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Climate models overestimate greenhouse gas effects on the temperature difference between Earth’s hemispheres, with this bias strongest in high climate sensitivity models, suggesting future tropical rainfall shifts may be less severe than projected.

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.

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.

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).

Experimental measurements of high-order out-of-time-order correlators on a superconducting quantum processor show that these correlators remain highly sensitive to the quantum many-body dynamics in quantum computers at long timescales.

COVID-19 can be associated with neurological complications. Here the authors show that markers of brain injury, but not immune markers, are elevated in the blood of patients with COVID-19 both early and months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, particularly in those with brain dysfunction or neurological diagnoses.

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.

Confocal microscopy enables high-resolution, high-plex 3D cyclic immunofluorescence of 30- to 50-µm-thick tissue sections. The approach allows for rich phenotypic assessments of intact cells and intercellular interactions with subcellular resolution.

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.

Redox signalling is emerging as an important regulator of metabolism and physiology, which is dysregulated in ageing and disease. Here, the authors show that redox regulation of a key redox sensitive cysteine in Atg4a induces autophagy in vivo and extends lifespan in female Drosophila.

A genome-wide association study of critically ill patients with COVID-19 identifies genetic signals that relate to important host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage that may be targeted by repurposing drug treatments.

Research now suggests that large language models (LLMs) are viable in silico models of human language processing. By examining multi-participant high-quality brain responses, researchers were able to break new ground in the validation of this proposal, which could dramatically reduce the barrier to studying how language is processed in the human brain.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

Multiomic analysis of blast-phase myeloproliferative neoplasms identifies a chromosome 21 amplicon harboring DYRK1A as a clonal and therapeutically targetable event in around a quarter of cases.

A recurrent, transformer-based neural network, called AlphaQubit, learns high-accuracy error decoding to suppress the errors that occur in quantum systems, opening the prospect of using neural-network decoders for real quantum hardware.

An improved, fully re-annotated Aedes aegypti genome assembly (AaegL5) provides insights into the sex-determining M locus, chemosensory systems that help mosquitoes to hunt humans and loci involved in insecticide resistance and will help to generate intervention strategies to fight this deadly disease vector.

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.

How NRXN1 variants affect multiple neuropsychiatric disorders is explored.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is increasingly recognized for its potential to improve antiretroviral therapy adherence among people living with HIV. Here the authors conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis, revealing that CBT significantly enhances adherence, especially in individuals with psychiatric comorbidities and in low- and middle-income countries, although effects on viral metrics remain unclear.

Analysis of the transcriptional regulatory networks in the kidney of desert-adapted animals further supports a role for cholesterol during chronic dehydration and reveals new candidate genes that may play a role when water is scarce.

A multinational randomized trial shows that task-sharing via nonspecialist providers and the use of telemedicine platforms, delivery models that can overcome barriers to scalability and access, are noninferior to specialists and in-person models for treating perinatal depression.

Openshaw and colleagues find myeloid inflammation and complement activation signatures in patients with long COVID who were previously hospitalized.

An analysis of genomic, molecular and neuroanatomical traits across extant primates reveals early divergence in visual and olfactory systems of major primate lineages consistent with lineage-specific shifts in diel activity and dietary niche, providing support for a sensory ‘reallocation’ hypothesis.

Photoreceptor outer segment abnormalities cause retinitis pigmentosa, a form of blindness. Here, authors show that the disease-associated gene RPGR regulates actin-mediated outer segment turnover through its interaction with the actin severer, cofilin.

Reference assemblies of great ape sex chromosomes show that Y chromosomes are more variable in size and sequence than X chromosomes and provide a resource for studies on human evolution and conservation genetics of non-human apes.

Shi and Li et al. show that SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants have increased capacity to infect primary human nasal tissue using a distinct entry route that depends on matrix metalloproteinases as opposed to TMPRSS2 used by previous variants, which enables evasion from antiviral factors.

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.

T cell responses can be generated to either pathogen infection or from priming with a vaccine. Here the authors compare T cell generation, phenotype and single cell transcriptome of participants vaccinated with a mpox vaccine or infected with the virus showing that the virus induced T cells showed more effective function and phenotype.

In a post-hoc analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) features from patients with metastatic prostate cancer treated with [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu–PSMA-617 or cabazitaxel in the randomized phase 2 TheraP trial, low ctDNA levels at baseline were predictive of clinical benefit from [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu–PSMA-617, and PTEN or ATM alterations were identified as potential biomarkers of response.

RAC1 is a downstream target of the Wnt signaling that promotes intestinal stem cell expansion and tumorigenesis. Here, the authors identify the specific splice variant RAC1B as an important mediator of colorectal tumourigenesis and a potential target for enhancing the efficacy of EGFR inhibitor treatment.

The Vertebrate Genome Project has used an optimized pipeline to generate high-quality genome assemblies for sixteen species (representing all major vertebrate classes), which have led to new biological insights.

Trials in rhesus macaques show that a subunit vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, comprising the spike protein receptor-binding domain displayed on a nanoparticle protein scaffold, produces a robust protective response against the virus.

Combined patch clamp recording, biocytin staining and single-cell RNA-sequencing of human neurocortical neurons shows an expansion of glutamatergic neuron types relative to mouse that characterizes the greater complexity of the human neocortex.

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in neurofibromin and associated with disruptions in physiology and behavior. Here the authors show that neurofibromin regulates metabolic homeostasis via a discrete brain circuit in a Drosophila model of NF1.

An investigation using various methods reports an association between adeno-associated virus 2 and paediatric hepatitis of unknown aetiology.

The identification of antibodies targeting a conserved site of vulnerability in the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein reveals opportunities for passive prevention of malaria in vulnerable individuals and provides insights for rational vaccine design.

Species are largely predicted to shift polewards as global temperatures increase. Now research—based on historical changes in the distribution of Australian birds—shows that if only poleward shifts in distribution are considered, the fingerprint of climate change is underestimated by an average of 26% in temperate regions and 95% in tropical regions.

Matched Annotation from NCBI and EMBL-EBI (MANE) delivers joint transcript sets from Ensembl/GENCODE and RefSeq for standardizing variant reporting in clinical genomics and research.

An approach for synthesizing a one-atom-thick layer of a radioactive iodine isotope on a gold substrate is reported, with a substantial increase in the emission of low-energy electrons. Such a system might have potential for targeted nanoparticle therapies.