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Is milk produced using recombinant bovine growth hormone hazardous to animal health? Despite wide publicity, the controversy remains unresolved. Rapid publication of all available data is essential if progress is to be made.

Claudia Langenberg, James Meigs and colleagues apply a joint meta-analysis approach that accounts for differences in body mass index to identify variants associated with glycemic traits. They report six new loci associated with fasting insulin levels and provide insights into the genetic basis of insulin resistance.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are well known breast cancer predisposition genes, however, many variants have not yet been classified for their pathogenicity. Here, the authors analyse a large combined cohort to provide evidence of variant pathogenicity.

The MAGIC investigators report results of a large genome-wide association study meta-analysis to identify common variants influencing fasting glucose homeostasis. They further show that several of the newly discovered loci influencing glycemic traits are also associated with risk of type 2 diabetes.

Richard Watanabe and colleagues of the MAGIC consortium report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies to glucose levels two hours after an oral glucose challenge. They identify variants in GIPR associated with glucose and insulin responses.

In a GWAS study of 32,438 adults, the authors discovered five novel loci for intracranial volume and confirmed two known signals. Variants for intracranial volume were also related to childhood and adult cognitive function and to Parkinson's disease, and enriched near genes involved in growth pathways, including PI3K-AKT signaling.

The authors defined a roadmap for investigating the genetic covariance between structural or functional brain phenotypes and risk for psychiatric disorders. Their proof-of-concept study using the largest available common variant data sets for schizophrenia and volumes of several (mainly subcortical) brain structures did not find evidence of genetic overlap.

Genome-wide analysis identifies variants associated with the volume of seven different subcortical brain regions defined by magnetic resonance imaging. Implicated genes are involved in neurodevelopmental and synaptic signaling pathways.

A study finds that RUVBL2 is a conserved component of eukaryotic circadian clocks and suggests that slow ATPase activity, which was initially discovered in cyanobacteria, is a shared feature of eukaryotic clocks.

A new cohort study links work-related stress to an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in women, but the findings are less clear in men. Randomized controlled studies are now needed to determine whether management of stress could be used to reduce the risk of developing T2DM.

The hippocampus in mammalian brain varies in size across individuals. Here, Hibar and colleagues perform a genome-wide association meta-analysis to find six genetic loci with significant association to hippocampus volume.

Sehgal et al. report Systems Age as a framework to capture within-person heterogeneity in aging using a single blood-based epigenetic assay that measures aging across 11 body systems and identifies aging subtypes, enabling personalized prediction of disease risk and tailoring of longevity interventions.

Phage engineered with tail fibers and CRISPR–Cas reduce Escherichia coli load in animals.

The reliability of scientific research is under scrutiny. A recently convened working group proposes cultural adjustments to incentivize better research practices.

Michael Talkowski and colleagues analyze balanced chromosomal abnormalities in 273 individuals by whole-genome sequencing. Their findings suggest that sequence-level resolution improves prediction of clinical outcomes for balanced rearrangements and provides insight into pathogenic mechanisms such as altered gene regulation due to changes in chromosome topology.

Van der Waals (vdW) magnets have allowed researchers to explore the two dimensional limit of magnetisation; however experimental challenges have hindered analysis of magnetic domains. Here, using an NV centre based probe, the authors analyse the nature of magnetic domains in the vdW magnet, CrBr₃.

Cortex morphology varies with age, cognitive function, and in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Here the authors report 160 genome-wide significant associations with thickness, surface area and volume of the total cortex and 34 cortical regions from a GWAS meta-analysis in 22,824 adults.

Coupling distances between synaptic vesicles and Ca²⁺ channels determine the efficacy of neurotransmission. Böhme et al. find that presynaptic scaffold complexes spatiotemporally control Unc13 isoforms to establish two independent release pathways at subsynaptic active zones: Unc13B defines nascent, loosely coupled synapses whereas Unc13A facilitates release at mature synapses by tight coupling between Ca²⁺ channels and synaptic vesicles.

Sharon Kolk, Tjitske Kleefstra and colleagues identify loss-of-function mutations in SIN3A in individuals with intellectual disability and other clinical features. They further show that knockdown of Sin3a in developing mouse brain results in reduced cortical neurogenesis, altered neuronal identity and aberrant cortical projections, identifying this MeCP2-interacting protein as a key regulator of cortical development.

Paul Thompson and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for hippocampal, intracranial and total brain volume. They identify a locus at 12q24 associated with hippocampal volume and a locus at 12q14 associated with intracranial volume.

In this Consensus Statement, the Treatment Response Measure for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Consortium presents the initial outcomes of a project to develop a clinical outcome assessment that can contribute to the regulatory approval process for therapeutic agents via its incorporation in end points of clinical trials in systemic lupus erythematosus.

A Damascus-like steel consisting of alternating hard and soft layers is created by using a laser additive manufacturing technique and digital control of the processing parameters.

In a retrospective cohort study examining the comparative effectiveness of diabetes drugs in adults at moderate risk for cardiovascular disease, GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors reduced the risk of cardiovascular events compared to DPP4 inhibitors, whereas sulfonylureas increased the risk.

MicroRNA targets predicted by a variety of computational tools can be validated using a quantitative targeted proteomics approach, using stable isotope labeling and selected reaction monitoring mass spectrometry. The authors used this method to confirm predicted let-7 and miR-58 targets in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Genome-wide association studies are used to identify common genetic variants that affect the structure of selected subcortical regions of the human brain; their identification provides insight into the causes of variability in brain development and may help to determine mechanisms of neuropsychiatric dysfunction.

In this study, the authors show that the heritable behavioral and metabolic changes that are observed in rodents exposed to early life stress are mediated by changes in miRNA levels in the sperm of affected males. Injection of isolated RNA from the sperm of stressed males into donor fertilized oocytes is able to induce these phenotypic changes in the resulting offspring.

The response of flood risk in Bavaria, Germany to increases in rainfall extremes in a warming climate is modulated by land surface processes below a precipitation threshold, but not above, suggest ensemble simulations with a hydrological model.