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B. thuringiensis spores contain uncharacterized protein filaments that extend from the surface of the exosporium. Here, the authors show that these filaments feature conserved β-barrel neck domains and promote spore clustering through protein contacts and filament bundling, and reveal a mechanism for biofilm-like spore aggregation.

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.

DNA transactions promote torsional constraints that pose inherent risks to genome integrity. Here the authors identify the macro-histone splice variant macroH2A1.1 as an epigenetic modulator of topoisomerase 1-associated genome maintenance. MacroH2A1.1 expression determines sensitivity to TOP1 poisons and may present a cancer vulnerability.

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.

varVAMP is open-source software for designing primers for tiled-amplicon sequencing and qPCR. It simplifies primer design for viral pathogens with high genomic variability by including sequence variations into primer sequences.

Researchers clarify damping pathways for mid-infrared graphene plasmons, including graphene intrinsic optical phonons and edge scattering. They also demonstrate the guiding of mid-infrared graphene plasmons in 50-nm-wide structures with an electromagnetic mode area of 10⁻³μm² and a propagation length of 200 nm.

Cancer is subject to immune surveillance, and HIV infection dampens immune capacity, but HIV-induced immune alterations in patients with breast cancer is still unclear. Here the authors profile women living with HIV to find increased CD8 T cell tumor infiltration, enhanced checkpoint molecular expression, and reduced overall survival when compared with controls.

Both rare and common variants contribute to the aetiology of complex traits such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). Here, the authors examine the effect of coding variation on glycaemic traits and T2D, and identify low-frequency variation in GLP1Rsignificantly associated with these traits.

The ubiquitin ligase Siah2 has been implicated in immune responses. Here, the authors show that Siah2 null immune cells have an increased inflammatory response to inoculated melanoma cells, along with a reduced number of infiltrating immunosuppressive regulatory T cells, resulting in inhibition of tumour growth.

Investigating dynamics of polyatomic molecules is difficult as their potential energy surfaces are multidimensional due to coupled degrees of freedom. Here the authors demonstrate a spatial selective gating technique to probe the different vibrational modes of water upon core-level excitation with X-rays.

Interface transparency between 2D semiconductors and superconductors is a longstanding problem, seriously hindering potential applications. Here, using a new hybrid system, Kjaergaard et al. report quantized conductance doubling and a hard superconducting gap measured via a quantum point contact, indicating a near pristine interface.

Gao and colleagues explore soluble biomarkers, immune cell subsets, viral antibody responses and plasma proteomics to better define and understand long COVID in two independent cohorts.

Genome-wide association analyses identify new risk loci for heart failure and its subtypes, extending understanding of the underlying biological pathways and disease mechanisms.

This multiomic study, including single-nucleus DNA methylation and chromatin conformation matched with single-nuclei RNA sequencing, provides insights into the epigenomic landscape of human subcutaneous adipose tissue.

RNF5 is a ubiquitin ligase regulating ER stress response. Here the authors show that Rnf5 deficiency potentiates immune response against melanoma via altered microbiota, and isolate bacterial strains that confer the same phenotype to wild type mice.

Current first-line treatments of pediatric UC maintain a 6-month remission in only half of the patients. Here, applying multi-omics on intestinal biopsies from treatment-naïve children, the authors show that relapse-prediction using separate omics data is outperformed by a robust machine learning approach combining microbiomes and epigenomes.

In a large cross-national study, education was linked to better memory and larger brain volumes but not to slower cognitive or brain decline with age, suggesting that the association reflects early-life factors rather than neuroprotective effects in aging.

Living cells rely on the choreography of multiple simultaneous functions, without clear boundaries between molecular subsystems. Replicating these capabilities in synthetic cells would represent a major advance in understanding life. This Perspective argues that this challenge requires a shift away from modular design concepts, towards a strategy that integrates the theoretical principles of systems chemistry with data-driven high-throughput experimental methods.

HistoPlexer, a deep learning model, generates multiplexed protein expression maps from H&E images, capturing tumour–immune cell interactions. It outperforms baselines, enhances immune subtyping and survival prediction and offers a cost-effective tool for precision oncology.

Chronic spontaneous urticarial is an inflammatory skin disease which has been linked to intestinal dysbiosis. Here the authors implicate intestinal dysbiosis with the inflammatory response in a murine model of urticaria.

