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As Nature Aging celebrates its fifth anniversary, the journal asks some of the researchers who contributed to the journal early on to reflect on the past and the future of aging and age-related disease research, the impact of the field on human health now and in the future, and what challenges need to be addressed to ensure sustained progress.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

We present James Webb Space Telescope observations that detect the 3.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon feature in a galaxy observed less than 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.

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).

JWST–NIRSpec spectroscopic confirmation of two luminous galaxies is presented, proving that luminous galaxies were already in place 300 million years after the Big Bang and are more common than what was expected before JWST.

TCR-TRANSLATE, a deep learning framework adapting machine translation to immune design, demonstrates the successful generation of a functional T cell receptor sequence for a cancer epitope from the target sequence alone.

The topographical features of insect wings result in some interesting surface properties, including hydrophobicity and antibacterial activity. Here the authors identify the surface of black silicon as a mimic of dragonfly wings and show that it too possesses antibacterial activity.

Wenzel et al. detect radio signatures of two forms of cyanopyrene, a small molecular sheet of carbon, which can be used as indicators of the abundance of pyrene. Their findings suggest that small polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons must be formed in or transported to the cold interstellar medium.

As part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), NIRSpec has spectroscopically confirmed four young and metal-poor galaxies at redshift 10.3–13.2, from an early epoch of galaxy formation.

Spectroscopy from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey of a galaxy at redshift 13 shows a singular, bright emission line identified as Lyman-α, suggesting the onset of reionization only 330 Myr after the Big Bang.

Data collected from more than 2,000 taxa provide an unparalleled opportunity to quantify how extreme wildfires affect biodiversity, revealing that the largest effects on plants and animals were in areas with frequent or recent past fires and within extensively burnt areas.

An extreme Einstein ring ~10,000 times as bright as the Milky Way in the infrared is studied with VLT/ERIS and ALMA, and the authors find that the lensed galaxy is a starburst with a fast-rotating disk, rather than being driven by a major merger.

Due to the limited wavelength coverage of measurements to date, some aspects of the composition of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, remain unresolved. Here, the authors detect carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on the surface of Charon’s northern hemisphere using JWST data.

The authors report on a temperate Earth-sized planet orbiting the cool M6 dwarf LP 791-18 with a radius of 1.03 ± 0.04 R_⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 300–400 K, with the permanent night side plausibly allowing for water condensation.

Chronic infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to the emergence of viral variants that show reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies in an immunosuppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma.

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.

Sera from vaccinated individuals and some monoclonal antibodies show a modest reduction in neutralizing activity against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2; but the E484K substitution leads to a considerable loss of neutralizing activity.

An (ultraviolet) dust attenuation feature at 2,175 Å, attributed to carbonaceous dust grains in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, also exists in galaxies up to a redshift of 7.

Patients with metastatic cancers of unknown primary (CUP) are currently unable to gain access to drugs through standard of care or clinical trials. Here, the authors perform whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing (WGTS) on 72 patients with CUP and demonstrate the feasibility of using WGTS to determine the specific cancer types of CUP, thereby clinically benefiting patients with CUP.

A 4.8σ exomoon candidate is found around gas giant Kepler-1708 b, which orbits at 1.6 au around its star. It is the only candidate from a dedicated survey that analysed 70 cool giant exoplanets discovered by Kepler. Kepler-1708 b-i has a radius of 2.6 Earth radii and orbits its planet at 12 planetary radii.

Analysis of multiple cohorts of patients with melanoma demonstrates a positive association between cytomegalovirus serostatus and overall survival in patients treated with monotherapy but not combination immune checkpoint blockade, as well as delayed onset of immune-related adverse events across both treatment types, as well as delayed development of metastatic disease in seropositive patients.

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.

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.

Analysing camera-trap data of 163 mammal species before and after the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns, the authors show that responses to human activity are dependent on the degree to which the landscape is modified by humans, with carnivores being especially sensitive.

Breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers varies depending on other genetic factors. Here, the authors perform a case-only genome-wide association study and highlight novel loci associated with breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers.

A region on chromosome 19p13 is associated with the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer. Here, the authors genotyped SNPs in this region in thousands of breast and ovarian cancer patients and identified SNPs associated with three genes, which were analysed with functional studies.

Key voices from the project reveal the twists and turns of the space telescope’s 25-year career.

This Registered Report presents evidence from 87 countries and regions showing that brief emotion-regulation interventions consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors use long-term satellite tracking to project climate-induced shifts in whale shark distributions and understand their potential future risk of ship-strike. Under high-emission scenarios, the movement of sharks to current range-edge habitat is linked to 15,000-fold increased co-occurrence with ships.

Understanding the effect of vaccination on emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern is of increasing importance. Here, James et al. report that two doses of vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine induce more robust immune responses to the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2 lineages than does natural infection.

Paul Pharoah and colleagues report the results of a large genome-wide association study of ovarian cancer. They identify new susceptibility loci for different epithelial ovarian cancer histotypes and use integrated analyses of genes and regulatory features at each locus to predict candidate susceptibility genes, including OBFC1.

Whole-genome sequencing analysis of individuals with primary immunodeficiency identifies new candidate disease-associated genes and shows how the interplay between genetic variants can explain the variable penetrance and complexity of the disease.

Analysis of the JWST/NIRSpec spectrum of the recently observed Lyman-break galaxy JADES-GS+53.15508-27.80178 revealed a redshift of z = 7.3, a Balmer break and a complete absence of nebular emission lines, indicating that quenching occurred only 700 million years after the Big Bang.

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.

A high-throughput one-hybrid screen identifies a regulator of the Arabidopsis thaliana circadian gene CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED1 (CCA1). CCA1 HIKING EXPEDITION (CHE) represses CCA1 and physically interacts with TIMING OF CAB1 (TOC1) to link TOC1 with CCA1 in the clock.

Techniques for isolating and analysing leaf cell types have now been developed, leading to the discovery that circadian clocks in the plant vasculature communicate with and regulate clocks in neighbouring cells. See Letter p.419

A strategy for assessing blood microcirculation and tissue hydration relies on monitoring the temperature and thermal conductivity of skin, respectively. It is now shown that arrays of micrometre-sized sensors and heaters can be integrated on stretchable substrates that conformably adhere to the skin; these devices allow spatially resolved heating and real-time temperature mapping in patients without limiting their motion.

Subfunctionalization allows gene paralogues to perform distinct ancestral functions. Now, Glover et al. report the functional divergence of proteins of the TRANSPARENT TESTA GLABRA 1 (TTG1) WD40-repeat family in Arabidopsis, showing that small changes in highly conserved proteins can result in major changes to their functions.

But many research advocates worry that the proposal could backfire in the face of political opposition.

In Arabidopsis, lateral root emergence requires the penetration of overlying tissues by stem cells deep within the root. Voß et al. reveal that changes in auxin signalling required for this process are mediated by local rephasing of the circadian clock.

The circadian clock involves daily variations in transcription of a set of core genes. Here, the authors show that oscillations in free calcium concentration, read by calmodulin-like proteins, regulate the clock and are part of this complex mechanism.