobe gives access to local critical behavior that is difficult to detect otherwise.

Expansion microscopy, a technique for super-resolution imaging, is extended to clinical human tissue samples that are formalin fixed, paraffin embedded, stained and/or fresh frozen.

Coupling molecular toroids via ferrotoroidic interactions represents an important opportunity to enhance ground state toroidicity, but is challenging to achieve. Here the authors isolate a {Cr^IIIDy^III ₆} complex with a ferrotoroidic ground state and an enhanced toroidal moment, arising solely from intramolecular dipolar interactions.

Power exhaust is one of the biggest challenges stopping fusion energy. This article shows experimental evidence for strategically shaping the power exhaust region as a solution to this challenge, utilising physics understanding to strike a balance between engineering complexity and power exhaust benefits, consistent with reduced models and simulations.

Stuart Cook and colleagues study the role of TTN (titin)-truncating variants using a combination of heart physiology experiments in rats and genomic analysis in humans. Their data show that TTN variants are associated with a range of cardiac phenotypes in healthy individuals and in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.

Structural variations (SV) contribute to inter-individual variability. Here, the authors describe a first-generation multi-ancestry Asian SV catalogue containing 73,035 SVs from 8392 Singaporeans to provide insights into Asian SV diversity.