Liu et al. develop Oncoformer, a multimodal transformer that reads routine laboratory tests and chest X-rays already collected in everyday care. Across more than 3.6 million individuals, it detects cancer, infers tumor stage, and stratifies treatment response and recurrence risk, pointing toward risk-adapted cancer care built on data already in hand.

Nature Biotechnology, Published online: 26 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41587-026-03153-w

Building 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 intelligence (AI)-driven biofoundry.

Nature, Published online: 20 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10572-x

A 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.

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

Nature Cancer, Published online: 05 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s43018-026-01135-0

Dong 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.