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Biomolecular condensates (BCs) are ubiquitous compartments that regulate key functions in cells. Authors demonstrate that phase separation is suppressed with glycine by using model heterotypic condensates composed of nucleophosmin 1 and ribosomal ribonucleic acid.

The APOE-ε4 allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, but it is not deterministic. Here, the authors show that common genetic variation changes how APOE-ε4 influences cognition.

Gravitational wave background offers insights into supermassive black hole binaries. Here, authors refine noise models in pulsar timing data to better understand the nanohertz gravitational wave background and find support to a population of slowly inspiraling binaries in circular orbits as its source.

Adult neurogenesis is a unique form of neuronal plasticity, involving the genesis and integration of newborn neurons into the mouse dentate gyrus. Here the authors demonstrate that adult neurogenesis improves representations of space in the dentate gyrus by increasing the place-specific responses of mature neurons.

Existing single-particle tracking techniques are limited in terms of penetration depth, tracking range or temporal resolution. Here, Perilloet al. demonstrate three-dimensional particle tracking up to 200-μm depth, with 35-nm spatial localization and 50-μs resolution using multiplexed two-photon excitation.

Nephritis is a major cause of lupus morbidity. Putterman and colleagues use single-cell RNA sequencing on human renal and skin biopsies to describe the expression landscape associated with lupus nephritis.

A dataset of coding variation, derived from exome sequencing of nearly one million individuals from a range of ancestries, provides insight into rare variants and could accelerate the discovery of disease-associated genes and advance precision medicine efforts.

The surface charge and ζ-potential of biomolecular condensates is key to their interactions with membranes and proteins. Here, the authors developed a method to determine the ζ-potential of condensates using microelectrophoresis and single-droplet tracking.

Researchers exploit atomic quantum state control in a fully integrated photonic atomic spectroscopy chip to reduce the group velocity of light by a factor of 1,200 — the lowest group velocity ever reported for a solid-state material. The findings will enable the creation of on-chip nonlinear optical devices with enhanced quantum coherence operating at ultralow power levels.

Macromolecular crowding decreases diffusion of mRNA and proteins leading to the formation of heterogeneous environments in gene expression experiments in picolitre droplets.

HIV infection and substance use disorders converge in human midbrain. Here, authors show transcriptional impacts using single-nucleus RNA sequencing, linking dopaminergic vulnerability and microglial dysregulation, and in viremia, GABAergic deficits.

The authors present a molecular classification of acute leukemia using 5-methylcytosine signatures, together with a neural network-based classifier for clinical use.

Results for the final phase of the 1000 Genomes Project are presented including whole-genome sequencing, targeted exome sequencing, and genotyping on high-density SNP arrays for 2,504 individuals across 26 populations, providing a global reference data set to support biomedical genetics.

By modelling the radio, optical, UV and X-ray data of the unusually bright cosmological explosion AT 2022cmc, Pasham et al. argue for the presence of a highly collimated jet moving at ≳99.99% the speed of light.

This report from the 1000 Genomes Project describes the genomes of 1,092 individuals from 14 human populations, providing a resource for common and low-frequency variant analysis in individuals from diverse populations; hundreds of rare non-coding variants at conserved sites, such as motif-disrupting changes in transcription-factor-binding sites, can be found in each individual.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

An integrated analysis of de novo and inherited coding variants in 42,607 individuals with autism spectrum disorder identifies 60 risk genes of which five have not previously been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

The Structural Variation Analysis Group of The 1000 Genomes Project reports an integrated structural variation map based on discovery and genotyping of eight major structural variation classes in 2,504 unrelated individuals from across 26 populations; structural variation is compared within and between populations and its functional impact is quantified.

Fuchs and colleagues report a role for the F-actin binding protein Wdr1 in the establishment of planar polarity in the mouse embryonic epidermis by mediating tension.

Room-temperature thermal conductivities in superatomic crystals are found to be proportional to the sound speed, while their behaviour can switch between amorphous- or crystalline-like, depending on temperature and the nature of superatoms used.

This study finds that sST2 is a disease-causing factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Higher sST2 levels impair microglial Aβ clearance in APOE4⁺ female individuals. A genetic variant, rs1921622, is associated with a reduction in sST2 level and protects against AD in APOE4⁺ female individuals.

1000 Genomes imputation can increase the power of genome-wide association studies to detect genetic variants associated with human traits and diseases. Here, the authors develop a method to integrate and analyse low-coverage sequence data and SNP array data, and show that it improves imputation performance.

An integrated data and sample repository for clinical, cellular and multi-omics research from diverse spaceflight missions known as Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) is presented.

Developing noninvasive diagnostic biomarkers for lupus nephritis (LN) diagnosis is an important clinical goal. Here the authors identify urinary proteins correlated with active LN and disease severity, which differ across ethnicities but collectively outperform the current clinical method.

