Nature Biotechnology, Published online: 26 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41587-026-03153-wBuilding a living cell from scratch requires overcoming a bottleneck that has remained unresolved despite decades of progress: orchestrating the spatiotemporal integration of core functional modules. To tackle this barrier, the SynCell Asia Initiative outlines a strategy for developing core functional modules followed by their systems-level integration through the establishment of a centralized, artificial intelli

Nature, Published online: 20 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10572-xA fungal long non-coding RNA from Magnaporthe oryzae translocates into rice cells to sequester a host microRNA that normally represses PKR1, a negative immunity regulator, thereby facilitating infection and revealing a widespread RNA-based pathogen–host interaction mechanism.

Oncogenesis, Published online: 08 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41389-026-00621-5Ubiquitin-specific protease 11 suppresses cuproptosis in colorectal cancer by regulating the ubiquitination and stability of ISCU

A mitochondrial transplantation approach rescues mitochondrial deficiency and prevents mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, Leigh syndrome, and Parkinson’s disease in cellular and mouse models.

Severe COVID-19 is associated with an increased subsequent risk of lung cancer. Viral pneumonia induces durable lung epigenetic imprinting that promotes tumor-supportive neutrophils and impairs T cell immunity, which is reversible with combined CXCR2 inhibition and PD-L1 blockade.

Nature, Published online: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10326-9The Human Development Multiomic Atlas catalogues single-cell accessibility and gene expression data from human fetal cells across 12 organs, enabling the inference of syntactic rules for motifs that govern cell-type-specific transcription factor binding and chromatin accessibility during human development.

Nature, Published online: 25 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10219-xfMRI data from individuals of a wide range of ages (from a few days to 100 years old) are used to map the key organizational axes of functional connectivity in the human cortex throughout the lifespan.

Human-specific transcriptomic and regulatory features are present in the cerebellum, with ZP2 playing a key role in synapse regulation. ZP2 expression is induced by pontine mossy fibers, leading to decreased synaptic proteins and neuronal activity, which provides insights into the evolutionary development of the human cerebellum.

Nature, Published online: 11 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10244-wA clinical trial testing whether monitoring ctDNA clearance during treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer could be used to inform decisions about an individual’s subsequent therapeutic programme shows promising results.

Nature Cancer, Published online: 05 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s43018-026-01135-0Dong and colleagues report that blockade of T cell-expressed cytotoxic and regulatory T cell molecule results in selective mitigation of immune-related toxicities without affecting antitumor efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors.