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Certain cancers are prone to invade the nervous system, which leads to poorer prognosis. A study of leukaemia in mice reveals an unexpectedly direct invasion route from the bone marrow to the central nervous system.

Dang et al. integrate GWAS with functional genomics to analyze 15 common autoimmune diseases, mapping interconnections and differences in target genes, association signals, and the immune cell types in which signals act. They show cell-type-specific signals within loci, prioritize associated genes, and identify shared and distinct functional modules, clarifying regulatory mechanisms.

Recently, superconductivity was achieved in La3Ni2O7 and (La,Pr)3Ni2O7 thin films at ambient pressure due to in-plane compressive strain. Here, the authors report the enhancement of the superconducting onset from about 30 K to over 48 K by applying hydrostatic pressure to the films.

Schizophrenia is a complex brain disorder with its underlying protein changes generally not well understood. Here, authors show widespread alterations in the prefrontal cortex, marked by reduced energy production and disrupted synaptic function.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

Researchers studied the blood-based metabolome of over 23,000 people from ten ethnically diverse cohorts. They identified 235 metabolites associated with future risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). By integrating genetic and modifiable lifestyle factors, their findings provide insights into T2D mechanisms and could improve risk prediction and inform precision prevention.

Azoxy products have rarely been synthesized using enzyme catalysts. Herein, the authors report that fungal unspecific peroxygenases are promising catalysts for synthesizing azoxy products from simple aniline starting materials.

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are central to scalable nanophotonics and are widely regarded as the most viable platform for large-scale quantum photonic systems. However, as quantum PICs increase in complexity, fabrication variability, optical loss accumulation, planar integration constraints and heterogeneous material stacking have emerged as primary bottlenecks, shifting the challenge from device physics to manufacturability. The pursuit of room-temperature quantum photonic chips further intensifies requirements for low-loss routing, thermal stability, packaging tolerance and multi-material co-integration. Here we argue that laser nanoprinting, particularly femtosecond laser direct writing, enabling three-dimensional photonic interconnects, permanent phase correction and localized refractive index control, directly addressing yield and scalability challenges. Integrating laser-based correction and 3D structuring within heterogeneous PIC platforms may therefore provide a practical pathway toward reproducible, manufacturable and room-temperature deployable quantum photonic systems.

Cosmic rays flying through superconducting quantum devices create bursts of excitations that destroy qubit coherence. Rapid, spatially resolved measurements of qubit error rates make it possible to observe the evolution of the bursts across a chip.

A large genome-wide association study of more than 5 million individuals reveals that 12,111 single-nucleotide polymorphisms account for nearly all the heritability of height attributable to common genetic variants.

Typical quantum error correcting codes assign fixed roles to the underlying physical qubits. Now the performance benefits of alternative, dynamic error correction schemes have been demonstrated on a superconducting quantum processor.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

Meta-analyses in up to 1.3 million individuals identify 87 rare-variant associations with blood pressure traits. On average, rare variants exhibit effects ~8 times larger than the mean effects of common variants and implicate candidate causal genes at associated regions.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

Here the authors perform a trans expression quantitative trait locus meta-analysis study of over 3,700 people and link a USP18 variant to expression of 50 inflammation genes and lupus risk, highlighting how genetic regulation of immune responses drives autoimmune disease and informs new therapies.

Observations of SN 2021yfj reveal that its progenitor is a massive star stripped down to its O/Si/S core, which remarkably continued to expel vast quantities of silicon-, sulfur-, and argon-rich material before the explosion, informing us that current theories for how stars evolve are too narrow.

The treatment of head and neck cancer requires a multidisciplinary approach, and positron emission tomography/CT is a rapidly evolving technique that is profoundly altering the staging, radiation treatment planning and clinical management decisions for this disease. Franket al. discuss the use of PET/CT for staging and detecting both primary or recurrent head and neck cancer and its applications in radiotherapy treatment planning.

Inbreeding depression has been observed in many different species, but in humans a systematic analysis has been difficult so far. Here, analysing more than 1.3 million individuals, the authors show that a genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) is associated with disadvantageous outcomes in 32 out of 100 traits tested.

In this study, the authors develop a comprehensive taxonomy of brain-wide SPNs, identifying several novel subsets via their transcriptional signatures.

Experimental measurements of high-order out-of-time-order correlators on a superconducting quantum processor show that these correlators remain highly sensitive to the quantum many-body dynamics in quantum computers at long timescales.

A transancestral exome-wide association study for body-fat distribution identifies protein-coding variants that are significantly associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index.

Exome-wide analysis identifies rare and low-frequency coding variants associated with body mass index. Gene-based meta-analysis and functional studies implicate 13 genes, eight of which are novel, and neuronal pathways as factors in human obesity.

