Search

Jumping down rabbit holes for a 3.5-Ångstrom peek at molecules.

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.

A two-component system, DbfRS, regulates biofilm formation in Vibrio cholerae. Here, Nguyen et al. identify a small periplasmic protein that controls the activity of the system’s receptor, and show that DbfRS responds to membrane stress and regulates additional processes such as metabolism and cell envelope biosynthesis.

This study reveals that anti-NS1 IgA antibodies in plasma, induced by prior Zika virus infection, activate neutrophils, underlying severe dengue disease upon a subsequent DENV2 infection, uncovering a pathogenic mechanism relevant for vaccines and therapeutics.

Deep learning enables large-scale protein structure prediction, yet linking structure to function remains a challenge. Here, the authors use topology to reveal fundamental organising features of the protein universe, providing insights into domain architecture, binding sites, evolution, and disease.

Climate change can alter when and how animals grow, breed, and migrate, but it is unclear whether this allows populations to persist. This global study shows that shifts in seasonal timing are key to helping vertebrate species maintain population growth under global warming.

The impact of ACKR3 constitutive activity is unknown. Here, the authors suppress basal ACKR3 activity using inverse agonistic nanobodies to stabilize an inactive conformation and revealing a role for ACKR3 in basal cell motility.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

Data provided by Amazonian peoples are used to estimate the value of wild animals as a source of food, including its spatial distribution and nutritional value, providing information that will be key for improved management of forest ecosystems in the region.

In this work, researchers address a key question for maternal group B Streptococcus (GBS) vaccine assessment: What newborn antibody concentrations protect against invasive infant GBS disease? They present serologic thresholds by age at onset and serotype based on a large U.S. case-control study.

While several advancements have been made in the use of on-demand solid-state quantum emitters for quantum communication, using them to realise a quantum relay among remote parties had not been realised so far. Here, the authors fill this gap by realising all-photonic quantum state teleportation with photons generated by distinct remote quantum dots.

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.

Baysor enables cell segmentation based on transcripts detected by multiplexed FISH or in situ sequencing.

Pilcher et al. present a single-cell transcriptomics-based immune atlas of participants with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, reporting on the association of cell types, gene expression and intercellular interactions with disease progression phenotypes.

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.

The typical platforms to generate multimode lasers rely on mode locking, achieved via a saturable absorber and fast dynamics of the gain. The authors demonstrate that mode locking in semiconductor photonic bandgap lasers is possible in the absence of a fast nonlinear mechanism, proposing an effective way of generating waveforms à la carte.

The COBRA toolbox provides quality-controlled reconstruction, modeling, topological analysis, and network visualization, as well as network integration of chemoinformatic, metabolomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and thermochemical data.

Femtosecond photoexcitation drives a coherent twist–untwist motion of the moiré superlattice in 2° and 57° twisted WSe₂/MoSe₂ heterobilayers.

Genome-wide analyses identify 30 independent loci associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder, highlighting genetic overlap with other psychiatric disorders and implicating putative effector genes and cell types contributing to its etiology.

IL-22 is considered indispensable for host defence against Citrobacter rodentium. This study reveals that dehydration is the proximate cause of mice mortality and maintaining systemic hydration allows recovery through IL-22-independent pathways.

Together with an accompanying paper presenting a transcriptomic atlas of the mouse lemur, interrogation of the atlas provides a rich body of data to support the use of the organism as a model for primate biology and health.

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).

A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

A new version of nanorate DNA sequencing, with an error rate lower than five errors per billion base pairs and compatible with whole-exome and targeted capture, enables epidemiological-scale studies of somatic mutation and selection and the generation of high-resolution selection maps across coding and non-coding sites for many genes.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

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.

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.

Giotto Suite provides a comprehensive, flexible and scalable platform for technology-agnostic spatial omics analysis using R.

Determining dynamics of Fe–CO bond breaking in heme proteins is essential to understand the interplay between protein function and dynamics. Here, the authors report the first experimental proof for the two-step CO photodissociation, involving the previously unknown slower ~15 ps process.

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.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

Frömer et al. show using EEG that stimulus-locked activity can mimic an evidence accumulation process when aligned to the response.

Here, the authors present evidence that the gut microbiome alone, without changes in the host genome, can shape how animals respond to selection, identifying a bacterium and its metabolite that independently reduce mouse locomotion.

Here they show that the essential sperm calcium channel CatSper is temperature-gated and reversibly inhibited by spermine. This discovery uncovers a key regulatory mechanism of sperm function and highlights the critical role of testicular cooling in male fertility.

Geospatial estimates of the prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age across 82 low-income and middle-income countries reveals considerable heterogeneity and inequality at national and subnational levels, with few countries on track to meet the WHO Global Nutrition Targets by 2030.

The GLASS Consortium studies the evolutionary trajectories of 222 patients with a diffuse glioma to aid in our understanding of tumour progression and treatment failure

Phase-forming conversion chemistry, like that observed in Li–S and Li–O₂ batteries, shows great promise, but these systems suffer some drawbacks, such as practically low cathode areal capacities and electrolyte decomposition. Now, high-energy conversion battery chemistry—based on nitrate/nitrite redox where one of the products is soluble—has been enabled by using nanoparticulate Ni/NiO electrocatalysts.

This Review provides a comprehensive overview of epidemiology and molecular determinants of relapsed rhabdoid and other non-nephroblastoma childhood and adolescent kidney tumours, which are usually rare and challenging to cure. The most updated results in this field are discussed to highlight how understanding tumour biology can be used to inform therapeutic strategies in these patient populations.

There is a need for accurate models to predict disease dynamics by considering the interactions between environment and vector traits. This study finds that incorporating delayed phenotypic plasticity in mosquito traits significantly enhances the accuracy of dengue risk predictions.

In an updated report on 70 laboratory-confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza A H5N1 cases in the USA between March 2024 and May 2025, the absence of human-to-human transmission to date was confirmed, with no known mutations of resistance to neuroaminidase inhibitors.

Independent but complementary studies from Vakoc and Stegmaier identify and characterize a role for ETV6 in counteracting the transcriptional activity of EWS–FLI during Ewing sarcoma development, which may be targeted for therapeutic benefits.

Measuring selection and dominance in fitness of the insecticide-resistant Ace alleles in Drosophila melanogaster, the authors show evidence for beneficial reversal of dominance, a mechanism that can stabilize large-effect polymorphisms in nature.

Together with a companion paper, the generation of a transcriptomic atlas for the mouse lemur and analyses of example cell types establish this animal as a molecularly tractable primate model organism.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

Here, the authors perform a global analysis of over 3000 infant gut samples revealing a universal pattern of microbial changes over the first 1.5 years, with declines in Bifidobacterium and increases in Faecalibacterium, providing a standard for early gut development.