Oncogene, Published online: 10 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41388-026-03731-x

Wnt signaling and the tumor microenvironment: implications for cancer progression and therapeutics

npj Digital Medicine, Published online: 10 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41746-026-02583-9

Predicting bilingual aphasia treatment outcomes using digital twins: a double-blind randomized controlled trial

Background: Deaf individuals often face communication challenges when interacting with those who can hear. Within health care settings, these challenges may pose risks to their safety, potentially resulting in misdiagnoses, treatment errors, and decreased quality of care. Objective: This study aims to systematically review the evidence on communication systems reported in the literature that use human-computer interaction techniques to support communication between deaf individuals who use sign language and hearing health professionals in health care settings. The review focuses on systems that are either currently in use or proposed for use in health care and that have been tested using human participants or videos of human users. Methods: A comprehensive search was performed via MEDLINE, Web of Science, ACM, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and Google Scholar in March 2025. The inclusion criteria comprised studies developing a sign language recognition system within a health care context and testing with human users. Eligible studies underwent screening by 2 independent investigators (LRV and LMMSR or LFRdO and GTdSS), with any disagreements resolved by a senior researcher (MSM). Results: The search retrieved 21,778 publications, and screening of reference lists identified 2 additional studies, resulting in a total of 23 studies meeting the eligibility criteria. Most systems (15/23, 65.2%) were image-based, while 34.8% (8/23) relied on sensors (glove-based or depth-sensing). Applications varied across health care settings, including general hospital care (10/23, 43.5%), emergencies (8/23, 34.8%), and primary care (4/23, 17.4%). All systems were in the development and testing stage, with no data on security and psychological impacts. Accuracy ranged from 25% to 100% for image-based and 72% to 99.7% for sensor-based systems. Bidirectionality and facial expression recognition, crucial for effective communication, were largely overlooked. Conclusions: Image-based systems were more common than sensor-based ones, though both showed wide variability in accuracy in recognizing and interpreting signs. Most systems failed to address critical aspects such as bidirectional communication and the recognition of facial expressions, essential for effective communication. None fully addresses the requirements for integration into health care settings. These findings highlight the need for further research on implementation, usability, and impact on the quality of care for deaf patients. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/55427

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Nature, Published online: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10457-z

Author Correction: Foundation model of neural activity predicts response to new stimulus types

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Nature, Published online: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10349-2

Across 17 forest plots (2.7 million trees, 5,400 species), competition dominated overall, but facilitation was relatively stronger near the equator and declined towards higher latitudes, partly linked to temperature, legumes, mycorrhizal associations and canopy nursing effect.

Nature, Published online: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10316-x

A single-cell multiomic atlas of the human maternal–fetal interface across pregnancy reveals cell types, states and spatial niches, developmental tissue architectures and transcriptional programmes, and identifies cell types with roles in pre-eclampsia, spontaneous preterm birth and miscarriage.

Nature, Published online: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10326-9

The 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: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10260-w

Daily satellite data reveal that Earth’s artificial lights at night are highly volatile, with frequent brightening and dimming between 2014 and 2022.

Nature, Published online: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10329-6

Synthetic super-enhancers enable specific delivery of anticancer payloads, achieving tumour elimination after a single dose in a mouse model of aggressive glioblastoma.

Nature, Published online: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-01107-5

Study of almost 28,000 people also identifies genetic variants that raise the risk of gastrointestinal side effects from GLP-1 medications.