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Indoles are privileged structural motifs in N-heterocyclic chemistry, while developing a general and facile platform capable of directly transforming commodity chemicals into multi-functionalized indoles persists as a challenge. Herein, the authors present a photo-driven bifunctional iron-catalyzed strategy integrating photocatalysis and Lewis acid catalysis for one-pot synthesis of indoles from readily available arylamines and alkanes/carboxylic acids.

Negative regulator of thermotolerance 1 (NAT1) is identified as a negative regulator of thermotolerance in rice through the NAT1–bHLH110–CER1/CER1L module. Modifying NAT1 by targeted gene editing increases wax deposition and enhances thermotolerance in rice.

Paclitaxel is a prominent cancer therapy drug with poor synthetic efficiency due to the low activity and selectivity of the hydrolases involved. Here the authors develop a TteUPO oxidase toolbox for taxane oxidation, offering an unconventional route towards paclitaxel and paclitaxel analogues.

Application of multiancestry and ensemble-based approaches yields improved polygenic risk prediction models for breast cancer and its subtypes among women of African ancestry.

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.

The 4D Nucleome Project demonstrates the use of genomic assays and computational methods to measure genome folding and then predict genomic structure from DNA sequence, facilitating the discovery of potential effects of genetic variants, including variants associated with disease, on genome structure and function.

Disease heterogeneity complicates precision medicine, which focuses on single conditions and ignores shared mechanisms. Here the authors introduce ‘pan-disease’ analysis using a deep learning model on multi-organ data, identifying 11 AI-derived biomarkers that reveal new therapeutic targets and pathways, enhancing patient stratification for disease risk monitoring and drug discovery.

The (G4C2)-RNA hexanucleotide repeat expansion upstream of the start codon of the C9orf72 gene plays a critical role in familial ALS. The authors show that Sig1R, a ligand-regulated molecular chaperone, counteracts the aberrant nucleocytoplasmic distribution of Ran caused by the (G4C2)-RNA repeats.

WGS data were used from 347,630 individuals with European ancestry in the UK Biobank to obtain high-precision estimates of coding and non-coding rare variant heritability for 34 complex traits and diseases.

Earlier thawing of permafrost in northern high latitudes is reshaping the timing of spring growth and energy balance of Arctic ecosystems. This study suggests that advancing thaw increasingly stimulates land surface greening through enhanced water availability, earlier vegetation activity, and reduced albedo.

Analysis of whole-genome sequences of 25,465 individuals of European ancestry shows that rare variants contribute substantially to the heritability of height and body mass index.

The mechanochemical dechlorination of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) can catalyse reactions through the release of chlorides. Here, the authors use TiO₂ as a contact-electro-catalyst to achieve PVC dechlorination via ball-milling for the solvent-free, mechanochemical chlorination of alcohols.

Various approaches are being used for polygenic prediction including Bayesian multiple regression methods that require access to individual-level genotype data. Here, the authors extend BayesR to utilise GWAS summary statistics (SBayesR) and show that it outperforms other summary statistic-based methods.

Genetic muscle diseases are difficult to treat due to challenges in delivering gene editors to muscles throughout the body. Here, authors engineer muscle-specific virus-like particles that fuse with skeletal muscle cells to deliver CRISPR tools and restore dystrophin in a DMD model.

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.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide gene–smoking interaction study identifies 13 new loci associated with serum lipids.

Turley and colleagues find that Gremlin1-expressing lymph node fibroblastic reticular cells support dendritic cell homeostasis via provision of FLT3L.

Here the authors report that genetic or pharmacological inhibition of phosphoglycerate kinase 1, an enzyme involved in glycolysis, attenuates acute kidney injury in mouse models of acute kidney injury via inhibition of ferroptosis.

SBayesRC integrates genome-wide association summary statistics with functional annotations to improve polygenic prediction of complex traits. Functional partitioning highlights a major contribution of evolutionarily constrained regions to prediction accuracy.

Stevioside is an inhibitor of Streptococcus pneumoniae capsule biosynthesis by disrupting pyruvate metabolism and redox balance, it reduces capsular polysaccharide formation, enhances immune clearance, and protects from pneumococcal infection.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) has an incompletely understood mechanistic basis. Here the authors use gain- and loss-of-function mouse models to show that that E3 ligase TRIM7 in hepatocyte promotes MASH pathogenesis via DUSP10 ubiquitination.

Ageing increases the risk of many diseases. Here the authors compare blood cell transcriptomes of over 14,000 individuals and identify a set of about 1,500 genes that are differently expressed with age, shedding light on transcriptional programs linked to the ageing process and age-associated diseases.

Circuit and cell type prioritization for complex disorders is crucial to direct future efforts. Here the authors integrate GWAS, human single-cell RNA-seq and fMRI analysis suggesting multi-modality convergence on amygdalar and hippocampal circuits.

IgA nephropathy is a major cause of end-stage renal disease in China, occurring at a high frequency in Asian populations. Here Li and colleagues conduct a four-stage genome-wide association study in a Chinese population, identifying novel loci and variants associated with disease risk.

CaMKII is a key enzyme in brain, heart, and egg cells, regulated by calcium signals. Here, authors show that charged residues in the variable linker tune CaMKII activity, a mechanism that may underlie cell type–specific responses.

Electrocatalytic CO₂-to-acetate remains challenging for metal catalysts due to the linear scaling relationship. Here, the authors report a deposition-etching strategy to modulate sp²/sp³ carbon hybridization in diamond, regulating adsorption equilibrium of key intermediates for acetate formation.

