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Featured
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Cancer-vaccine trials give reasons for optimism
Therapeutic vaccines could provide a transformative shot in the arm for cancer treatment.
- Liam Drew
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Outline |
How does a cancer vaccine work?
After decades of slow progress, therapeutic vaccines that direct the immune system to attack tumours could soon become a fixture of cancer treatment.
- Liam Drew
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News |
Ambitious survey of human diversity yields millions of undiscovered genetic variants
Analysis of the ‘All of Us’ genomic data set begins to tackle inequities in genetics research.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
Medical AI falters when assessing patients it hasn’t seen
Physicians rely on algorithms for personalized medicine — but an analysis of schizophrenia trials shows that the tools fail to adapt to new data sets.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
Australian Indigenous genomes are highly diverse and unlike those anywhere else
In collecting genomic data for Indigenous Australians, scientists hope to expand knowledge of human genetic diversity and improve health for this group.
- Bianca Nogrady
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News |
Tiny robots made from human cells heal damaged tissue
The ‘anthrobots’ were able to repair a scratch in a layer of neurons in the lab.
- Matthew Hutson
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World View |
Only 0.5% of neuroscience studies look at women’s health. Here’s how to change that
A new initiative challenges the severe neglect of women’s brain health from puberty through to pregnancy and menopause.
- Emily G. Jacobs
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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
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Editorial |
The gene-therapy revolution risks stalling if we don’t talk about drug pricing
Regulation and new intellectual property laws are needed to reduce the cost of gene-editing treatments and fulfil their promise to improve human health.
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Clinical Briefing |
Precision medicine improves outcomes in metastatic breast cancer
For breast cancers that have spread, a randomized phase II clinical trial shows that using genomic analysis to target therapies can improve outcomes, but only in people with a genetic alteration that has previously been associated with antitumour activity in clinical trials.
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Spotlight |
Unleashing the power of big data to guide precision medicine in China
Personalized treatments and large population studies in China are helping to uncover patterns for a range of conditions, from autism to hereditary hearing loss.
- Yvaine Ye
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Article
| Open Access
Early prediction of preeclampsia in pregnancy with cell-free RNA
Analyses of circulating cell-free RNA (cfRNA) in blood samples from pregnant mothers identify changes in gene expression that could be used in liquid biopsy tests to identify and monitor individuals who are at risk of preeclampsia.
- Mira N. Moufarrej
- , Sevahn K. Vorperian
- & Stephen R. Quake
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News & Views |
A heritable, non-genetic road to cancer evolution
Treatment for leukaemia can fail for reasons that are not fully clear. Tracking the progress of individual cellular lineages for this type of cancer offers a way to investigate this phenomenon.
- Tamara Prieto
- & Dan A. Landau
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Outlook |
The race to deliver the hypoallergenic cat
Researchers are looking beyond allergen immunotherapy to help people whose pets make them sneeze.
- Amber Dance
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Outlook |
The peanut snack that triggered a fresh approach to allergy prevention
Early oral exposure to some allergenic foods is now seen as a key prevention strategy, but tackling inhalant allergies remains a challenge.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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Outlook |
Lung-cancer researchers and clinicians must pay more attention to women
It is not a disease just for old men any more.
- Narjust Duma
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Outlook |
How liquid biopsies allow smarter lung-cancer treatment
Technologies that count tumour cells in the blood promise to improve survival times.
- Benjamin Plackett
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Outlook |
New lung-cancer drugs extend survival times
The disease remains highly lethal but advances in immunotherapy and targeted drugs bring a flicker of hope.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Outlook |
Precision oncology
Cancer treatments that target the characteristics of an individual's tumour could have a wider impact.
- Richard Hodson
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Outlook |
Making radiation oncology more personal
The technology to fine-tune radiotherapy to an individual is here, but a lack of research is holding back its use.
- Amanda B. Keener
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Outlook |
Building better CAR-T therapies
The current technique requires a person’s own cells, but using the cells of healthy donors could allow more people to benefit.
- Anthony King
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Outlook |
Health-care inequality could deepen with precision oncology
Failure to address systemic bias in health-care provision and genetic databases will make existing disparities worse.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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Outlook |
The potential of real-world data
Janssen’s Craig Tendler talks to Nature about how data collected by the company after a drug is approved can be used to improve treatment.
- Julian Nowogrodzki
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Outlook |
The RNA and protein landscape that could bring precision medicine to more people
The limitations of genomic data have led to a deeper exploration of transcriptomic and proteomic data in cancer.
- Simon Makin
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Outlook |
Research round-up: Precision oncology
Targeted treatments for children, a fresh approach to protein analysis and other highlights from clinical trials and laboratory studies.
