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Transcriptomic and clinical data analyses from multiple cohorts of patients with cancer receiving immunotherapy find that PD-1 blockade potentiates tumor-specific IgG1 plasma cell responses that complement cellular immunity and contribute to clinical benefit.

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).

This study associates p53 loss and brain metastasis in breast cancer. Mechanistically, p53-null tumors recruit astrocytes that provide substrates for enhanced fatty acid synthesis via upregulated SCD1 expression, representing a targetable axis in the disease.

Shaofeng Hu speaks about the objectives, expected outcomes and global impact of UNESCO’s International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development.

Engineering of local Anopheles gambiae under containment enables the generation of a transgenic strain equipped with non-autonomous gene drive capabilities that robustly inhibits genetically diverse Plasmodium falciparum isolates obtained from naturally infected children.

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.

Picks include a rogue gene-editor, a wunderkind physicist and a DNA detective who helped catch a serial killer.

Nature Reviews Psychology is interviewing people with lived experience of mental health challenges. We spoke with Rachel Grace Peiris about inclusivity in mental health research.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

Programmes to inspire the next generation of researchers can have a huge impact, as Rachel Lou explains in the recounting of her own experience.

Efficient adenine base editors (ABEs) often induce bystander and off-target effects. Here, Shang et al. developed a YA (Y = T or C) motif preferred ABE(ABE8e-YA) that minimizes these effects, enabling precise and effective pathogenic mutation correction, disease modeling, and in vivo gene therapy.

Accurate segmentation of ischemic stroke lesions from brain MRI is crucial for timely diagnosis and treatment planning. Here, the authors present DeepISLES, an AI ensemble for stroke MRI analysis that outperforms previous methods and matches expert radiologist performance in identifying stroke lesions.

Amal Kasry, Chief of Section for Basic Sciences, Research, Engineering and Innovation at UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector, narrates how the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology 2025 and UNESCO are working to shape a shared quantum future and close the global science divide.

Sergei Turitsyn, the director of the UK Multidisciplinary Centre for Neuromorphic Computing, introduces the UK’s first multidisciplinary centre dedicated to advancing brain-inspired, energy-efficient computing to address sustainability challenges.

The benefits and risks of nature to human health have been studied, however, robust empirical research on forest biodiversity and health outcomes is still lacking. Here the authors use a unique dataset from 164 European forest stands to explore the associations between forest types and well-being.

This year marks the mid-point for the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including Sustainable Development Goal 15 ‘Life on land’. We asked a range of researchers, working across biodiversity science, conservation, policy and implementation, to reflect on priorities for action on conserving terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems over the next seven years.

Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often show lower academic achievement, commonly linked to limited resources. Here, the authors show that reduced exploration–a behavior tuned for learning in childhood–helps to explain these learning gaps.

Combination immunotherapy approaches might be effective in inducing sustained control of HIV by slowing rebound and improving CD8⁺ T cell responses.

Bacteria of the phylum Bacteroidota move by gliding and export proteins using a type-9 secretion system. Here, Liu et al. show that these two processes use a shared mechanism in which outer membrane proteins are covalently attached by disulfide bonds to a moving track structure inside the cell.

In this Perspective, Williamson et al. argue for the integration of climate-aware competencies into mental health training to better prepare professionals for the challenges posed by the climate crisis.

Buruli ulcer is a necrotizing skin disease and a neglected tropical disease that is caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans infection. In this Primer, Yotsu et al. review the epidemiology, transmission and pathophysiology of the disease. They also discuss Buruli ulcer diagnosis and management, and highlight the disease burden on patients and future areas for research.

Research does not always ‘speak for itself’; high-fidelity uptake of science into policy requires active engagement between researchers and policymakers. This Perspective offers tangible recommendations to help bridge the research-to-policy gap.

Lipid particles loaded with RNA coding for tumour-unspecific antigens can enhance early responses of type-I interferons, mediating the success of immune checkpoint inhibitors as well as epitope spreading.

Breast cancer diagnosis and outcomes are affected by racial disparities. Here, the authors evaluate effects of genetic ancestry in African and South Asian breast cancer patients, finding disparities in diagnosis, mortality, and tumour grade compared to patients with European ancestry; they also find potential population-specific genomic targets.

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.

The GREGoR consortium provides foundational resources and substrates for the future of rare disease genomics.

Primary angle-closure glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness. Here, the authors identify rare deleterious variants in UBOX5 as risk factors and implicate BIP ubiquitination as a potential disease mechanism.

Mathematicians and their collaborators discuss the joys and challenges of working together on projects in science and the arts.

The decline of DNA and protein quality control contributes to organismal ageing. Here, Sonet al. report that nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, a RNA quality control mechanism, is enhanced in long-lived daf-2 mutant worms and contributes to their longevity by regulating expression of the yars-2/tyrosyl tRNA synthetase.

Current seasonal flu vaccines hardly protect against emerging H5N1 such as clade 2.3.4.4b circulating in cattle. Here, the authors show that a single intranasal immunization of DelNS1-H5N1 vaccine candidates provides effective protection and sustained immunity against highly pathogenic avian influenza A viruses.

Modeling shows that an expanded set of federal and state policies beyond current policies in the US could achieve economy-wide emissions reductions of 56-67% below 2005 levels by 2035.

Machine-learning algorithms trained on 25,000 geolocated soil samples are used to create high-resolution global maps of mycorrhizal fungi, revealing that less than 10% of their biodiversity hotspots are in protected areas.

Improvements in European freshwater biodiversity occurred mainly before 2010 but have since plateaued, and communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery.

Here we describe an open collaborative effort termed the ‘Ruminant T2T Consortium’. It aims to generate complete diploid assemblies for many species of ruminants to examine chromosomal evolution in the context of natural selection and domestication.

Around the world, more than a billion children are regularly exposed to violence or neglect. Flor et al. systematically review evidence that links childhood physical violence, psychological violence and neglect to increased risks for 14 health outcomes.

Interventions to increase resilience to misinformation work but decay over time. Here, the authors show that memory—which can be strengthened—is a key predictor for the longevity of intervention effects, more so than motivation.

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.

Several human coronaviruses (CoV) have been proposed to emerge from bats but evidence of direct bat-to-human transmission is slim. In this work, the authors isolate a MERS-related CoV strain directly from bats and show that it infects target cells in vitro and engineered mice through the human DDP4 receptor.

Comprehensive integration of gene expression with epigenetic features is needed to understand the transition of kidney cells from health to injury. Here, the authors integrate dual single nucleus RNA expression and chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, and histone modifications to decipher the chromatin landscape of the kidney in reference and adaptive injury cell states, identifying a transcription factor network of ELF3, KLF6, and KLF10 which regulates adaptive repair and maladaptive failed repair.

COVID-19 can be associated with neurological complications. Here the authors show that markers of brain injury, but not immune markers, are elevated in the blood of patients with COVID-19 both early and months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, particularly in those with brain dysfunction or neurological diagnoses.

This megastudy testing different interventions finds that honesty oaths are effective and can mitigate tax evasion in an incentivized game.

 A transcriptomic cell-type atlas of the whole adult mouse brain with ~5,300 clusters built from single-cell and spatial transcriptomic datasets with more than eight million cells reveals remarkable cell type diversity across the brain and unique cell type characteristics of different brain regions.