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Risk associated with genetically defined forms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can propagate by means of transcriptional regulation to affect convergently dysregulated pathways, providing insight into the convergent impact of ASD genetic risk on human neurodevelopment.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interactions with repetitive and restrictive behaviours. Here the authors integrate mRNA expression, miRNA expression, DNA methylation, and histone acetylation datasets from a collection of post mortem brain tissues and identify a convergent molecular subtype of ASD.

Neville, Ferguson et al. show that non-canonical Polycomb repressive complex 1.1-mediated gene silencing is antagonized by DOT1L and is required for the therapeutic efficacy of Menin and DOT1L inhibitors in mixed-lineage leukaemia.

Sharing of whole genome sequencing (WGS) data improves study scale and power, but data from different groups are often incompatible. Here, US genome centers and NIH programs define WGS data processing standards and a flexible validation method, facilitating collaboration in human genetics research.

Integrated single-cell and spatial data analysis, combined with bidirectional CRISPR screens, identify the transcription factor GLIS3 as a key driver of chronic inflammation and fibrosis and a potential marker of disease severity in patients with ulcerative colitis.

Despite often being poorly immunogenic, some subsets of patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative (HR + /HER2-) breast cancer benefit from immunotherapy. Here, the authors present a randomised pilot clinical trial comparing a neoadjuvant run-in of either nab-paclitaxel or pembrolizumab (anti-PD-1) monotherapy, followed by the combination, in patients with stage II-III HR + /HER2- breast cancer.

The evolution of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) remains poorly understood. Here, the authors employ multi-omics and multi-scale analyses to explore the genetic evolution of keratinocytes to cSCC, finding key pathogenic mutations that break the resistance to ultraviolet radiation as well as spatial heterogeneity patterns.

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

An analysis of 38 ancient genomes from the aurochs, the extinct ancestor of modern cattle, provides insight into the population ancestry and domestication of this species.

Gene expression patterns have been associated with functional activity patterns in the brain. Here the authors determine how gene expression patterns in the human brain supports brain phenotypes obtained from resting state fMRI imaging, identifying brain regions and genes relevant to autism.

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.

Researchers induced ploidy reduction in human oocytes generated by somatic cell nuclear transfer, enabling fertilization and embryo development with integrated somatic and sperm chromosomes, highlighting a proof-of-concept for in vitro gametogenesis.

Cancer genetics has benefited from the advent of next generation sequencing, yet a comparison of sequencing and analysis techniques is lacking. Here, the authors sequence a normal-tumour pair and perform data analysis at multiple institutes and highlight some of the pitfalls associated with the different methods.

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.

A previously unsampled deep lineage in central Argentina was discovered that had distinctive genetic drift by 8,500 bp and persisted as the main Native American ancestry component in the region up to the present day.

Non-coding variants can regulate transcription factor binding and gene expression at variable chromatin modules. Here, the authors show that a germline variant induces transcription factor nucleation through chromatin compaction leading to AXIN2 up-regulation and is associated to better prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Here the authors reveal how an incoherent feedforward C/EBPα–Notch circuit times lung cell fate, guiding alveolar development, repair after injury, and shifts between protective and reparative states.

Rare loss-of-function mutations in SETD1A are associated with schizophrenia, but how SETD1A haploinsufficiency leads to disease phenotypes remains unknown. Here, authors show that SETD1A regulates genes at common schizophrenia risk loci regulating genomic stability and synaptic function.

Using data from a single time point, passenger-approximated clonal expansion rate (PACER) estimates the fitness of common driver mutations that lead to clonal haematopoiesis and identifies TCL1A activation as a mediator of clonal expansion.

In the nematode C. elegans, cohesin creates specifically at active enhancers chromatin 3D structures named fountains. Cohesin artificial cleavage disrupts fountains and changes neuronal gene expression, function and animal behavior.

Cardiac fibrosis arises from persistent myofibroblast activity. This study reveals how chromatin factors control scar-forming cells in the heart and shows that inhibiting KAT5 can reduce harmful cardiac fibrosis.

Transcriptomic analyses of 255 primary human microglial samples from 100 individuals highlight brain region, age, sex and disease states as sources of microglial heterogeneity. Molecular quantitative trait locus analyses implicate variants involved in neurological diseases through effects on gene expression and splicing.

Here, the authors unveiled a ‘super-silencer’ and its mechanisms of action. They revealed that a combined treatment of an enhancer of zeste homolog 2 inhibitor and a repressor element 1-silencing transcription factor inhibitor can disrupt super-silencers, potentially leading to cancer ablation.

