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ATF6α activation in human and preclinical models of hepatocellular carcinoma is significantly associated with an aggressive tumour phenotype characterized by reduced survival, glycolytic reprogramming and local immunosuppression.

Platelets are known to have functions beyond those in thrombosis and haemostasis. Here the authors use multi-colour flow cytometry and proteomics to analyse platelet phenotypes in psoriatic disease and proteins that are potentially involved in the interaction of platelets with immune cells.

Here the authors conduct a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of telomere length, used diverse approaches to identify genes underlying association signals, and experimentally validated POP5 and KBTBD6 as regulators of telomere length in human cells.

Observing superposition states of mesoscopic quantum systems is an ongoing challenge. Gerlichet al. report quantum interference of large tailor-made organic compounds, demonstrating delocalization and the quantum wave nature of entire molecules composed of up to 430 atoms.

This work experimentally demonstrates that light-field spatial modulation can be harnessed to substantially increase the forces used to optically levitate nanoparticles in vacuum.

Reduced glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is a hallmark of chronic kidney disease. Here, Pattaro et al. conduct a meta-analysis to discover several new loci associated with variation in eGFR and find that genes associated with eGFR loci often encode proteins potentially related to kidney development.

Spin dynamics in magnetic materials can be driven by ultrafast light pulses, resulting in transient magnetization changes on femtosecond timescales. Rudolphet al. find that in magnetic trilayers the magnetization of one layer can be enhanced by superdiffusive spin currents from adjacent layers.

A hybrid exciton is observed at the interface between an organic semiconductor and a transition metal dichalcogenide. This suggests engineering the exciton wavefunction can lead to efficient charge and energy transfer processes in such structures.

Imaging through complex media is challenging because scattering results in image blurring. By introducing a fingerprint operator and applying it to the measured reflection matrix, information on a target within a complex medium becomes accessible.

Identifying reaction pathways is a major challenge in chemistry, and proves particularly difficult for surface reactions. Here the authors show that imaging the molecular orbitals with photoemission tomography provides insight into the structure of surface intermediates allowing their identification.

Room-temperature spin transport is achieved in the d-electron-based two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ interface.

An efficient pipeline for mapping antibody epitopes is presented. Combining bacterial surface display of peptide libraries, flow cytometric sorting, and pyrosequencing, the approach is amenable to a high-throughput format and should find future application in whole-proteome studies.

Understanding the origin of spin filtering in metal/organic interfaces is important for the control of spin injection in organic semiconductors. A time-resolved photoemission experiment shows that spin filtering can be explained by the trapping of electrons in spin-dependent potentials at the interface.

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.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

The products and dynamics in mutual neutralisation of \({{{{\rm{O}}}}_{2}}^{+}\) with O⁻ occurring in atmospheric sprites are unknown. Here, the authors reveal a dissociative two-step mechanism via intermediate Rydberg states and a dependence on the \({{{{\rm{O}}}}_{2}}^{+}\) vibrational state.

Using data from a single time point, passenger-approximated clonal expansion rate (PACER) estimates the fitness of common driver mutations that lead to clonal haematopoiesis and identifies TCL1A activation as a mediator of clonal expansion.

A genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI) detects 97 BMI-associated loci, of which 56 were novel, and many loci have effects on other metabolic phenotypes; pathway analyses implicate the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and new pathways such as those related to synaptic function, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.

The authors present organic photovoltaic mini-modules comprising 5024 individual sub-cells on an area of 3.8 × 3.9 cm² with voltages up to more than 5000 V and efficiencies up to 19%, to power a suction cup based on dielectric elastomer actuators.

In the Kondo effect, a bath of conduction electrons screens a localized magnetic moment. Here, the authors demonstrate Kondo screening of a normally isolated 4f-like moment in a magnetic molecule on a Cu(001) surface that is modulated by strong ligand-mediated coupling.

Synaptic plasticity ensures functionality during perturbations and enables memory formation. Here, the authors describe homeostatic functional and nano-modular active zone modifications for immediate and long-lasting enhancement of neurotransmitter release, and identify Unc13 as a presynaptic molecular target for homeostatic potentiation and learning.

Müller-Tidow and colleagues perform a randomized clinical trial and show that administration of convalescent plasma improves COVID-19 outcome in patients with cancer who are unable to generate an adequate immune response.

Contrary to previous findings, this study finds that ablation of microglia, the resident macrophages of the brain, does not affect amyloid plaque or neuritic pathology in two mouse models of Alzheimer's disease.

A large genome-wide association study of more than 5 million individuals reveals that 12,111 single-nucleotide polymorphisms account for nearly all the heritability of height attributable to common genetic variants.

