Featured
-
-
Nature Index |
Ukraine seeks to resume its role in cancer clinical trials
The country was making a key contribution before Russia’s invasion.
- Rachel Nuwer
-
Nature Index |
The gross imbalances of cancer research must be addressed
A zealous focus on discovery should not come at the expense of improving basic intervention.
- Richard Sullivan
-
Nature Index |
Four ways research aims to outwit cancer’s evasion tactics
From AI-enabled drug discovery to therapeutic vaccines, science is opening up fresh angles of attack against the disease.
- Michael Eisenstein
-
Nature Index |
Can cancer research shift its focus?
Misdirected funds could be undermining efforts to improve patient outcomes in regions that need it most.
- Bec Crew
-
-
News |
Medical-evidence giant Cochrane battles funding cuts and closures
The group that helped to revolutionize medical practice has lost key funding and is reorganizing — moves that concern some researchers.
- Helen Pearson
-
News Feature |
A DIY ‘bionic pancreas’ is changing diabetes care — what's next?
A community of people with type 1 diabetes got a self-built device approved. What can they offer that big companies can’t?
- Liam Drew
-
Nature Podcast |
Audio long read: Medicine is plagued by untrustworthy clinical trials. How many studies are faked or flawed?
Teams of scientists, physicians and data sleuths argue that in some fields unreliable or fabricated trials are widespread.
- Richard Van Noorden
- & Benjamin Thompson
-
News & Views |
Brain implants that enable speech pass performance milestones
Two brain–computer interfaces have been developed that bring unprecedented capabilities for translating brain signals into sentences — at speeds close to that of normal speech, and with vocabularies exceeding 1,000 words.
- Nick F. Ramsey
- & Nathan E. Crone
-
News |
Brain-reading devices allow paralysed people to talk using their thoughts
Two studies report considerable improvements in technologies designed to help people with facial paralysis to communicate.
- Miryam Naddaf
-
Review Article |
From target discovery to clinical drug development with human genetics
This Review provides a perspective on the development of non-cancer therapies based on human genetics studies and suggests measures that can be taken to streamline the pipeline from initial genetic discovery to approved therapy.
- Katerina Trajanoska
- , Claude Bhérer
- & Vincent Mooser
-
Career Q&A |
Leveraging my training in space medicine for technological innovation
Shawna Pandya explores entrepreneurial niches to bring virtual-reality medicine to space exploration.
- Lesley Evans Ogden
-
News |
WHO’s first traditional medicine summit splits opinions
The World Health Organization says the world-first summit will take an evidence-based approach — some are sceptical that much progress will be made.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
-
News & Views |
Immune treatment tackles chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Smoking causes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Some people with this disease have high levels of eosinophil cells, which is typical of the type 2 category of inflammation, and blocking such inflammation improves their lung health.
- John V. Fahy
- & Richard M. Locksley
-
News & Views |
Calligraphy tool offers clues to the origin of pancreatic cancer
Understanding the processes that lead to tumour formation in the pancreas might help in efforts to develop therapies. A new bioinformatics tool called Calligraphy analyses cell–cell signalling to provide fresh insights into how tumours arise.
- Filip Bednar
- & Marina Pasca di Magliano
-
Article |
Interferon-ε is a tumour suppressor and restricts ovarian cancer
Interferon-ε is a tumour suppressor expressed in the epithelial cell of origin of ovarian cancer, which it restricts by direct action on tumour cells and especially by activation of anti-tumour immunity.
- Zoe R. C. Marks
- , Nicole K. Campbell
- & Paul J. Hertzog
-
Research Highlight |
Breast-cancer screening gets a boost from AI
Supplementing human expertise with an automated program means catching more cancers.
-
News Explainer |
Anti-obesity drug also protects against heart disease — what happens next?
Clinical-trial data suggest that semaglutide, sold under the name Wegovy, slashes risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular incidents.
- Mariana Lenharo
-
Nature Podcast |
Racism in health: the roots of the US Black maternal mortality crisis
Reproductive health-care is fraught with racism. In this podcast, we explore how.