In a subset of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treated with targeted agents, such as ibrutinib, drug resistant subclones emerge. Here, the authors report on transcriptional changes in CLL patients treated with ibrutinib and identify early clonal shifts associated with evolution of resistant clones.

Beneficial effects of fasting combined with endocrine therapy for oestrogen receptor-α-expressing breast cancers can be recapitulated using exogenous glucocorticoid receptor ligands instead of fasting to reduce harmful effects.

Mixed responses to targeted therapy within a patient are a clinical challenge. Here the authors show that TP53 loss-of-function cooperates with whole genome doubling which increases chromosomal instability. This leads to greater cellular diversity and multiple routes of resistance, which in turn promotes mixed responses to treatment.

Hundreds of genetic loci associated with age at menopause, combined with experimental evidence in mice, highlight mechanisms of reproductive ageing across the lifespan.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) onsets in COVID-19 patients with manifestations similar to Kawasaki disease (KD). Here the author probe the peripheral blood transcriptome of MIS-C patients to find signatures related to natural killer (NK) cell activation and CD8+ T cell exhaustion that are shared with KD patients.

A sequencing chemistry that separates nucleotide identification from nucleotide incorporation achieves high accuracy.

KRAS G12C mutant selective inhibitors targeting inactive state have been approved for use in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here, using models derived from a patient with NSCLC who progressed on sotorasib (KRAS G12C inhibitor), the authors identify increased KRAS GTP loading as an adaptive resistance mechanism which could be targeted with KRAS G12C inhibitors selective to the GTP active state.

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).

Longitudinal genomic and transcriptomic profiling of 1,143 patients with multiple myeloma by the Relating Clinical Outcomes in Multiple Myeloma to Personal Assessment of Genetic Profile study yields an improved copy number and gene expression subtype scheme, most notably a high-risk proliferative subtype associated with complete loss of RB1 or MAX.

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.

Patient-derived xenografts are important tools for cancer drug development. Here, the authors develop models from 22 non-small cell lung cancer patients. They show genomic differences between models created from different spatial regions of tumours and a bottleneck on model establishment.

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.

Whole-genome sequencing of 78 Icelandic parent–offspring trios is used to study the de novo mutation rate at the genome-wide level; the rate is shown to increase by about two mutations a year as a function of the increasing age of the father at conception, highlighting the importance of father’s age on the risk of diseases such as autism and schizophrenia.

Sequencing analysis of tamoxifen-associated uterine cancers and further in vivo analyses suggest that the drug tamoxifen can activate the PI3K pathway in the absence of oncogenic mutations.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

Analysis of genomic data from 25 distantly related plant species shows signatures of selection on the same gene families and functions that repeatedly contributed to local adaptation to climate.

Keith Ligon, Adam Resnick, Rameen Beroukhim and colleagues identify MYB-QKI fusions in angiocentric gliomas and show that these rearrangements promote tumorigenesis through activation of MYB by truncation, enhancer translocation driving aberrant MYB-QKI expression and hemizygous loss of QKI.

Simultaneous activation of Wnt and Shh pathways in murine neural precursor cells results in the formation of embryonal tumors with multilayered rosettes (ETMR) that recapitulate the histological and molecular features of human tumors. This novel mouse model represents a platform for evaluating therapeutic approaches for this rare malignant pediatric brain tumor, and provides novel insights into the cell of origin and molecular mechanisms driving the disease.

Resources reporting RNA editing sites from brain tissue have been published. Here, the authors provide an atlas of RNA editing events found in the aged and Alzheimer’s disease human brain tissue resulting in changes at protein level.

Fragile X syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by inactivating the RNA-binding protein FMRP. Here, the authors show that FMRP acutely regulates structural plasticity in mature adult pacemaker neurons in the Drosophila central brain.

Imputation uses genotype information from SNP arrays to infer the genotypes of missing markers. Here, the authors show that an imputation reference panel derived from whole-genome sequencing of 3,781 samples from the UK10K project improves the imputation accuracy and coverage of low frequency variants compared to existing methods.

Risk variants for ALS and FTD in the synaptic gene UNC13A increase the expression of an UNC13A cryptic exon in neurons with TDP-43 depletion.

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

Nucleosome profiling from cell-free DNA (cfDNA) represents a potential approach for cancer detection and classification. Here, the authors develop Griffin, a computational framework for tumour subtype classification based on cfDNA nucleosome profiling that can work with ultra-low pass sequencing data.

Integrative genomic and transcriptomic analyses reveal molecular events defining Richter transformation from CLL, and highlight the potential of cell-free DNA for early detection.