- Laura Vargas-Parada
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Outlook |
The future of tissue-agnostic drugs
Some people with cancer are already benefiting from drugs that target genetic features regardless of the tissue involved. But these early successes could be the exceptions.
- Julianna Photopoulos
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Nature Index |
Three researchers who are coming at cancer from all angles
The search for disease mechanisms and treatments is one of the biggest collaborative efforts in science. These researchers are significant contributors.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
- , Mark Zastrow
- & Gemma Conroy
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Nature Index |
Game-changing class of immunotherapy drugs lengthens melanoma survival rates
A transformative treatment is giving hope to some patients with metastatic skin cancers.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Outlook |
The pros and cons of screening
Increasingly sensitive tests have raised the risk overdiagnosis. Understanding a person’s chance of disease could reduce the harmful side effects of screening.
- Natasha Gilbert
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News Feature |
The next chapter for African genomics
Nigeria is poised to become a hub for genetics research, but a few stubborn challenges block the way.
- Amy Maxmen
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Editorial |
Expensive treatments for genetic disorders are arriving. But who should foot the bill?
The majority of people with sickle-cell disease are live in the world’s poorest communities and cannot afford the eye-watering costs of treatments.
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Technology Feature |
Got mutation? ‘Base editors’ fix genomes one nucleotide at a time
A new class of CRISPR-based tools efficiently corrects point mutations in cell lines, animal models and perhaps the clinic.
- Sandeep Ravindran
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Outlook |
Unlocking the potential of vaccines built on messenger RNA
The technology could help to boost immunity against cancer, influenza and much more.
- Elie Dolgin
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News |
Huge US government study to offer genetic counselling
A firm hired by the National Institutes of Health will work with participants in a research programme that plans to sequence one million genomes.
- Jonathan Lambert
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Editorial |
After the Integrative Human Microbiome Project, what’s next for the microbiome community?
The latest phase of this ambitious undertaking has provided important insights into inflammatory bowel disease, the onset of type 2 diabetes and preterm birth. But fully integrated multidisciplinary collaborations are now needed to convert knowledge of the microbiome into clinical applications.
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Nature Index |
Lili Milani banks Estonia’s genomic potential
At the Estonian Genome Centre, the geneticist and her team are investigating the impact of genetic variations on drug metabolism and adherence to prescriptions.
- Bec Crew
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Comment |
Statistical pitfalls of personalized medicine
Misleading terminology and arbitrary divisions stymie drug trials and can give false hope about the potential of tailoring drugs to individuals, warns Stephen Senn.
- Stephen Senn
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News |
Three people with spinal-cord injuries regain control of their leg muscles
But researchers caution that the technique is in its early stages and has been demonstrated only in people with residual motor function.
- Matthew Warren
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News Feature |
Happy with a 20% chance of sadness
Researchers are developing wristbands and apps to predict moods — but the technology has pitfalls as well as promise.
- Matt Kaplan
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News Feature |
Why Chinese medicine is heading for clinics around the world
For the first time, the World Health Organization will recognize traditional medicine in its influential global medical compendium.
- David Cyranoski
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News & Views |
Machine learning classifies cancer
Brain tumours are often classified by visual assessment of tumour cells, yet such diagnoses can vary depending on the observer. Machine-learning methods to spot molecular patterns could improve cancer diagnosis.
- Derek Wong
- & Stephen Yip
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News |
AI researchers embrace Bitcoin technology to share medical data
Blockchain could let people offer health records for research — without losing control over them.
- Amy Maxmen
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Outlook |
The battle to tame autoimmunity
A more tolerant immune system could alleviate, or even prevent, autoimmune disorders such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, as well as the rejection of transplanted organs.
- Katherine Bourzac
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Outlook |
Calling cancer’s bluff with neoantigen vaccines
State-of-the art tumour-genome sequencing and analysis is enabling researchers to provide uniquely personalized immunotherapy.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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Comment |
The future of DNA sequencing
Eric D. Green, Edward M. Rubin and Maynard V. Olson speculate on the next forty years of the applications, from policing to data storage.
- Eric D. Green
- , Edward M. Rubin
- & Maynard V. Olson
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News |
Chinese scientists fix genetic disorder in cloned human embryos
A method for precisely editing genes in human embryos hints at a cure for a blood disease.
- David Cyranoski
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Outlook |
Diagnosis: Frontiers in blood testing
Technological advances are creating an explosion in possibilities for the blood-based diagnosis of brain injuries, infections and cancers.
- Emily Sohn
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News |
Engineered cell therapy for cancer gets thumbs up from FDA advisers
Treatment shows promise in young people with leukaemia, but safety risks abound.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
Google spin-off deploys wearable electronics for huge health study
Large projects explore how to integrate data from smart devices with other health metrics.
- Amy Maxmen
Video: Cancer-busting vaccines