- Tulika Bose
-
News Feature |
How a controversial US drug policy could be harming cancer patients worldwide
The FDA’s accelerated-approval process was designed to help people access life-saving drugs. But gaps in communication could mean that people are undergoing treatments known to be ineffective.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
-
Arts Review |
Dr Semmelweis review: Mark Rylance play shows how hand washing saved hundreds of lives
Professional pride and personal tragedy stymied ideas about how infections spread in the nineteenth century, suggests a show about maverick Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis.
- Georgina Ferry
-
Clinical Briefing |
Blockade of netrin-1 is a promising strategy against endometrial cancer
The protein netrin-1 is involved in embryonic development and is upregulated in various cancers, including endometrial cancer. In mouse models and a first-in-human trial, blocking netrin-1 with a humanized monoclonal antibody, NP137, prevents a cellular change called the epithelial–mesenchymal transition and inhibits tumour growth.
-
Clinical Briefing |
Tight budgets lead to fewer language-diverse participants in academic than industry trials
Individuals with limited English proficiency were less likely to participate in, and sign consent documents in their primary language for, clinical trials led by academia than those led by industry. This retrospective analysis shows that inadequate funding for translation is a barrier to equitable trial enrolment and appropriate informed consent in academic trials.
-
News & Views |
Turning cooperative bacteria into probiotics for human health
Understanding how our gut bacteria combine forces to co-exist and produce beneficial molecules will be crucial for developing next-generation probiotics. Key progress towards achieving this goal has been made.
- Yolanda Sanz
-
News |
Alzheimer’s drug trials plagued by lack of racial diversity
Under-representation of people of colour sparks concerns over the safety and efficacy of drugs in diverse populations.
- Sara Reardon
-
Article
| Open AccessNetrin-1 blockade inhibits tumour growth and EMT features in endometrial cancer
We describe netrin-1 upregulation in a majority of human endometrial carcinomas and demonstrate that netrin-1 blockade, using the anti-netrin-1 antibody NP137, is effective both in a mouse model and in patients with endometrial carcinomas.
- Philippe A. Cassier
- , Raul Navaridas
- & Patrick Mehlen
-
Article |
Consent document translation expense hinders inclusive clinical trial enrolment
The availability of translated consent documents improves recruitment of patients with limited English proficiency to clinical trials, indicating a potentially modifiable barrier to the inclusion of patients with limited English proficiency.
- Maria A. Velez
- , Beth A. Glenn
- & Edward B. Garon
-
Article |
Africa-specific human genetic variation near CHD1L associates with HIV-1 load
Africa-specific genetic variation on chromosome 1 near CHD1L is associated with HIV replication in vivo.
- Paul J. McLaren
- , Immacolata Porreca
- & Jacques Fellay
-
Article
| Open AccesscGAS–STING drives ageing-related inflammation and neurodegeneration
The cGAS–STING signalling pathway is a critical driver of chronic inflammation and functional decline during ageing, and could be targeted to halt neurodegenerative processes during old age.
- Muhammet F. Gulen
- , Natasha Samson
- & Andrea Ablasser
-
Perspective |
CAR T therapy beyond cancer: the evolution of a living drug
The rationale behind chimaeric antigen receptor T cell therapy is reviewed, and current challenges in oncology, preliminary reports in noncancerous diseases and relevant emerging technologies are discussed.
- Daniel J. Baker
- , Zoltan Arany
- & Carl H. June
-
News |
As COVID-19 cases rose, so did diabetes — no one knows why
The spike in childhood type 1 diabetes opened new avenues for researchers to explore the cause of the disease.
- Clare Watson
-
News |
Dementia risk linked to blood-protein imbalance in middle age
Abnormal levels of certain proteins — many of which have roles outside the brain — could be an early hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease or similar conditions.
- Lilly Tozer
-
News |
Had COVID but no symptoms? You might have this genetic mutation
A common variant in an immune-system gene is linked with a much higher chance of dodging symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection.
