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Integrated multi-omics analysis uncovers the role of the vascular disease-associated gene PHACTR1 in regulating mitochondrial dynamics, iron metabolism, and cell cycle.

Recent work has demonstrated that the relationship between brain and body mass across mammals is curvilinear. Here, the authors demonstrate this curvilinearity across 4679 species, spanning multiple major animal classes. They show that it is caused by systematic changes in allometry within species leading to macroevolutionary patterns.

Colorectal cancer is often diagnosed at later stages, leading to poor prognosis. Here, the authors utilise analysis of rectal mucus specimens using host and microbial analysis to detect cancer lesions.

As presented at the ESMO Congress 2025: Results of the phase 2/3 AGITG DYNAMIC-III trial show that de-escalated chemotherapy based on ctDNA-negative status in patients with stage III colon cancer did not meet non-inferiority for 3-year recurrence-free survival when compared to standard of care, although it enables better informed treatment decisions.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the survival of drug tolerant persister cells following chemotherapy remains elusive. Here, multi-omics analysis and experimental approaches show that the germ-cell-specific H3K4 methyltransferase PRDM9 promotes metabolic rewiring in glioblastoma stem cells.

Pathogenic variants in UNC13A underlie a novel neurodevelopmental syndrome, with three subtypes defined by distinct genotypes with varying clinical and functional impacts characterized in cellular and animal models.

This Perspective reviews tools developed over the past five years in the macromolecular modeling, docking and design software Rosetta.

Phylogenetically informed predictions account for phylogenetic relationships among species while predicting unknown trait values. Here, the authors critically compare this approach with equations derived from phylogenetic generalised least squares and ordinary least squares, demonstrating its improved performance across diverse datasets.

This study nominates immune escape as an early event in colorectal cancer and shows how this can be driven through both genetic and epigenetic changes.

A high-bandwidth neuromotor interface offers performant out-of-the-box generalization across people.

Phylogenetic statistical analyses, biophysical models and information from the fossil record show that an evolutionary signal of natural selection acted to increase the flight efficiency of pterosaurs over millions of years.

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.

Chris Baker enjoys Russell Poldrack’s clear-eyed account of attempts to decode brains scans.

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.

Projections of extinctions of bird species and losses of functional diversity over the next 100 years suggest that even immediate and widespread threat abatement would be insufficient to prevent losses, and targeted recovery programmes must also be implemented to conserve avian diversity.

When people recall a movie, their eye movements and brain activity resemble those observed during the viewing. These behavioral and neural reactivations are linked through a common process, likely reflecting the specific internal experiences that emerge in an instance of recall.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

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).

Computational methods are becoming an increasingly important part of biological research. Using the Rosetta framework as an example, the authors demonstrate how community-driven development of computational methods can be done in a reproducible and reliable fashion.

An updated analysis of the DYNAMIC biomarker-driven trial, including mature survival data at 5 years, supports a ctDNA-guided approach to adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II colon cancer.

Polygenic scores aim to capture genetic risk but may miss nonlinear genetic and environmental interactions. Here, the authors show that neural networks detect limited nonlinearity and do not outperform linear models, highlighting constraints in current deep-learning approaches.

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.

A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

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.

Repeated vaccination is needed to maintain high levels of SARS-CoV-2 immunity in vulnerable populations, but there is concern that it could lead to immune exhaustion. Here, the authors assess the evidence for immune exhaustion following multiple SARS-CoV-2 vaccination three vulnerable population cohorts in Canada.

The Omicron variant evades vaccine-induced neutralization but also fails to form syncytia, shows reduced replication in human lung cells and preferentially uses a TMPRSS2-independent cell entry pathway, which may contribute to enhanced replication in cells of the upper airway. Altered fusion and cell entry characteristics are linked to distinct regions of the Omicron spike protein.

In this Stage 2 Registered Report, Buchanan et al. show evidence confirming the phenomenon of semantic priming across speakers of 19 diverse languages.

The heterogeneity of androgen receptor (AR) gene alterations across metastases in prostate cancer remains unresolved. Here, the authors characterise AR genomic complexity across spatially separated lethal metastases from 10 prostate cancer patients and investigate how AR alterations evolve.

Intratumour genetic ancestry only infrequently affects gene expression traits and subclonal evolution in colorectal cancer, with most genetic intratumour variation having no detected phenotypic consequence and transcriptional plasticity being widespread within a tumour.

Understanding the dynamics of how drug resistance originates in cancer remains crucial, but it is not possible to observe them directly. Here, the authors construct a mathematical framework to infer drug resistance dynamics in cancer using lineage tracing and population size data, which is confirmed with experimental evidence and single-cell sequencing.

Genetic and testing data from England show that the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7 has a transmission advantage over other lineages.

Local adaptations are often governed by several interacting genes scattered throughout the genome. Here a novel type of multi–locus genetic variation is described that has been maintained within a species over a vast period of time. A balanced unlinked gene network polymorphism is dissected that involves galactose utilization in a close relative of baker's yeast.

The underlying mechanism of electroconvulsive therapy remains not fully understood. Here, the authors use optical neuroimaging in mice and humans to show that electroconvulsive therapy elicits a second brain event after seizure—spreading depolarization—a previously hidden phenomenon that may help to understand and optimize this treatment.

Post-international travel quarantine has been widely implemented to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but the impacts of such policies are unclear. Here, the authors used linked genomic and contact tracing data to assess the impacts of a 14-day quarantine on return to England in summer 2020.

Graham and colleagues analyzed locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma clinical trial patient samples and identified major changes in gene expression profiles and immune microenvironment composition independent of changes in clonal composition.

A Bayesian theory of mind model is shown to infer and quantify the mental state and judgements of humans in decision-making scenarios. The model is a key step towards enabling machines to ‘intuit’ human thoughts and desires.

Challenging long-held assumptions, this research reveals that people can learn to control bionic hands just as effectively, and in some ways better, using arbitrary control strategies compared with control strategies that mimic the human body.

A combined geochemical and multi-omics analysis across a 4,600-km transect in the central Pacific Ocean reveals that dinoflagellates play a previously unrecognized role in ecosystem and biogeochemical processes.

Early in insect embryo development, many nuclei share one large cell, travel varied paths and self-organize into a single layer. Donoughe et al. illuminate this process with live-imaging, modeling, and experimental changes to the embryo’s shape.