The Connectome 2.0 MRI scanner reconstructs the fine fibres in the human brain and determines cellular and axonal size at an ultra-high resolution.

Optical intersite spin transfer (OISTR), which is driven by an ultrafast optical excitation, was recently found in several materials, but there is some disagreement over how this phenomenon can be observed experimentally. Here, the authors investigate the mechanism of intersite spin transfer in a set of FeNi alloys and make a comparison with pure Ni, demonstrating and discussing the challenges of observing OISTR using magneto-optical measurements.

An international team of researchers finds high potential for improving climate projections by a more comprehensive treatment of largely ignored Arctic vegetation types, underscoring the importance of Arctic energy exchange measuring stations.

The feasibility of Floquet engineering in graphene has been called into question due to its fast decoherence processes. Measurements of graphene’s photoemission spectrum now support the generation of Floquet states in this material.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

The combination of dyspnea, exercise limitation and muscle weakness is known as cancer fatigue syndrome. Dyspnea is an important symptom in patients with cancer and also in patients with chronic heart failure. The authors of this Viewpoint hypothesize that cancer fatigue syndrome represents clinically non-overt heart failure, and postulate that cardiac-like symptoms in cancer develop in a similar manner to symptoms of chronic heart failure.

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is widely used to study the electronic structure of a wide range of correlated materials. Time-resolved ARPES allows the study of the response of such electronic features on ultrafast timescales; this paper now adds an exciting new dimension by using high photon energies that allow the study of ultrafast dynamics at high momenta, where often the most interesting fundamental phenomena occur. The technique is applied to the charge density wave material 1T-TiSe₂ and it is shown with stroboscopic imaging of the electronic band structure at high momentum that atomic-scale periodic long-range order collapses on a surprisingly short timescale of 20 femtoseconds.

The mutual neutralization of hydronium and hydroxide ions is a reaction of fundamental interest that has recently been implicated in the generation of high concentrations of hydroxyl radicals at the surface of water microdroplets. Using three-dimensional imaging of the coincident neutral products of the reaction of D₃O⁺ and OD⁻, two competing pathways for OH radical formation have now been experimentally observed.

The poor correlation between brain Aβ deposition and clinical symptoms in Alzheimer´s disease remains puzzling. Here, the authors show a temporal dissociation of Aβ deposition and neurodegeneration.

Louise Wain, Ian Hall, Martin Tobin and colleagues report genome-wide association analyses of lung function, identifying 43 new signals associated with one or more lung function traits. A genetic risk score derived from these results was significantly associated with risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in independent populations.

Data from over 700,000 individuals reveal the identity of 83 sequence variants that affect human height, implicating new candidate genes and pathways as being involved in growth.

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.

Patricia Munroe, Christopher Newton-Cheh, Andrew Morris and colleagues perform association studies in over 340,000 individuals of European ancestry and identify 66 loci, of which 17 are novel, involved in blood pressure regulation. The risk SNPs are enriched for cis-regulatory elements, particularly in vascular endothelial cells.

Dark-field momentum microscopy makes it possible to spatio-temporally and spatio-spectrally resolve the dark-exciton dynamics in a twisted transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructure.

Multi-ancestry meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for self-reported physical activity during leisure time, leisure screen time, sedentary commuting and sedentary behavior at work identify 99 loci associated with at least one of these traits.

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.

Zender, Dauch and colleagues demonstrate that pharmacologically induced lipotoxicity by activating LXRα and Raf-1 inhibition provides a metabolic therapeutic strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF) occurs in many viruses including SARS-CoV-2 to allow the translation of multiple proteins from a single transcript. Here, the authors identify the human short isoform of the zinc-finger antiviral protein (ZAP-S) as a direct regulator of PRF in SARS-CoV-2 that severely impairs SARS-CoV-2 frameshifting in cells and directly interacts with the SARS-CoV-2 RNA; interfering with the folding of the frameshift RNA element.

Many enzymes form homo-oligomers, but it is often not clear why. This study follows the evolution self-assembly in citrate synthases across their phylogeny and finds it to be variable and not obviously related to enzyme function.

Diuretics are used for symptomatic treatment of chronic heart failure; however, no randomized trials have yet assessed the long-term effects of these agents on morbidity and mortality. In this article, Vaz Pérez and colleagues question the assumption that long-term diuretic therapy is beneficial and opine that the currently available data do not support the routine use of diuretics as a cornerstone of long-term medical treatment for patients with chronic heart failure.

Sexual reproduction introduces genetic conflict between family members, but direct empirical evidence is lacking. Here, the authors show, in an insect with maternal care, that genetic trade-offs that differ in shape across offspring stages affect the scope for parent–offspring conflict.