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Conventional design of perovskite heterojunctions face challenges in precisely controlling interfacial phase purity at nanoscale. Here, the authors introduce dimethyl sulfide as a soft Lewis base additive in organic cation solution, achieving certified efficiency of 26.48% in stable solar cells.

Direct measurement of the exciton binding energy shows that the impressive performance of perovskite solar cells arises from the spontaneous generation of free electrons and holes after light absorption.

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.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) frequency and risk factors vary considerably across regions and ancestries. Here, the authors conduct a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine mapping study of HNSCC subsites in cohorts from multiple continents, finding susceptibility and protective loci, gene-environment interactions, and gene variants related to immune response.

Determining the degradation pathways in lead halide perovskites is key to its development as a viable solar technology. Aristidouet al. identify iodide vacancies as the preferred sites in mediating the photo-induced formation of superoxide species from intercalated oxygen.

Research on Drosophila neurons shows links between the need to sleep and aerobic metabolism, indicating that the pressure to sleep may have a mitochondrial origin.

Tergaonkar and colleagues identify a noncanonical interaction between the NF-κB transcription factor family member p52 and the ETS family member ETS1. They find that the p52–ETS1 complex is required for splenic germinal center B cell formation and T cell-dependent antibody responses.

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.

Analysis of the blood DNA virome in patients with COVID-19 and autoimmune disease associates endogenous HHV-6 (eHHV-6) and high anellovirus load with increased disease risk, most notably for systemic lupus erythematosus. eHHV-6 carriers show a distinct immune response.

Hepatic stellate cells regulate hepatocyte functions via R-spondin 3.

Most neuronal reconstruction software can automatically trace single neuronal morphologies but tracing multiple, densely interwoven neurons is much more challenging. Here the authors develop G-Cut, a computational approach for accurate segmentation of densely interconnected neuron clusters.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Georeferencing translates textual location information, for instance, on herbarium specimen labels, into geographical coordinates, but traditional methods are labour intensive and costly. Large language models (LLMs), however, have the potential to facilitate the georeferencing of natural history collections. Under standardized testing, some available LLMs achieved a near-human level of accuracy quickly and affordably, such that their incorporation into current workflows will increase the efficiency of georeferencing.

Natural killer (NK) cells are important for eliminating cells under stress or infected by virus, and may have a function in anti-HIV immunity. Here the authors show that different NK-activating stimuli induce distinct transcriptional fingerprints in human NK cells that are analogous to changes caused by HIV vaccination or chronic infection.

Humans use supernatural beliefs as tools for explanation. These explanations are more likely to focus on natural phenomena than social phenomena, according to this quantitative analysis of ethnographic text across 114 societies.

Genetic variants at multiple loci of chr5p15.33 have been associated with susceptibility to numerous cancers. Here the authors show that the association of one of these loci may be explained by a variant, rs36115365, influencing telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) expression via ZNF148.

Forced expression of C-X-C chemokine receptor type 6 in antigen-specific T cells enhanced the recognition and lysis of pancreatic cancer cells and the efficacy of adoptive cell therapy for pancreatic cancer.

Trans-ancestry meta-analysis of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) from 1,046,070 individuals identifies 264 associated loci, providing a resource of molecular targets for translational research of chronic kidney disease.

In mouse, an axonal connectivity map showing the wiring patterns across the entire brain has been created using an EGFP-expressing adeno-associated virus tracing technique, providing the first such whole-brain map for a vertebrate species.

For future optical information processing applications, including quantum computing, ever more complex quantum photonic devices are needed. Metcalf et al. present an integrated photonic device capable of three-photon quantum operation, including Hong-Ou-Mandel-type interference between three photons.

Optopharmacological manipulation with ‘caged’ glutamate and GABA has enabled the study of these ligands’ cognate receptors, but other ligands such as tertiary amine drugs have not been amenable to caging. A new strategy yields a photoactivatable nicotine, PA-Nic, which allows manipulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.

Urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UCAR) is associated with various clinical outcomes such as kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. Here, the authors report genome-wide meta-analysis in over 500,000 individuals and find 68 UACR loci, followed by statistical fine-mapping, gene prioritization and experimental validation in flies.

The APC/C ubiquitylates histones to regulate gene expression in pluripotent cells. Here, the authors pair cryo-EM and biochemical and biophysical assays to show that instead of modifying nucleosome-incorporated histones, the APC/C ubiquitylates extranucleosomal histone complexes through a mechanism that bypasses canonical substrate degrons.

Sulfur-substituted nucleobases are promising photo- and chemotherapeutic drugs. Here, the authors unravel the electronic and structural aspects that lead to the ultrafast population of triplet states in these molecules, providing an explanation for their efficiency as photosensitizers.

The hippocampus in mammalian brain varies in size across individuals. Here, Hibar and colleagues perform a genome-wide association meta-analysis to find six genetic loci with significant association to hippocampus volume.

