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Global analysis of obesity trends from 1980 to 2024 in 200 countries and territories using data from 4,050 population-based studies reveals that framing obesity as a single global epidemic masks the highly varied dynamics across countries and age groups.

Dietary interventions have been proposed as potential therapeutic strategies in cancer. Here, the authors report a feasibility randomized clinical trial comparing standard diet with a very lowcarbohydrate ketogenic diet (VLCD) in treatment-naive women with endometrial cancer and obesity or overweight.

As presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting, in a prespecified interim analysis of a phase 1a trial of IMA401—a new bispecific TCR-based T cell engager that binds a MAGE-A4/MAGE-A8 peptide presented by HLA-A*02:01—encouraging safety and a preliminary efficacy signal were observed in patients with head and neck cancers and melanoma, including those treated with both the engager and anti-PD-1.

Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 can associate with autoantibodies neutralizing inflammatory cytokines. The authors here investigate the presence of autoantibodies targeting specific anti-inflammatory mediators. They identify severe COVID-19 to associate with autoantibodies depleting IL-1Ra and PGRN, which coincide with hyperphosphorylated antigen isoforms induced by inflammatory stress.

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

Sedimentation processes in the Japan Trench control seafloor residence of organic carbon, shaping its subsurface degradation and burial. These processes may influence how much carbon is ultimately transferred from Earth’s surface into subduction zones.

Global Burden of Disease analysis found that in 2023, suboptimal diet was estimated to be responsible for 4 million deaths and 97 million morbidity burdens from ischemic heart disease.

How the brain combines sensory information during visual perception remains unclear. Here the authors show that broadband activity in visual cortex encodes synergistic information about images, whereas oscillatory activity encodes more redundant representations.

When 100 social and behavioural science claims were examined, 34% of reanalyses closely matched the original results, with 74% reaching the same conclusion, revealing limited robustness of single-path analyses and the need to address analytical uncertainty.

The Scalesia plant radiation displays striking leaf-shape variation within Galápagos microclimates. Genome-wide analyses shows that lobed leaves evolved repeatedly through diversifying selection on diverse developmental regulators.

PTCHD1-AS, which encodes a long non-coding RNA, is associated with the aetiology of autism spectrum disorder in humans through striatal molecular and circuit-level dysregulation.

Proteomic data from natural isolates of Saccharomyces cerevisiae provide insight into how these cells tolerate aneuploidy (an imbalance in the number of chromosomes), and reveal differences between lab-engineered aneuploids and diverse natural yeasts.

A permanently porous organic framework assembled and stabilized solely by non-covalent chalcogen bonding is reported. Empirical and computational studies reveal the characteristic influence of the operative Te···N chalcogen bonds on assembly, electronic structure, framework regeneration and lattice dynamics.

Structural analysis reveals that the type VI secretion system effector cargo is enclosed within hexameric Hcp3 rings that form sequentially to enable effector loading and delivery by the Pseudomonas aeruginosa H3-type VI secretion system.

NG101 treatment for acute cervical spinal cord injury mitigates structural degeneration compared to placebo. Stratifying patients via MRI and electrophysiology identifies clinical responder subgroups, optimizing future trial designs.

RNA velocity is a widely used method to predict the fate of single cells. Here the authors show that the concept can be adapted to predict the fate of individual human subjects, using RNA velocity of whole blood at a single point in time to predict future clinical outcomes and treatment responses.

Contractile injection systems (CISs) are nanomachines that inject proteins into target cells. Here, the authors resolve the atomic structure of a CIS in the opportunistic human pathogen Salmonella enterica subspecies salamae, revealing a membrane associated architecture, uncovering a cluster of related systems.

Kancharla, Kelly et al. identify an acridone antimalarial potent across all major parasite life stages. Lead candidate T111 shows oral efficacy, low toxicity, and synergy with tafenoquine, providing a unique mechanism to overcome resistance.

The study identifies novel genetic variants linked to core cerebrospinal fluid Alzheimer’s Disease biomarkers using a genome-wide analysis, showing how endophenotypes can identify genes and disease mechanisms not captured by case-control studies.