The monarch butterfly, well known for its spectacular annual migration across North America, is shown by genome sequencing of monarchs from around the world to have been ancestrally migratory and to have dispersed out of North America to occupy its current broad distribution; the authors also discovered signatures of selection associated with migration within loci implicated in flight muscle function, leading to greater flight efficiency.

Oral vaccines against Vibrio cholera have been critical for cholera management, but the production of more efficacious and cost-effective approaches is still needed. Here the authors deliver a bivalent V_HH construct that binds to cholera toxin and show protection in a murine cholera model.

Enhanced soil carbon mineralization due to additional organic matter inputs, a phenomenon called priming, diminishes within a few years as soils adapt to the higher carbon inputs.

Cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors (CVM) impact brain structure and increase dementia risk. Here, the authors developed and validated machine learning models to measure the neuroanatomical changes in people with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases that are cognitively unimpaired.

This study investigates the effectiveness of psychological therapies for depression and anxiety symptoms in 7,597 stroke survivors within England’s primary care system. Results show that 71.3% of stroke survivors experienced reliable improvement and significant reductions in symptom scores, underscoring the importance of intervention for improving recovery.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.

Many genetic loci have been identified to be associated with kidney disease, but the molecular mechanisms are not well understood. Here, the authors perform epigenome-wide association studies on kidney function measures to identify epigenetic marks and pathways involved in kidney function.

Serum urate concentration can be studied in large datasets to find genetic and epigenetic loci that may be related to cardiometabolic traits. Here the authors identify and replicate 100 urate-associated CpGs, which provide insights into urate GWAS loci and shared CpGs of urate and cardiometabolic traits.

17β-oestradiol establishes an anti-ferroptotic state in female kidney tubules.

Samples returned from asteroid Bennu largely comprise hydrated sheet silicates with sulfides, magnetite and carbonate that indicate alteration by a fluid that evolved from neutral to alkaline, according to a micro- and nanoscale mineralogical study.

The WHO’s designation of mpox as a public health emergency of international concern underscores the need for diagnostics to combat this escalating threat. Here, the authors present a portable POC molecular platform based on power-free DNA extraction and colourimetric LAMP.

Here, the authors identify a cytoplasmic gate in the K2P channel TALK-2 that is strongly positively-coupled to a second gate made up by the selectivity filter. Thereby, stimuli that converge at either gate open both gates, allowing effective polymodal regulation.

Understanding cycloaddition mechanisms is beneficial for the creation of extended carbon nanostructures, yet traditional models often overlook symmetry-based mechanistic effects. Here, the authors employ topological classifiers to identify symmetry-forbidden pathways in polycyclic aromatic azomethine ylide cycloadditions, revealing that topologically-allowed endothermic reactions can guide nanographene engineering.

The multicenter phase 3 trial of stem cell therapy for osteoarthritis (MILES) for knee pain revealed that cell therapies showed no significant difference in knee pain outcomes, compared to corticosteroid injections, 1 year following treatment.

Liquid biopsies enable minimally invasive applications for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Here the authors analyse fragmentation patterns of circulating tumour DNA on multiple levels and develop a bioinformatic tool, LIQUORICE, to accurately detect and classify paediatric cancers with low mutational burden.

The identification of two cryptic species of the fungal pathogen that causes white-nose disease in bats highlights the need to integrate studies of genetic variability in pathogens into disease surveillance, management and prevention strategies.

Controllable two-qubit interactions are necessary to build a functional quantum computer. Here the authors demonstrate fast, coherent swapping of two spin states mediated by a long, multi-electron quantum dot that could act as a tunable coupler mediating interactions between multiple qubits.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

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.

Dopaminergic action prediction error signals are used by mice as a value-free teaching signal to reinforce stable sound–action associations in the tail of the striatum.

The genetics and clinical consequences of resting heart rate (RHR) remain incompletely understood. Here, the authors discover new genetic variants associated with RHR and find that higher genetically predicted RHR decreases risk of atrial fibrillation and ischemic stroke.

Clock precision is thought to be fundamentally limited by entropy production in out-of-equilibrium systems. A theoretical work now introduces a quantum clock design where precision grows exponentially with dissipation.

Prokaryotes contain 17 types of histones, based on predictions from AlphaFold2. The histone groups differ from each other in the multimer structures that they form. Importantly, many prokaryotic histones can bridge DNA instead of wrapping DNA.