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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.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

Chiral crystals with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) termed Kramers Weyl semimetals possess Weyl points at time-reversal invariant momenta. Here, the authors propose a new class of topological materials with doubly degenerate lines connecting time-reversal invariant momenta in achiral noncentrosymmetric materials with SOC.

Changes in terrestrial runoff into the Bay of Bengal during both extremely weak and strong Indian summer monsoon phases since the Last Glacial Maximum caused a collapse in marine primary production linked to increased stratification, according to proxy records from a marine sediment core.

Cas12i is a genome editing platform with compact size that fits in AAV vector with short 43-mer gRNA, absence of tracrRNA, ability to process pre-crRNA, and high specificity. Here the authors present an unbiased mutational scanning approach to engineer Cas12i, which shows low activity in mammalian cells, and identify single substitutions that significantly improve indel activity.

Electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction into multicarbon products offers a means to close the anthropogenic carbon cycle using renewable electricity. Here, the authors report a cascade AgCu single-atom and nanoparticle electrocatalyst with favorable properties to improve the selectivity of multicarbon products.

Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have been investigated as a potential treatment for Covid-19 in several clinical trials. Here the authors report a meta-analysis of published and unpublished trials, and show that treatment with hydroxychloroquine for patients with Covid-19 was associated with increased mortality, and there was no benefit from chloroquine.

A study demonstrates that metabolic signalling and inflammatory cues associated with obesity selectively induce expression of PD-1 on tumour-associated macrophages to suppress anti-tumour immunity.

The semileptonic decay channels of the Λc baryon can give important insights into weak interaction, but decay into a neutron, positron and electron neutrino has not been reported so far, due to difficulties in the final products’ identification. Here, the BESIII Collaboration reports its observation in e+e- collision data, exploiting machine-learning-based identification techniques.

The Z phase, one of three fundamental Frank–Kasper phases—topologically close-packed structures commonly found in metal alloys—is associated with a relatively large volume ratio between its constituents. This means it is typically not formed in single-component soft materials. Now, a shape amphiphile has been shown to self-assemble in a variety of unconventional structures, including the Z phase.

The authors demonstrate the effectiveness of T cells in controlling acute viral infections, without neutralizing antibodies, by conducting an Orthoflavivirus vaccination and challenge study in humans.

Bioresorbable electronic stimulators can deliver electrical stimulation in rodents to enhance functional muscle recovery after nerve injury. Here, the authors present a bioresorbable dynamic covalent polymer that enables reliable, long-lived operation of soft, stretchable devices of this type.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports a measurement of the ratio of the decay rates of W bosons to τ leptons and muons, in agreement with universal lepton couplings as postulated in the standard model of particle physics.

¹⁴C can be absorbed by trees as a result of the interaction of cosmic rays produced by high-energy phenomena with the Earth’s atmosphere. Here, the authors observe a rapid increase of ¹⁴C in an ancient buried tree from BC 3372 to BC 3371, and suggest that it could originate from a large solar proton event.

A four-stage strategy selectively isolates H₂-dependent methylotrophic methanogens by using closed-batch cultivation and then serial dilution. The stepwise approach progressively streamlines the microbial composition, yielding a pure culture of the target microorganism.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

In this study the authors consider the structural variants (SVs) present within cancer cases of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. They report hundreds of genes, including known cancer-associated genes for which the nearby presence of a SV breakpoint is associated with altered expression.

This overview of the ENCODE project outlines the data accumulated so far, revealing that 80% of the human genome now has at least one biochemical function assigned to it; the newly identified functional elements should aid the interpretation of results of genome-wide association studies, as many correspond to sites of association with human disease.

Here, the authors demonstrate an electrically tunable metasurface with III–V semiconducting MQW structures as resonant metasurface elements. The amplitude and phase of the light reflected from the metasurface can be continuously tuned by applying DC electric field across the MQW metasurface elements.

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.

The overlap between different phases has hindered the understanding of how each phase affects superconductivity in FeSe. Here, Matsuura et al. achieve a complete separation of non-magnetic nematic and antiferromagnetic phases for FeSe_1-x S _x , observing a tetragonal phase in between with a strikingly enhanced T _c.

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.

Bellou et al. show that acrocentric chromosomes, such as chromosome 21, are more prone to aneuploidy in oocytes due to their unique architecture and lower cohesion levels, which lead to inefficient alignment and increased mis-segregation during meiosis.

The acidophilic fungus Acrodontium crateriforme is present in traps of the carnivorous plant Drosera spatulata and promotes prey digestion.

Genome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in ancestrally diverse populations implicate candidate causal genes and mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. Trans-ancestry genetic risk scores enhance transferability across populations.

Methanosuratincola petrocarbonis LWZ-6 is a strict hydrogen-dependent methylotrophic methanogen that does not ferment sugars, peptides or amino acids.

Using spin-entangled baryon–antibaryon pairs, the BESIII Collaboration reports on high-precision measurements of potential charge conjugation and parity (CP)-symmetry-violating effects in hadrons.

Designed novel protein nanoparticle technology integrates antibody targeting and responds to changes in environmental conditions to release protected molecular cargoes, opening new applications for precision medicine.

Two below-threshold surface code memories on superconducting processors markedly reduce logical error rates, achieving high efficiency and real-time decoding, indicating potential for practical large-scale fault-tolerant quantum algorithms.

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.

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.

The exploitation of the properties of graphene, such as mechanical strength and electrical conductivity, in deformable macroscopic materials is desirable. Here, a combination of graphene chemistry and ice physics is used to fabricate biomimetic, ultralight and superelastic graphene cellular monoliths.

Ten years after the discovery of the Higgs boson, the ATLAS  experiment at CERN probes its kinematic properties with a significantly larger dataset from 2015–2018 and provides further insights on its interaction with other known particles.

Quantum electrodynamics predicts a rare process in which light is scattered by light. The ATLAS Collaboration reports signs of this elusive effect in the collisions of ultra-relativistic lead ions.

Soft building blocks tend to be near spherical, limiting their packing structures to those found in metallic systems. Here the authors report the spontaneous generation of highly deformed mesoatoms using molecular pentagons and observe Frank–Kasper phases not found in metal alloys.

A description is given of the ENCODE consortium’s efforts to examine the principles of human transcriptional regulatory networks; the results are integrated with other genomic information to form a hierarchical meta-network where different levels have distinct properties.

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.

Immune profiling of the tumour microenvironment of soft-tissue sarcoma identifies a group of patients with high levels of B-cell infiltration and tertiary lymphoid structures that have improved survival and a high response rate to immune checkpoint blockade therapy.

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.

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 widely prescribed beta blocker carvedilol has strong antiarrhythmic effects on the heart, but the underlying mechanisms have been unclear. Qiang Zhou et al. now show that carvedilol, unlike other beta blockers, is also able to block proarrhythmogenic spontaneous calcium waves by directly inhibiting the calcium release channel RyR2. By generating new carvedilol analogs that inhibit RyR2 but not β-adrenergic receptors, the authors provide evidence that antiarrhythmic therapy might be optimized by combining agents that are individually selective for these two targets.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

Andrew Morris, Mark McCarthy, Michael Boehnke and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for type 2 diabetes, including 26,488 cases and 83,964 controls from populations of European, east Asian, south Asian and Mexican and Mexican American ancestry. They identify seven loci newly associated with type 2 diabetes and examine the genetic architecture of disease across populations.

A cross-reactive antibody and T cell response is identified in a large portion of patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.