This study develops a platform that enables simultaneous, multiplexed tracing of 30 nitrogen isotope-labelled metabolites, uncovering differences in pyrimidine synthesis pathway choice between primitive and differentiated cells.

The authors have applied an eight-tissue rat multi-omic dataset to analyze the gene regulatory landscape of endurance exercise training, identifying tissue-specific regulatory patterns involved in muscle function, metabolism and immune response.

The human thymus is essential for building the adaptive immune system, yet its development and disease-related changes remain incompletely understood. Here, the authors show through large-scale single-cell RNA sequencing that distinct cell populations and signaling programs define normal development and multiple thymic diseases.

The authors estimate genomic vulnerability for closely related species of rainbowfish. They find that narrow endemic species that have hybridized with a warm-adapted generalist show reduced vulnerability to climate change and that hybridization may facilitate evolutionary rescue for such species.

In a randomized trial enrolling 354 patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia on maximally tolerated lipid-lowering therapy, treatment with the cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor obicetrapib was well tolerated and significantly lowered low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by 36.3% as compared to placebo.

The authors describe a simple and efficient metal-free protocol for oxidative double esterification of diformylpillar[5]arenes. This method provides a versatile and operationally straightforward route to highly enantioenriched products with broad functional group tolerance, as shown by incorporating biologically active and naturally derived fragments.

The effects of global biodiversity loss on local plant communities have been equivocal. Across 57,398 European time series, covering > 100 years, local plant diversity gains are often associated with rises in generalist and non-native plants.

Emmett and colleagues evaluate the frequency, magnitude and clinical significance of early prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) upregulation in patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer treated with enzalutamide with or without ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-617.

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.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

DNA-sequencing data from primary tumours and paired metastases from participants in the TRACERx lung study and PEACE autopsy programme are used to analyse the metastatic diversity of advanced non-small cell lung cancer and the seeding patterns that underpin it.

Nature Biotechnology’s annual survey highlights university startups that are, among other things, rethinking how to deliver gene-editing therapy and tackling various metabolic conditions, immune disorders and cancer with microbiome treatments or immunotherapy. Michael Eisenstein, Ken Garber, Esther Landhuis, Caroline Seydel and Laura DeFrancesco report.

Magrinelli et al. link biallelic PSMF1 variants to phenotypes from parkinsonism to perinatal lethality, implicating proteasomal and mitochondrial dysfunction. PI31 loss in fly and mouse models causes age-dependent motor deficits and neurodegeneration.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

A new optical imaging study demonstrates that norepinephrine and the state of arousal influence hemodynamic correlations across cerebral cortex, calling for a conceptual shift in interpreting functional magnetic resonance imaging data.

How angular momentum is exchanged and conserved among lattice modes has been difficult to measure experimentally, but has now been observed via a coherent three-phonon scattering process in a topological insulator.

Kozlova et al. report a functional role for NDRG1 in regulating R-loops and DNA repair, thereby linking cancer-associated fibroblast-derived extracellular matrix to chemotherapy responses in pancreatic cancer.

The characterization of 4,645 whole-genome and 19,184 exome sequences, covering most types of cancer, identifies 81 single-base substitution, doublet-base substitution and small-insertion-and-deletion mutational signatures, providing a systematic overview of the mutational processes that contribute to cancer development.

JWST phase-curve observations reveal that the two innermost TRAPPIST-1 planets emit thermal radiation consistent with bare rocky surfaces, indicating that both lack thick atmospheres.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

Genome-wide analyses identify genetic loci and plasma proteins associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). This study highlights the hormonal and metabolic foundations of the disease and explores the impact of polygenic risk for PCOS in both sexes.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

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.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

It remains unclear why some BRCA-deficient high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSC) do not respond to platinum-based therapy. Here, multi-omic analysis of BRCA1- and BRCA2-deficient HGSC attributes co-occurring mutations, DNA repair deficiency and tumor microenvironment features to short survival in these patients.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.