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Here, the authors present and characterise a collection of human gut bacteria including novel taxa associated with health conditions and a large diversity of plasmids. All isolates, their genomes and metadata are publicly available, facilitating research by others (www.hibc.rwth-aachen.de).

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.

Human manganese superoxide dismutase is an oxidoreductase that converts superoxide to molecular oxygen and hydrogen peroxide with proton-coupled electron transfers (PCETs), and has evolved to be highly product inhibited to limit the formation of hydrogen peroxide. Here, the authors use neutron diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy of the product-bound, trivalent, and divalent states of the enzyme to identify the product-inhibited complex and propose a PCET mechanism.

The activity of human manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) is determined by the state of a key catalytic residue, Tyr34, which was reported to undergo cyclic deprotonation and protonation events to promote the electron transfers of MnSOD. Here, the authors performed neutron diffraction, X-ray spectroscopy, and quantum chemistry calculations of Tyr34Phe MnSOD in oxidized, reduced and product inhibited enzymatic states, to elucidate the role of Tyr34 in MnSOD catalysis.

Assessing the degree to which medical large language models reliably convey existing, trustworthy knowledge is crucial. This study introduces SourceCheckup, an automated framework revealing that large language models frequently cite medical references that do not fully support, or even contradict, their responses, showing significant gaps in reliability for clinical use.

PAPD5 is responsible for adenylation of microRNAs. Here, the authors show that elevated level of PAPD5 enhances the adenylation and reduced expression of miR-7-5p. As a result, expression of TAB2, a target of miR-7-5p, is induced triggering neuronal apoptosis in Huntington’s disease.

Nanoscale beams are one platform for exploring quantum-mechanical phenomena in ever-larger systems. The collective motion of a macroscopic ensemble of ultracold atoms confined in an optical cavity is established as an alternative approach.

Small cell lung cancer presents high and multi-site metastatic potential. Here, the authors discover that FOXA2, regulated by ASCL1, promotes multi-site metastasis in small cell lung cancer by inducing a fetal neuroendocrine gene expression program.

Polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease derived from individuals of European ancestry can show improved performance in multiancestry settings after incorporating genome-wide association summary statistics from diverse populations.

A genome-wide study by the Long COVID Host Genetics Initiative identifies an association between the FOXP4 locus and long COVID, implicating altered lung function in its pathophysiology.

Excitation of hydrogen-rich molecules often causes hydrogen migration, but characterisation of the individual sites is challenging. Here, the authors show that measurements of several isotopologues of ethanol can identify each hydrogen site’s contribution to the final products.

DNA repair by break-induced replication begins with the Rad51-mediated invasion of single-stranded DNA into a double-stranded donor template; this study shows that successful recombination between highly mismatched substrates can occur when only five consecutive bases can be paired and that mismatch correction is most efficient near the invading end of the recipient strand.

Machine learning predicts Cu-Al electrocatalysts provide better efficiency and productivity than copper when using intermittent renewable electricity to convert carbon dioxide to useful chemicals and fuels.

New catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in basic solution are important for energy storage applications. Here, the authors report the high activity and stability of double perovskites in this role, and their performance is attributed to the proximity of the oxygenp-band to the Fermi level.

Molecular strategies are developed to safeguard the use of CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive technology.

A new algorithm combined with ultrasound imaging allows for the quantification of kidney quality before transplantation, potentially helping to alleviate global demand for kidney transplantation.

Here, the authors perform large trans-ancestry fine-mapping analyses identifying large numbers of association signals and putative target genes for colorectal cancer risk, advancing our understanding of the genetic and biological basis of this cancer.

A device architecture based on indium arsenide–aluminium heterostructures with a gate-defined superconducting nanowire allows single-shot interferometric measurement of fermion parity and demonstrates an assignment error probability of 1%.

Observations are reported of HClO₃ and HClO₄ in the atmosphere and their widespread occurrence over the pan-Arctic during spring, providing further insights into atmospheric chlorine cycling in the polar environment.

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.

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).

Magnetic-field induced phase transitions in spin-ice materials have been investigated with various experimental techniques. Here, the authors demonstrate the capability of capacitive torque magnetometry in probing magnetic interaction energies and establishing magnetic phase boundaries in Ho₂Ti₂O₇.

The cost and complexity of whole genome sequencing limits its use in identifying and validating sequences used for genetic engineering and synthetic biology. Here the authors present Prymetime, an integrated workflow to sequence engineered strains and identify engineering in metagenomes.

Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine-mapping, 298 loci and 36 credible genes are identified in the aetiology of bipolar disorder.

Atomically thin monolayers with high photoluminescence quantum yield are promising for optoelectronic and lighting applications. Here, the authors fabricate a transient-mode electroluminescent device to bypass the requirement of ohmic contacts for electrons and holes, and observe millimetre-scale light emission from a transparent 2D display.

Oblique line scan microscopy achieves nanoscale spatial and sub-millisecond temporal resolution across a large field of view, enabling improved and robust single-molecule biophysical measurements and single-molecule tracking in both cells and solution.

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.

The transmission spectrum of the exoplanet WASP-39b is obtained using observations from the Single-Object Slitless Spectroscopy mode of the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph instrument aboard the JWST.

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.

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

At present, there are no known examples of binary icosahedral quasicrystals featuring localized magnetic moments. Now, a family of magnetic binary icosahedral quasicrystals is discovered, offering the possibility of studying the behaviour of coupled magnetic interactions in the presence of aperiodic structural order.

Heritable traits can be affected by additive, dominance, and epistatic effects at genetic loci. Here, the authors use chromosomally-encoded barcodes to perform linkage mapping in diploid cross progeny in budding yeast, finding that epistasis in diploids frequently modifies both additivity and dominance.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

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.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.