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Accurate, spatiotemporally resolved monitoring of environments and ecosystems serves as the starting point to both identify and remedy natural or anthropogenic environmental hazards. This Review covers materials science advances supporting a new paradigm in environmental sensing: distributed networks of sensing elements capable of system-level profiling with the possibility of harmless environmental resorption after a predetermined recording period.

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 time-dependent viscoelastic moduli of biomolecular condensates are connected to the functions that the condensates influence in cells. Now sticker and spacer residues in proteins are shown to regulate condensate viscoelasticity and ageing dynamics.

The mechanisms regulating the balance between proliferation and differentiation in medulloblastomas with extensive nodularity (MBEN) remain poorly understood. Here, single cell multi-omics and spatial analysis characterises the spatial tissue organisation of MBEN in the context of the developmental trajectory.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

The characterization of 4,645 whole-genome and 19,184 exome sequences, covering most types of cancer, identifies 81 single-base substitution, doublet-base substitution and small-insertion-and-deletion mutational signatures, providing a systematic overview of the mutational processes that contribute to cancer development.

The BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network has constructed a multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex in a landmark effort towards understanding brain cell-type diversity, neural circuit organization and brain function.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

Talin is a mechanosensing cytoplasmic adaptor that links integrin cell adhesion receptors to the actin cytoskeleton. Here the authors measure the force-dependent folding and refolding kinetics of all talin rod domains to propose that talin can function as a force buffer under physiologically relevant conditions.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

Vertical organic electrochemical transistors demonstrating unprecedented performances in both p- and n-type operation modes have been synthesized from new electro-active and ion-permeable semiconducting polymers by the interface engineering of electro-active blend layers.

Estimates from the Global Dietary Database indicated that 2.2 million new type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cardiovascular disease cases were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages worldwide in 2020, with the highest burdens in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Visual hallucinations are a prevalent symptom of Parkinson’s disease. Here the authors use a structural mega-analysis to show cortical regions and networks involved in visual hallucinations and associations with receptor density maps.

Heterojunctions of two-dimensional materials are used to design electronic and optoelectronic devices. Here, the authors show that zigzag terraces between monolayers and bilayers form atomically sharp type-I heterojunctions, resulting in a wire-like interface both in WSe₂ and in MoSe₂.

Engineered kill-switch-encoding Mycobacterium tuberculosis infects, elicits immune responses and is cleared from immunocompetent and immunocompromised mice, providing a model of controlled tuberculosis infection.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.

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.

Future water scarcity is expected to increase up to fourfold in most parts of the Pearl Basin by 2050, driven by changes in both water quantity and quality. Water quality management options could cost-effectively half future water scarcity.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

Dissolution of sulphur into electrolyte is a major problem in lithium–sulphur batteries. Here, Yao et al.use an indium oxide-carbon interface and a polysulphide catholyte, and show that polysulphides preferentially deposit onto the oxide surface during electrochemical processes, thus alleviating the sulphur loss.

Entanglement was observed in top–antitop quark events by the ATLAS experiment produced at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN using a proton–proton collision dataset with a centre-of-mass energy of √s  = 13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 fb⁻¹.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of type 2 diabetes (T2D) identifies more than 600 T2D-associated loci; integrating physiological trait and single-cell chromatin accessibility data at these loci sheds light on heterogeneity within the T2D phenotype.

A large genome-wide association study of more than 5 million individuals reveals that 12,111 single-nucleotide polymorphisms account for nearly all the heritability of height attributable to common genetic variants.

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.

Recently topological phases have been generalized to amorphous materials, but demonstrations have been limited to non-interacting particles. Cassella et al. show the emergence of chiral amorphous quantum spin liquid in an exactly soluble model by extending the Kitaev honeycomb model to random lattices.

Some cancer patients first present with metastases where the location of the primary is unidentified; these are difficult to treat. In this study, using machine learning, the authors develop a method to determine the tissue of origin of a cancer based on whole sequencing data.

Craniofacial malformations have been linked to congenital heart defects, as in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, but the mechanisms linking these lineages remain unknown. Here they show that zebrafish nxk2.7 is expressed in cardiopharyngeal progenitors and has roles in craniofacial development that cannot be compensated for by nkx2.5.

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.

Inbreeding depression has been observed in many different species, but in humans a systematic analysis has been difficult so far. Here, analysing more than 1.3 million individuals, the authors show that a genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) is associated with disadvantageous outcomes in 32 out of 100 traits tested.

A transancestral exome-wide association study for body-fat distribution identifies protein-coding variants that are significantly associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index.

A hybrid analogue–digital quantum simulator is used to demonstrate beyond-classical performance in benchmarking experiments and to study thermalization phenomena in an XY quantum magnet, including the breakdown of Kibble–Zurek scaling predictions and signatures of the Kosterlitz–Thouless phase transition.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

Metabolic dysregulation in the development of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains to be understood. Here the authors identify that a carnitine synthesis enzyme BBOX1, which inhibits TBK1-mTORC1 signaling and glycolysis, is often lost in ccRCC.

Carefully designed hollow-core antiresonant fibres support a pair of orthogonal polarization modes with a level of purity and cross-coupling that is orders of magnitude lower than other fibre designs and beyond the fundamental Rayleigh scattering limit of glass core fibres.

Lenardo and colleagues identify a new human genetic disease, GISELL, whereby ceramide lipid homeostasis is disrupted, thereby altering T cell longevity. Deficiency of GTPase of the immunity-associated protein 5 (GIMAP5) in patients leads to cellular senescence, immunodeficiency and early mortality.

A consensus cell type atlas for the fly brain provides both an intellectual framework and open-source toolchains for brain-scale comparative connectomics.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

A comprehensive single-cell RNA sequencing study delineates cell-type-specific transcriptomic changes in the brain associated with normal ageing that will inform the investigation into functional changes and the interaction of ageing and disease.

Photocatalysis offers a promising pathway to upcycle plastic waste. Here the authors demonstrate how defective cadmium sulfide photocatalysts can convert real-world polylactic acid into the amino acid alanine under visible light.

Intrinsic regulators of stem cell-based embryo models are understudied. Here, the authors show that Nr1h2 activation allows ESCs to form blastoids with better implantation and higher blastocyst rates via coactivator Kdm1a and the Nr1h2-SINE B1 axis.

The interaction of magnetic fields embedded in plasmas is central to many astrophysical phenomena. Here, authors show that plasma flow disruption caused by enhanced magnetic field is unexpectedly small compared to magnetic field compression by shocks, which significantly limits the growth of field strength.

Red blood cell disorders are often accompanied by increased release of extracellular vesicles (EVs), but their structural and mechanical properties are not fully understood. Here, the authors show that red blood cell EVs show liposome-like mechanical features and are softened in blood disorder patients.

Yuzhalin et al. report that astrocyte-mediated upregulation of Cdk5 in metastatic breast cancer cells inhibits MHC-I expression on the cell surface, thereby enabling escape from killing by CD8⁺ T cells and facilitating brain metastasis.

The occurrence of isomers of the bicyclic octapeptide α-amanitin, which presents a macrolactam with a tryptathionine cross-link forming a handle, has been reported under the term of atropoisomers. Here, the authors synthesize its analogs and analyse their isomers, proposing and describing for them the term ansamer.