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Phase-change materials are used in computer memories for their switching between amorphous and crystalline phases. However, even the crystalline state shows disorder, with extremely small electron mean free paths. The discovery that, depending on annealing temperature, this disorder leads to a metal–insulator transition in the crystalline phase provides a completely new look at the transport properties of these compounds.

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.

Current guidelines recommend stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastasis measuring less than 3 cm but there is significant variability in outcomes following treatment. This study shows that in treatment naïve brain metastasis less than 3 cm, intrinsic biological differences across multiple histologies may influence response to stereotactic radiosurgery.

Neoadjuvant treatment with nivolumab plus ipilimumab is well tolerated and demonstrates clinical efficacy in patients with early stage lung cancer.

In an interim analysis of a phase 1 trial of concurrent intrathecal and intravenous anti-PD1 delivery in patients with leptomeningeal disease and melanoma, treatment was feasible and well-tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities.

Florfenicol amine hijacks intrinsic resistance in Mycobacterium abscessus, highlighting that antimicrobial resistance mechanisms can be harnessed for antibiotic activation.

Inflammation is imaged in mice with a PET reporter of high-energy reactive oxygen and nitrogen species.

Some cancer patients first present with metastases where the location of the primary is unidentified; these are difficult to treat. In this study, using machine learning, the authors develop a method to determine the tissue of origin of a cancer based on whole sequencing data.

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

Structurally resolving glycans remains a challenge. Here, the authors analyse influenza H3 hemagglutinin glycan evolution to show that over five decades of glycan incorporation highly impact structural stability and epitope accessibility, particularly in the head domain, providing key insights for vaccine design.

Malignant cells with mesenchymal features display increased chromatin accessibility, particularly in the pericentromeric and centromeric regions, in turn resulting in delayed mitosis and catastrophic cell division.

Serological profiles from two observational cohort studies in The Gambia characterize surrogates of protection against Streptococcus pyogenes and reveal an antibody response against antigens that are currently in vaccine development.

Clinical benefit or intestinal toxicity resulting from combined immune checkpoint blockade in patients with melanoma associates with prevalent commensal bacteria and can be decoupled by IL-1R inhibition.

In vivo loss-of-function CRISPR screens were performed to identify genes influencing CAR T cell persistence and function in human multiple myeloma, highlighting CDKN1B as a promising target.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

Clinical evidence suggests that debulking surgery in patients with metastatic disease could enhance response to immune checkpoint therapy. Here the authors report the results of a clinical trial of immune checkpoint inhibitors plus debulking surgery in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Immune lymphocyte estimation from nucleotide sequencing (ImmuneLENS) infers B cell and T cell fractions from whole-genome sequencing data. Applied to the 100,000 Genomes Project datasets, circulating T cell fraction provides sex-dependent and prognostic insights in patients.

Cell migration in confined environments is initiated by a cytoplasmic pool of anillin and Ect2 that promotes RhoA/myosin II-mediated activation at the poles of migrating cells, in a process dependent on the extracellular environment stiffness.

Arthritis is the most common rheumatic immune-related adverse event (irAE) occurring in cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors. Here the authors study the immune landscape of blood and synovial fluid samples from patients with arthritis-irAE, reporting immunological differences and similarities with classic autoimmune arthritis.

Stereotactic needle biopsies are currently performed for diagnosis only in glioblastoma; this study highlights the depth of information available through multi-omics analysis.

ATRX inactivation occurs often in IDH-mutant gliomas and has been associated with immune dysfunction. Here, using preclinical models of glioma, the authors show that ATRX inactivation promotes innate immune signalling in response to double stranded RNA-based innate immune agonists, an effect that is masked in IDH-mutant tumours, presenting a therapeutic vulnerability.

UCHL5 is a deubiquitinating enzyme that cleaves Lys-48-linked polyubiquitin chains. Here, the authors discover through in-vivo CRISPR-Cas9 screens that Uchl5 is involved in immune evasion and modulation of extracellular matrix deposition in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Multiomic profiling of several cohorts of patients treated with immune checkpoint blockade highlights the presence and potential role of B cells and tertiary lymphoid structures in promoting therapy response.

H2B monoubiquitination is implicated in oncogenesis. Here, the authors show that UBR7 PHD finger is a H2BK120 monoubiquitin ligase that acts a tumour suppressor in breast cancer by suppressing gene expression for EMT, while promoting expression of CDH4 which restrain WNT/β-cat pathway.

Treatment with neoadjuvant BRAF/MEK-targeted therapy results in higher rates of major pathological response in female compared with male patients with melanoma, and pharmacological inhibition of androgen receptor signalling improved the responses of male and female mice to BRAF/MEK-targeted therapy.

Nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) is a rare cancer. Here, the authors develop a NLPHL specific model to identify 34 distinct cell states across 14 cell types that co-occur within 3 lymphocyte predominant ecotypes (LPEs) for 171 cases.

Patients with resectable clinical stage III or oligometastatic stage IV melanoma were given neoadjuvant relatlimab and nivolumab combination immunotherapy, which induced a high pathologic complete response rate, indicating the efficacy and safety of this regimen.

The response rate of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia patients to PD-1 checkpoint blockade is low and unpredictable. Authors here show by single cell RNA sequencing, T cell receptor profiling and genomic analysis that the phenotypes and repertoire of CD8 + T cells and loss of chromosome 7/7q are important determinants of response.