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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.

Large-effect variants in autism remain elusive. Here, the authors use long-read sequencing to assemble phased genomes for 189 individuals, identifying pathogenic variants in TBL1XR1, MECP2, and SYNGAP1, plus nine candidate structural variants missed by short-read methods.

This study reports that de novo germline missense variants in SF3B1, distinct from the somatic variants frequently observed in cancer, cause a neurodevelopmental disorder and disrupt global RNA splicing.

Wafer bonding has allowed the synthesis of twisted interfaces which support polar discontinuities in ferroelectric lithium niobate. Two-dimensional sheet conductivity arises but is suppressed when twist angles lead to interfacial lattice aperiodicity.

Here the authors perturb genes linked to schizophrenia risk in human neurons. They find that single perturbations share common downstream effects on gene networks, while joint perturbations result in downstream effects being saturated.

Global Burden of Disease estimates show that between 1990 and 2023, the prevalence and burden of drug use disorders, inclusive of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and opioid use, have been increasing in high-income countries, particularly in the USA.

Metabolomic profiling of 581 mother–child pairs revealed patterns associated with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). Maternal metabolomic profiles at gestational week 24 showed the strongest predictive value, with quinolinate consistently associated with NDD across time points and linking maternal inflammation to NDD risk.

Genetic predictors of health outcomes often drop in accuracy when applied to people dissimilar to participants of large genetic studies. Here, the authors investigate the root causes and highlight open questions underlying this problem.

Estimates from the Global Burden of Disease study reveal declines in chronic respiratory disease mortality between 1990 and 2023—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic—but the burdens on people affected remain substantial.

cellSTAAR advances noncoding rare variant association analysis by integrating single-cell genomics data.

MedHELM, an extensible evaluation framework including a new taxonomy for classifying medical tasks and a benchmark of many datasets across these categories, enables the evaluation of large language models on real-world clinical tasks.

Engineered mucus-tethering bispecific nanobodies neutralize and entrap viruses to enhance mucosal immunity, preventing influenza infection and limiting SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

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.

Chemical language models trained on known metabolites can identify previously unknown metabolites from mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data with high accuracy.

Vassy, Dornisch and colleagues developed a genomics-based prostate cancer risk model to support a randomized clinical trial of precision screening in a national healthcare system.

A van der Waals heterostructure made from atomic layers of ferroelectric CuCrP₂S₆ and ferromagnetic Fe₃GeTe₂ can offer reversible, non-volatile ferroelectric control of two-dimensional magnetism.

Using chemical photoswitchable reagents to exert purely wavelength-dependent control over biological systems in deep tissue and in vivo requires a concentration-independent design paradigm. Here, such photoswitchable ligands are realized by ensuring that E/Z isomers have opposing efficacies yet similarly high affinity, allowing them to probe transient receptor potential C4 and C5 channel functions up to the tissue level.

Multi-trait genome-wide analyses identify variants associated with comorbid lung diseases. Polygenic scores leveraging shared components of heritable risk improve prediction of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer in a multi-ancestry cohort.

Prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates vary across males from diverse populations. Here, the authors perform a proteome-wide association study across different populations and establish population-specific genetic prediction models.

There is an unmet medical need for endometrial cancer patients with mismatch-repair proficient disease. Here, the authors report the primary analysis of the FRUSICA-1 phase Ib/II trial evaluating fruquintinib plus sintilimab in this population, showing an ORR of 32.7%, a median PFS of 8.6 months, and manageable toxicity.

Growing demand for robust plasma and serum proteomics highlights the need for better standardization. Here, the authors introduce an open 211-peptide internal standard that enables consistent quantification, cross-platform alignment and clinical utility across serum and plasma studies.

Transcription factor osr2 is identified as a specific marker and regulator of mural lymphatic endothelial cell (muLEC) differentiation and maintenance, and muLECs and border-associated macrophages share functional analogies but are not homologous, providing an example of convergent evolution.

Discoveries in Jurassic rocks reveal that birds were adept fliers earlier than scientists realized.

Crystal structures of HIV Env trimer with native glycosylation in complex with neutralizing antibodies reveal a glycan shield of high-mannose and complex-type N-glycan and indicate a path for germline-targeting vaccine design.

Functional and structural characterization of PtmA2 reveals that it is an unusual non-adenylating acyl-CoA ligase and part of a system wherein the canonical acyl-CoA ligase reaction is separated into two half-reactions performed by distinct enzymes.

The authors develop textile electronic substrates with tailored stiffness and interfacial affinities by selective and controllable laser-matter interaction, addressing the mechanical mismatch between hybrid electronics and elastic textiles.

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.

Utricle, a component of the inner ear vestibular system, is essential for balance. This study maps the cells and genes in the adult human utricle. It identifies distinct non-sensory cell types and reveals early responses to damage, providing insight into potential strategies for restoring balance.

The inability of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells to shift the circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus during daytime is caused by light-dependent depolarization block of these cells.

Neonatal brain injury from intermittent hypoxemia increases fatty acid oxidation and causes long-term changes in hippocampal lipid profile. Here authors demonstrate oral treatment with glycerol-triacetate restores lipid fatty acid profile and promotes functional recovery.

Single-cell proteomics maps protein dynamics in the developing human brain.

The extreme hot and dry conditions of 2023 reduced soil respiration and enhanced net forest carbon sequestration in Canada, offsetting wildfire emissions, according to satellite-based and in situ observations of CO₂ fluxes.

A completely solid-state, single-chip, microwave-frequency surface acoustic wave phonon laser can generate coherent phonons from thermal noise or resonantly amplify injected phonons using only a direct current bias field.

Scanning tunnelling microscopy is used to image pristine electrostatically defined quantum Hall edge states in graphene with high spatial resolution and demonstrate their interaction-driven restructuring.

A wearable paper-based microfluidic device tracks cortisol in sweat via gold nanoflower colorimetric assays and captures circadian rhythms, stress responses and jet lag disruptions.

Here the authors provide an explanation for 95% of examined predicted loss of function variants found in disease-associated haploinsufficient genes in the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD), underscoring the power of the presented analysis to minimize false assignments of disease risk.

SpatialZ generates virtual single-cell spatial transcriptomics slices between experimentally measured sections, enabling accurate and efficient building of 3D cell atlases of different tissues.

How the pulvinar represents complex visual information, its functional topography, and its relationship to cortical processing of visually presented objects remains unclear. Here authors show that responses to natural scenes in the human pulvinar reveal organized spatial maps for both low-level visual features, such as local contrast, as well as high-level visual features, such as bodies and faces.

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.

Neo et al. map blood emergence from three hemogenic endothelial (HE) populations biased toward distinct blood fates. HE primed for stem progenitors shows elevated chromatin and RNA splicing gene expression and greater isoform diversity.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

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.

Allosteric transcription factors (aTFs) are promising tools for environmental and human health monitoring. Here the authors develop a multi-objective, machine learning-guided method to engineer an aTF-based portable diagnostic for environment sensing of lead in drinking water at the legal limit.