Data from over 700,000 individuals reveal the identity of 83 sequence variants that affect human height, implicating new candidate genes and pathways as being involved in growth.

Trans-ethnic analyses of exome array data identify new risk loci for type 2 diabetes. Fine-mapping analyses using genome-wide association data show that the index coding variants represent the likely causal variants at only a subset of these loci.

In the first results from an ongoing global cancer screening data repository, screening program organization was better overall in Europe compared to other continents; however, there were substantial gaps in implementation across both high- and low-resource settings.

The mechanisms underlying perinatal mortality due to intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy are not fully understood. Here, the authors show that absence of the nuclear receptor and bile acid regulator Nrli2 and the biliary transporter Abcb11 strongly reduces maternal serum bile acid levels, improving neonatal survival.

John Perry and colleagues report the results of a large genome-wide association study meta-analysis to identify variants influencing age at natural menopause. They identify 54 independent signals and find enrichment near genes involved in delayed puberty and DNA damage response.

This study presents the assembly and analysis of the genome sequence of a female domestic Duroc pig and a comparison with the genomes of wild and domestic pigs from Europe and Asia; the results shed light on the evolutionary relationship between European and Asian wild boars.

Peng et al. find that immunodominant cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) specific for NP_105–113-B*07:02 are associated with reduced COVID-19 severity. Mechanistically, NP_105–113-B*07:02-specific CTLs show potent antiviral functionality and may represent rational T cell vaccine targets.

Reverte-Salisa et al. show that, in preadipocytes, EPAC1 enhances brown adipose tissue growth and increases the function of thermogenic fat in obesogenic conditions. Activation of EPAC1 induces human brown adipocyte proliferation and differentiation.

The human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cell lineage is widely used in cell biology and biotechnology. Here, the authors apply whole genome resequencing methods to characterise genomic variation in six HEK293 cell lines and suggest that this variation could affect experiments using these cell lines.

We identify that the larval zebrafish unpaired pre-anal fin fold is derived from the lateral plate mesoderm, can be readily duplicated, and thus may represent a developmental intermediate between median and paired fins.

The authors demonstrate that the electrostatic potential originating on the surface of twisted bilayer and multilayer hexagonal boron nitride can be used to generate a moiré potential modulation on adjacent semiconductor layers, enabling the possibility of controlling the properties of this adjacent layer.

Monomeric N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) can act as molecular modifiers of metal surfaces and thus affect heterogeneous catalytic behaviour. Now NHC polymers have been formed on gold surfaces, consisting of ballbot-type repeating units bound to single gold adatoms. Conformational, electronic and charge transport properties explain the high surface mobility of the incommensurate NHC polymers.

Yuzhalin et al. report that astrocyte-mediated upregulation of Cdk5 in metastatic breast cancer cells inhibits MHC-I expression on the cell surface, thereby enabling escape from killing by CD8⁺ T cells and facilitating brain metastasis.

Most studies of the genetics of the metabolome have been done in individuals of European descent. Here, the authors integrate genomics and metabolomics in Black individuals, highlighting the value of whole genome sequencing in diverse populations and linking circulating metabolites to human disease.

In a quantum simulation of a (2+1)D lattice gauge theory using a superconducting quantum processor, the dynamics of strings reveal the transition from deconfined to confined excitations as the effective electric field is increased.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of prostate cancer performed in 156,319 cases and 788,443 controls identifies 187 novel risk variants associated with the disease. Genetic risk scores associated with overall risk, and risk of aggressive disease in men of African ancestry.

Ancestry-related differences in immunobiology may explain the health disparities observed in prostate cancer patients, with men of African origin bearing the highest prostate cancer burden. By measuring immune-related proteins in serum samples, here the authors report that systemic cytokines linked to suppression of tumor immunity are upregulated in men of African ancestry and associated with reduced survival.

Cassava is a major source of food in tropical and subtropical regions. Here the authors sequence the genomes of wild and domesticated cassava varieties and identify genes that have been selected for and against during the evolution and domestication of this economically important crop.

Physical realizations of qubits are often vulnerable to leakage errors, where the system ends up outside the basis used to store quantum information. A leakage removal protocol can suppress the impact of leakage on quantum error-correcting codes.

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.

This meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies four genetic loci associated with circulating leptin levels independent of adiposity. Examination in mouse adipose tissue explants provides functional support for the leptin-associated loci.

The cellular function of small GTPases is regulated by switching between active (GTP-bound) and inactive (GDP-bound) states. Here the authors develop nucleotide analogues that can be covalently linked to GTPases via a strategically placed cysteine residue to lock the target GTPase in defined activation states.