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Fluorescence blinking has been recently observed in two-dimensional graphene oxide systems, yet its origin has so far remained elusive. Here, the authors unveil the nature of such long timescale emission intermittency and link it to the distribution ofsp² carbon domains.

Using a deep generative model, CellBender models and denoises droplet-based single-cell data and improves multiple downstream analyses.

Here, the authors present cryoEM structures of AftB, a key mycobacterial enzyme that adds terminal arabinose residues to the cell wall. In concert with functional assays and MD simulations, mechanistic insights are presented.

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).

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.

Fresh basaltic glass preserved in a sample of volcanic breccia record a single eruptive event at the Alpha Ridge around 90 Ma, suggesting that parts of the ridge were emergent during the final stages of magmatism in the High Arctic Large Igneous Province, according to geochemical and geochronological analysis of the sample.

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

Standard assessment of immune infiltration of biopsies is not sufficient to accurately predict response to immunotherapy. Here, the authors show that reflectance confocal microscopy can be used to quantify dynamic vasculature and inflammatory features to better predict treatment response in skin cancers.

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 case–control study investigating the causes of recent cases of acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in 32 children identifies an association between adeno-associated virus infection and host genetics in disease susceptibility.

Here the authors investigate of the structural basis of substrate recognition and the catalytic mechanism of the mannosyltransferase PimE, which is crucial for the biosynthesis of phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannosides (PIMs) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

A multiproxy record of Gigantopithecus blacki provides insights into the ecological context of this species, which became extinct around 250,000 years ago, when increased seasonality led to a change in forest cover.

The CMS Collaboration reports the study of three simultaneous hard interactions between quarks and gluons in proton–proton collisions. This manifests through the concurrent production of three J/ψ mesons, which consist of a charm-quark–antiquark pair.

LXRα is highly expressed in hepatocytes, where it regulates cholesterol abundance and stimulates lipogenesis. The authors provide evidence in humans and mice that impaired LXRα signalling is hepatotoxic, despite its potent lipogenic actions.

Aqueous organic redox flow batteries are promising for grid-scale energy storage, although their practical application is still limited. Here, the authors report highly ion-conductive and selective polymer membranes, which boost the battery’s efficiency and stability, offering cost-effective electricity storage.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

Here the authors report new human fossils from Tam Pà Ling cave, Laos, consisting of a cranial and a tibial fragment, dated to 68–86 thousand years ago. This find confirms that Homo sapiens were present in Southeast Asia by this time and the shape of the fossils indicates they may have descended from non-local populations.

The CMS Collaboration reports evidence for off-shell Higgs boson contributions in the production of Z boson pairs, and measures the width of the Higgs boson, which is inversely related to its lifetime.

Here authors show that machine learning derives the degree of background retinal pigmentation with more nuance than self-described ethnicity. Retinal pigment scores are associated with genes linked to melanin and may improve algorithmic fairness.

Here the authors show that a high-fat diet in pregnant mice can release silencing of the imprinted Dlk1 locus in multiple generations of offspring. They found that this occurs via changes in microRNA expression at the locus of interest, as well as transcriptional changes across the genome, in the developing oocytes.

Steuernagel and Lam et al. present HypoMap, an integrated reference atlas of the murine hypothalamus based on 384,925 hypothalamic cells from publicly available single-cell sequencing datasets.

FXR regulates the levels of ACE2 in tissues of the respiratory and gastrointestinal systems that are affected by COVID-19, and inhibiting FXR with ursodeoxycholic acid downregulates ACE2 and reduces susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Defects in homologous recombination (HR) are found in some triple negative breast cancers, suggesting they may be sensitive to PARP inhibitors. In this phase II clinical trial of the PARP inhibitor rucaparib, changes in Ki67 levels did not correlate with markers of HR deficiency but HR deficiency was detected in 69% of tumours, indicating that PARP inhibitors may be a useful treatment.

Jang and colleagues show that positive reward prediction errors elicited during incidental encoding enhance the formation of episodic memories.

ctDNA is a useful tool for the diagnosis of cancer, however, it is usually focused on targeted deep sequencing. Here, the authors develop a methodology to assess TET-assisted pyridine borane whole-genome sequencing data for cancer detection without a matched biopsy.

Genome-wide analyses identify common variants associated with 11 distinct neuropathology endophenotypes, providing insights into the mechanisms underlying the genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

The bifunctional enzyme CoaBC catalyses the second and third step in the Coenzyme A (CoA) biosynthesis pathway and is of interest as a M. tuberculosis drug target. Here, the authors present the full-length crystal structure of Mycobacterium smegmatis CoaBC, which is regulated by CoA and CoA thioesters and forms a dodecamer and by performing a high-throughput screen they identify selective inhibitors of M. tuberculosis CoaB that bind to an allosteric site within CoaB.

Prostate cancer cells depend on MTAP, the rate-limiting enzyme involved in the methionine salvage pathway, to cope with increased polyamine biosynthesis. Here, the authors show that inducing upregulation of polyamine biosynthesis and targeting MTAP synergize to increase apoptosis in prostate cancer cells.

Large genome-wide meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) from 94,437 individuals identifies new LOAD risk loci and implicates Aβ formation, tau protein binding, immune response and lipid metabolism.

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.

Fine-mapping of causal variants and integration of epigenetic and chromatin conformation data identify likely target genes for 150 breast cancer risk regions.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Many G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have endogenous peptide agonists, and modifying the sequence of these peptides has led to some successful therapeutics. In this Review, Davenport and colleagues discuss strategies to generate effective GPCR-targeted peptide therapeutics by introducing chemical novelty, extending plasma half-life, improving a therapeutic’s drug-like properties or generating biased ligands. These approaches could overcome some of the challenges in developing peptide therapeutics.

Seamounts that have subducted beneath a mantle wedge allow the study of trace element recycling and mantle flow in subduction zones. Here, a geochemical analysis of central Tonga–Kermadec arc lavas suggests primarily trench-normal mantle flow in the mantle wedge beneath the central Tonga–Kermadec arc.

A cross-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci, reveals putative causal genes, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as potential drug targets, and provides cross-ancestry integrative risk prediction.

Previous studies identified an association between the 2q35 locus and breast cancer. Here, the authors show that a SNP at 2q35, rs4442975, is associated with oestrogen receptor positive disease and suggest that this effect is mediated through the downregulation of a known breast cancer gene, IGFBP5.

Bacterial symbionts of animals may contain antibiotics that are particularly suitable for development into therapeutics; one such compound, darobactin, is active against important Gram-negative pathogens both in vitro and in animal models of infection.

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.

Understanding the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 is dependent on being able to distinguish COVID-19 immune responses from cross-reactive immune responses to other coronaviruses. Here the authors show that choice of antigens and whether an ICS, ELISPOT or T cell proliferation assay is used has a major effect on this discriminatory ability.

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.