Browse Articles

Preventive interventions often require strategies to identify high-risk individuals. Here, the authors illustrate the potential utility of medical history in predicting the onset risk for thousands of diseases across clinical specialties including COVID-19.

Identifying biomarkers associated with risk of severe COVID-19 disease could inform clinical management. Here, the authors identify a long noncoding RNA associated with severe disease using data from three European countries, and validate their finding in data from Canada.

Ferroptosis is a form of cell death that has been associated with different diseases. Here the authors describe an association of ferroptosis with COVID-19 pulmonary pathologies in both patient samples and hamster model and suggest that the dysregulation in iron and lipid metabolism could provide targets to reduce pathology.

Antifungal triazoles inhibit biosynthesis of ergosterol, a crucial component of the fungal plasma membrane. Here, Xie et al. show that Erg6, the enzyme that catalyzes a previous step in ergosterol biosynthesis, is essential for the viability of Aspergillus fumigatus, and its repression reduces the virulence of this fungal pathogen in an animal model of infection.

NCOMMS-23-44446C Vivid structural colours in butterflies are caused by photonic nanostructures scattering light, however insight into the development of such structures in vivo remains scarce. Here the authors show that actin plays a vital and direct templating role during structural colour formation in butterfly scales, providing ridge patterning mechanisms that are likely universal across lepidoptera.

Mars, an attractive candidate for potential presence of extraterrestrial life, contains oxychlorine species such as perchlorate at its surface. Here, the authors show perchlorate brines support folding and catalysis of functional RNAs, while inactivating representative protein enzymes, and that perchlorate enables new ribozyme functions, including ribozyme catalyzed chlorination of organic molecules.

The authors describe a new transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) method that integrates single cell eQTL summary statistics with GWAS data to identify cell type-specific risk genes, together with a cell type-aware drug repurposing pipeline.

Thermal fatigue frequently leads to failure in electronic solder joints. Here, the authors measure and quantitatively explain how microstructure affects thermal fatigue in a ball grid array package and propose optimum microstructures for thermal fatigue resistance.

The authors observe multiferroicity in a single-layer non van der Waals material, CuCrSe₂. The coexistence of room-temperature ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism up to 120 K is corroborated by a set of comprehensive experimental techniques.

The band topology of twisted 2D systems is a key factor behind their fascinating physics. Here, the authors demonstrate the role of polarization in driving the band topology evolution in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide homobilayers.

Methionine plays an essential role in various biological and cell regulatory processes, making its chemoproteomic profiling necessary to understand its function. Here, the authors present Copper(I)-Nitrene Platform (CuNiP) for robust and selective labelling of methionine to generate highly stable sulfonyl sulfimide conjugates under physiological conditions.

Trade-offs play a key role in controlling bacterial growth and shaping microbial phenotypes, which further drives the emergence of ecologically relevant phenomena including co-existence, population heterogeneity and oligotrophic/copiotrophic lifestyles.

Predicting the response to platinum-based chemotherapy in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) remains challenging. Here, the authors develop the histopathology image-based Pathologic Risk Classifier for HGSOC - PathoRiCH - to predict and stratify HGSOC patient response to therapy, especially when combined with molecular biomarkers.

Animal behavioural response to predation risk could depend on the type and number of cues. This global metaanalysis shows that providing multiple cues of predation risk reduces variance in the behavioural responses of birds.

Existing proposals of axion insulators are limited to spin-1/2 systems. Here the authors put forward a concept of a high spin axion insulator with several peculiar properties, such as the absence of gapless surface states and tunability of the axion field by an external magnetic field.

Type 2 diabetes is a global health threat demanding precise healthcare methods. Here, the authors show that their AI-driven risk assessment models, integrating genetic, imaging, and demographic data, achieve high accuracy in identifying high-risk groups, promising advancements in prevention strategies.

At the quantum limit, vacuum fluctuations determine the precision with which a signal can be measured. In this work the authors use a technique known as squeezing to greatly reduce the vacuum fluctuation noise present at microwave frequencies.

Asymmetric mechanical transducers are pivotal in various applications; however, conventional methods demand continuous energy and intricate fabrication. Here, the authors demonstrate a droplet-based mechanical transducer utilizing wettability-patterned surfaces, enabling precise control of droplet dynamics.

Excess mortality can be used as an indicator of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, the authors estimate excess mortality in 569 European regions in 25 countries for 2020 and 2021 and describe how impacts changed over time.

Despite initial treatment with surgical resection, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) frequently recurs. Here the authors report the design of an immunostimulatory autolysing Salmonella based-nanocapsule delivery system, promoting anti-tumor immune responses and preventing postoperative relapse in preclinical GBM models.