Methods to study how natural selection shapes genetic architecture of complex traits rely on individual level genome-wide association study (GWAS) data. Here, the authors present a Bayesian method using GWAS summary statistics to study genetic architecture and apply this to 155 complex traits.

Production of pearl millet is impacted by the root parasitic weed Striga hermonthica. Here, the authors assemble the genomes of resistant and susceptible lines of pearl millet and identify a critical gene CARLACTONOIC ACID METHYLTRANSFERASE1b (CLAMT1b) in determining Striga resistance.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

Phenotype-based screening is a major bottleneck in the development of microbial cell factories. Here the authors build an AI-powered digital colony picker for single-cell-resolved, contactless screening and export of microbial strains, which identified lactate-tolerant Zymomonas mobilis mutants.

Here the authors describe a genomic dataset, the1000 Chinese Indigenous Pig Genomes Project (1KCIGP), based on the whole-genome sequencing of 1,011 Chinese domestic pigs from 50 distinct populations, which provides insights into the genomic architecture of domestic pigs.

Nanopore reads have been advantageous for de novo genome assembly; however these reads have high error rates. Here, the authors develop an error correction and de novo assembly tool, NECAT, which produces efficient, high quality assemblies of nanopore reads.

Conflicting reports have found disease to sometimes be positively and sometimes negatively correlated with alcohol consumption. Here, the authors show that misreporting and reduction of alcohol consumption is associated with disease, leading to misleading associations between alcohol and disease.

The Macaque Biobank initiated by Zhang et al. provides a comprehensive genetic and phenotypic characterization of Chinese rhesus macaques (CRMs). This resource enhances our understanding of the genetic diversity of CRMs and holds potential for biomedical research.

In contrast to the classical streaming potential relying on downstream ionic diffusion, an upstream proton diffusion within two-dimensional nanochannels is found to continuously generate electricity, advancing hydrovoltaic technology.

Decommissioned power semiconductor devices often still have useful life, creating opportunities to reuse rather than discard them. This Perspective outlines how careful screening and creative upcycling, including artificial intelligence-assisted assessment and circuit reconstruction, can extend device lifetimes while reducing waste and supporting a circular and lower carbon power electronics industry.

Reducing critical materials such as indium and silver is of high importance for photovoltaics. Yu et al. demonstrate a certified 25.94% efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cell replacing part of indium-based electrodes with undoped tin oxide and using copper for contacts.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

It is uncertain how much life expectancy of the Chinese population would improve under current and greater policy targets on lifestyle-based risk factors for chronic diseases and mortality behaviours. Here we report a simulation of how improvements in four risk factors, namely smoking, alcohol use, physical activity and diet, could affect mortality. We show that in the ideal scenario, that is, all people who currently smokers quit smoking, excessive alcohol userswas reduced to moderate intake, people under 65 increased moderate physical activity by one hour and those aged 65 and older increased by half an hour per day, and all participants ate 200 g more fresh fruits and 50 g more fish/seafood per day, life expectancy at age 30 would increase by 4.83 and 5.39 years for men and women, respectively. In a more moderate risk reduction scenario referred to as the practical scenario, where improvements in each lifestyle factor were approximately halved, the gains in life expectancy at age 30 could be half those of the ideal scenario. However, the validity of these estimates in practise may be influenced by population-wide adherence to lifestyle recommendations. Our findings suggest that the current policy targets set by the Healthy China Initiative could be adjusted dynamically, and a greater increase in life expectancy would be achieved.

A brain–heart–eye axis is generated through integration of multi-omics and multi-organ data from UKBB, BLSA, FinnGen and PGC, revealing phenotypic landscapes and genetic arcitectures of disease.

Structural variations (SV) contribute to inter-individual variability. Here, the authors describe a first-generation multi-ancestry Asian SV catalogue containing 73,035 SVs from 8392 Singaporeans to provide insights into Asian SV diversity.

Poly(A)-Binding Protein Cytoplasmic 1 (PABPC1) is a crucial component of stress granules. Here, the authors show that PABPC1 undergoes SUMOylation in response to cellular stress, enhancing the stability of mitophagy-related gene transcripts to promote cancer cell survival.

Using data from long-term nationwide observations and multi-level rainfall manipulative experiments, this study reveals that rice yield reductions due to extreme rainfall in China were comparable to those induced by extreme heat over the past two decades. Further projections highlight the increasing risk of rice yield reductions induced by extreme rainfall by the end of this century.

CMAP is a method that maps large-scale individual cells to their precise spatial locations by integrating single-cell and spatial transcriptomics data through a divide-and-conquer strategy, supporting diverse data types and mapping scenarios.

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.

Analyses of summary statistics from GWAS are subject to biases due to errors in the discovery GWAS or linkage disequilibrium reference data set or heterogeneity between data sets. Here, the authors propose a quality control method to be added to analysis of GWAS summary data that can reduce such biases.

A dataset of the genomes of 363 species from the Bird 10,000 Genomes Project shows increased power to detect shared and lineage-specific variation, demonstrating the importance of phylogenetically diverse taxon sampling in whole-genome sequencing.

We carried out genomic and ecological analyses of all eight extant baobab species, providing insights into their evolutionary history and recommendations for conservation efforts.

Renal cell carcinoma consists of several subtypes, and recurrence is highly dependent on subtype. Here, the authors develop a multi-classifier using imaging, lncRNA and clinical data to predict recurrence in papillary renal cell carcinoma.