- Max Kozlov
-
Article
| Open AccessAn atlas of healthy and injured cell states and niches in the human kidney
A high-resolution kidney cellular atlas of 51 main cell types, including rare and previously undescribed cell populations, represents a comprehensive benchmark of cellular states, neighbourhoods, outcome-associated signatures and publicly available interactive visualizations.
- Blue B. Lake
- , Rajasree Menon
- & Sanjay Jain
-
News Feature |
Medicine is plagued by untrustworthy clinical trials. How many studies are faked or flawed?
Investigations suggest that, in some fields, at least one-quarter of clinical trials might be problematic or even entirely made up, warn some researchers. They urge stronger scrutiny.
- Richard Van Noorden
-
News |
Do you take part in genetic studies? That might be in your genes
Findings could help researchers to better understand ‘participation bias’ in studies that link genomics with health, behaviour and other traits.
- Ewen Callaway
-
News Explainer |
Aspartame is a possible carcinogen: the science behind the decision
More research is needed to investigate a potential link between the common sweetener and cancer.
- Miryam Naddaf
-
Article
| Open AccessA framework for individualized splice-switching oligonucleotide therapy
Whole-genome sequencing analyses in a cohort of individuals with ataxia-telangiectasia are used to identify genetic variants that might be amenable to treatment with splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), and develop ASOs with therapeutic potential.
- Jinkuk Kim
- , Sijae Woo
- & Timothy W. Yu
-
News & Views |
Regulatory T cells aid stem-cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease
Inflammation caused by surgical trauma limits the survival of transplanted stem-cell-derived neurons in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease. Co-transplanting immune cells called regulatory T cells improves the therapy’s efficacy.
- Qizhi Tang
-
News & Views |
A sustainable way to control the parasitic disease schistosomiasis
A trial in Senegal has tested an innovative method for tackling a common human parasitic disease. The approach reduced infection numbers and also offered agricultural and economic benefits.
- Nathan C. Lo
- & Benjamin Arnold
-
News & Views |
The immunology that underlies picky eating
Humans can be picky eaters. One such behaviour is an aversion to food associated with food allergy. The immunological basis for this response has been uncovered in mice, revealing the role of neuroimmune connections.
- Marc E. Rothenberg
-
Article
| Open AccessLarge language models encode clinical knowledge
Med-PaLM, a state-of-the-art large language model for medicine, is introduced and evaluated across several medical question answering tasks, demonstrating the promise of these models in this domain.
- Karan Singhal
- , Shekoofeh Azizi
- & Vivek Natarajan
-
News |
Gene linked to long COVID found in analysis of thousands of patients
The first genome-wide search for long-COVID risk factors could pave the way for larger studies.
- Heidi Ledford
-
News & Views |
Viruses trick bystander cells into lowering their defences
The microenvironment of virus-infected cells and uninfected adjacent cells influences infection. Human cytomegalovirus dampens the immune response of neighbouring uninfected cells, but distant cells can mount an antiviral defence.
- Timothy M. White
- & Felicia D. Goodrum
-
Research Highlight |
Mini-antibodies given mighty powers can stave off influenza
Complexes formed from ‘nanobodies’ and an antiviral drug halt infection in its tracks.
-
Research Briefing |
Insights into the genetic architecture of multiple sclerosis severity
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system and a common cause of chronic neurological disability in young adults. A systematic search identifies genetic variants associated with differences in severity and confirms resilience of the central nervous system to be an important determinant of outcome.
-
News Explainer |
Long COVID: answers emerge on how many people get better
Studies are shedding light on rates of recovery as well as the prevention and treatment of the complex condition.
- Michael Marshall
-
Book Review |
Why phage viruses could be the key to treating deadly infections — if they can be harnessed safely
Interest is growing in how little-known viruses could be used to overcome drug-resistant bacteria.
- Heidi Ledford
-
News |
Beyond Ozempic: brand-new obesity drugs will be cheaper and more effective
Hormone mimics offer advantages even beyond those of the potent weight-loss jabs on the market now.
- Saima Sidik