In this study the authors identify a possible link between the gene FAM222A and brain atrophy. The protein it encodes is found to accumulate in plaques seen in Alzheimer’s disease, and functional analysis suggests it interacts with amyloid-beta.

Family-based exome sequencing in a large autism study has identified 27 high-confidence gene targets and accurately estimates the contribution of both de novo gene-disrupting and missense mutations to the incidence of simplex autism, with target genes in affected females overlapping those in males of lower but not higher IQ; targets also overlap known targets for intellectual disability and schizophrenia, and are enriched for chromatin modifiers, FMRP-associated genes and embryonically expressed genes.

The goal of the 1000 Genomes Project is to provide in-depth information on variation in human genome sequences. In the pilot phase reported here, different strategies for genome-wide sequencing, using high-throughput sequencing platforms, were developed and compared. The resulting data set includes more than 95% of the currently accessible variants found in any individual, and can be used to inform association and functional studies.

Candelabrum cells have remained an obscure cerebellar cell type. The authors show that candelabrum cells are the most abundant Purkinje layer interneuron, are molecularly distinct and have a connectivity that allows them to control cerebellar output.

Harnessing information from whole genome sequencing in 185 individuals, this study generates a high-resolution map of copy number variants. Nucleotide resolution of the map facilitates analysis of structural variant distribution and identification of the mechanisms of their origin. The study provides a resource for sequence-based association studies.

Brain-iron elevation is implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but the impact of the metal on disease outcomes has not been analysed in a longitudinal study. Here, the authors examine the association between the levels of ferritin, an iron storage protein, in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of AD patients and show that CSF ferritin levels predict AD outcomes.

Ruthenium oxide has attracted recent interest as a non-superconducting material where superconductivity can be induced by epitaxial strain. Here, the authors explore strained (100)-oriented RuO₂ films on TiO₂(100) substrate and reveal strain-induced superconductivity similarly to strained RuO₂(110) films, providing insights into the thickness-dependence and electronic structure mechanisms of superconductivity.

Biomolecular condensates help organize cell components under normal conditions but can also be involved in pathological protein aggregation when condensate proteins carry mutations or under stress conditions. This Review discusses the possible mechanisms behind such aggregation processes that potentially lead to neurodegenerative diseases.

The Mouse ENCODE Consortium has mapped transcription, DNase I hypersensitivity, transcription factor binding, chromatin modifications and replication domains throughout the mouse genome in diverse cell and tissue types; these data were compared with those from human to confirm substantial conservation in the newly annotated potential functional sequences and to reveal pronounced divergence of other sequences involved in transcriptional regulation, chromatin state and higher order chromatin organization.

The Cancer Genome Atlas presents an integrative genome-wide analysis of genetic alterations in 279 head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs), which are classified by human papillomavirus (HPV) status; alterations in EGFR, FGFR, PIK3CA and cyclin-dependent kinases are shown to represent candidate targets for therapeutic intervention in most HNSCCs.

An international group of chemical biologists convened in San Francisco to present the latest scientific findings, discuss future directions and be inspired by research at the interface of chemistry and biology. This report on the third annual conference of the International Chemical Biology Society provides a brief overview of the meeting and its scientific program.

The BIN1 SNP rs744373 is associated with higher CSF tau and phosphorylated tau levels. Here the authors show, using PET imaging, that this SNP is associated with tau accumulation in the brain as well as impaired memory in older individuals without dementia.

Whether Alzheimer’s disease originates in basal forebrain or entorhinal cortex remains highly debated. Here the authors use structural magnetic resonance data from a longitudinal sample of participants stratified by cerebrospinal biomarker and clinical diagnosis to show that tissue volume changes appear earlier in the basal forebrain than in the entorhinal cortex.

Late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) is a complex multi-factorial disorder. Here, the authors perform a data-driven analysis of LOAD progression, including multimodal brain imaging, plasma and CSF biomarkers, and find vascular dysfunction is among the earliest and strongest altered events.

Several studies show that APOE-ε4 coding variants are associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk. Here, Zhou et al. perform fine-mapping of the APOE region and find AD risk haplotypes with non-coding variants in the PVRL2 and APOC1 regions that are associated with relevant endophenotypes.

Progressive diseases tend to be heterogeneous in their underlying aetiology mechanism, disease manifestation, and disease time course. Here, Young and colleagues devise a computational method to account for both phenotypic heterogeneity and temporal heterogeneity, and demonstrate it using two neurodegenerative disease cohorts.

In this Review, Elshazly and colleagues summarize the basic engineering principles of common wearable sensors and discuss their broad applications in cardiovascular disease prevention, diagnosis and management.