Field surveys suggest peatlands in the central Congo Basin are globally significant carbon stocks, storing approximately 28% of the world’s tropical peat carbon.

Mutations that cause tissue mosaicism have been identified in individuals with severe congenital defects. Here, the authors show that mosaic deletion of Vangl2 in the murine neuroepithlium causes spina bifida by preventing apical constriction via reduced myosin II and tubulin organisation.

Genomic profiling of tumours can help tailer treatments to the patient, however, it often fails to accurately predict therapeutic outcomes. Here, the authors combine molecular and functional characterisation via BH3 profiling to identify therapeutically targetable vulnerabilities in glioma.

A diverse intestinal microbiota is required for mice to undergo extinction-related neuronal plasticity and normal fear extinction learning.

Loss or over-expression of Grainyhead-like transcription factors (Grhl) prevents closure of the neural tube but the mechanism underlying this is unclear. Here, the authors show that Grhl2 regulates murine posterior-neuropore closure via changes in the identity and biomechanics of the non-neural, surface ectoderm cells.

Internalized receptors are recycled back to the cell surface, but their precise mechanisms are unclear. Here, the authors show that the flotillin membrane proteins may regulate the transfer of internalized T cell receptors into Rab5 and Rab11-positive endosomes to support its rapid recycling.

Beas et al. show that stress exposure drives disinhibition of PVT projection neurons. This process involves an LC-mediated rise in extracellular DA in the midline thalamus, requires D2 receptors on PVT neurons, and increases stress sensitivity.

Physical intuition predicts that DNA should unwind under tension as it is pulled towards a denatured structure, but this is not the case. Pulling of a single DNA molecule first leads to overwinding, which causes it to lengthen, not shorten. These results can be explained by a coupling between stretch and twist, such that the DNA inner radius changes under tension.

The authors previously identified a family of viral insulin-like peptides (VILPs) with high homology to human insulin/IGF−1. Here, they report that one of these VILPs exhibits antagonist properties associated with a unique conformation of the IGF1R.

A new phylogenomic tree for butterflies is constructed using 391 genes from 2,300 species, representing 92% of genera. It suggests that butterflies originated around 100 million years ago in what is now the Americas and originally fed on Fabaceae.

The regulation of plasma glucose levels is effected by insulin. Here, the authors reveal atomic detail of how peptides distinct from insulin bind to and activate the insulin receptor, with implications for design of small-molecule insulin mimetics.

The performance of kesterite solar cells is limited by charge carrier losses, and the underlying mechanisms are unclear. By means of an integrated experimental and modelling framework, Li et al. identify the dominant loss mechanism in charge recombination at grain boundaries.

The spike protein of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has a higher affinity for ACE2 than Delta, and a marked change in its antigenicity increases Omicron’s evasion of therapeutic and vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibodies.

A pH-responsive, soft polymeric nanoparticle targets the neurokinin 1 receptor in acidified endosomes to inhibit signalling events leading to chronic pain.

Using two-photon calcium imaging in vivo and intracellular recordings in vitro, the authors find that visual stimulation only weakly modifies coactivation patterns of inhibitory neurons, whereas excitatory neuron correlations are largely stimulus dependent.

The amphiphilic nature of silk fibroin makes it a natural surfactant. Here it is shown to mediate interface interactions, enabling the wetting of hydrophobic surfaces with aqueous solutions and facilitating water-processed nanodevice fabrication without previous surface modification.

Paul Pharoah and colleagues report the results of a large genome-wide association study of ovarian cancer. They identify new susceptibility loci for different epithelial ovarian cancer histotypes and use integrated analyses of genes and regulatory features at each locus to predict candidate susceptibility genes, including OBFC1.

Andrew Morris, Mark McCarthy, Michael Boehnke and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for type 2 diabetes, including 26,488 cases and 83,964 controls from populations of European, east Asian, south Asian and Mexican and Mexican American ancestry. They identify seven loci newly associated with type 2 diabetes and examine the genetic architecture of disease across populations.

Stig Bojesen, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Alison Dunning and colleagues report common variants at the TERT-CLPTM1L locus associated with mean telomere length measured in whole blood. They also identify associations at this locus to breast or ovarian cancer susceptibility and report functional studies in breast and ovarian cancer tissue and cell lines.

Alison Dunning, Stacey Edwards and colleagues analyze 3,872 common variants across the ESR1 locus in 118,816 women. They find five independent variants within regulatory regions that associate with different breast cancer–related phenotypes and regulate the expression of ESR1, RMND1 and CCDC170.

Membrane-bound E3 ubiquitin ligases RNF43 and ZNRF3 are overexpressed in colorectal cancer, and can be repurposed using proteolysis-targeting antibodies (PROTABs) to selectively degrade cell-surface receptors in tumours.

Aneuploid cancer cell lines show increased dependence on the spindle assembly complex (SAC); initially they are resistant to SAC perturbations, but over time they accumulate chromosomal aberrations that impair their fitness.