Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00470-zCancer vaccines must induce immune cells, called CD8+ T cells, that can recognize cancer cells over the long term. In pancreatic cancer, a common and deadly cancer, RNA vaccines that encode neoantigens mutant proteins found only in cancer cells induce substantial numbers of long-lived CD8+ T cells with preserved function, and their presence correlates with better clinical outcomes at a three-year follow-up.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08551-1The in vitro characterization of a key event in the early stages of meiosisthe induction of double-strand DNA breaks by the SPO11TOP6BL complexprovides insight into the catalytic mechanism and evolution of SPO11.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08601-2Reconstitution of recombinantly expressed SPO11TOP6BL complex recapitulates its DNA cleavage function and together with structural modelling and biochemical experiments, provides insights into the regulation and mechanism of SPO11 activity.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08497-4Reply to: Insufficient evidence for natural selection associated with the Black Death

Nature, Published online: 20 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00556-8A motor-neuron condition has been successfully treated in the womb. Plus, how has one month of Donald Trumps second presidency affected science?

Nature, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00555-9Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Nature, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00506-4Satellite imagery helps to identify two hotspots of deforestation in the Atlantic Forest along Brazils eastern coast.

Nature, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00467-8Through comprehensive genomic and immune analyses, mechanisms of lung cancer resistance after treatment with EGFR inhibition and vaccine therapy were investigated. This case report, together with data from the longitudinal lung cancer study TRACERx, highlight the importance of understanding when targeted variants are acquired during the cancers evolutionary history.

Nature, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00539-9Crows make a huge number of different sounds; Artificial Intelligence could help us understand what they mean.

Nature, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00530-4Identifying tumours using blood samples is possible, but researchers are still working out how to validate and deploy multi-cancer tests.

Nature, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00538-wCan mindfulness, meditation and other tools to boost well-being make a difference? Adam Levy investigates.

Nature, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00552-yObjects that could strike will be spotted more regularly as new asteroid-hunting telescopes come online.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08579-3Functional, tumour-promoting GABAergic neuron-to-glioma synapses in diffuse midline gliomas are identified.

Nature, Published online: 21 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00426-3More than five years on, studies suggest the animal is the most likely culprit, but other candidates haven't been ruled out.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08598-8A study describes the design of de novo ligand-binding transmembrane proteins, demonstrating their specific binding and activation of fluorogenic ligands.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08508-4In a phase 1 trial, patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma who were treated with surgery and bespoke neoantigen mRNA vaccines combined with anti-PD-L1 and chemotherapy exhibited marked long-lived persistence of neoantigen-specific CD8+ T cell clones, which correlated with prolonged recurrence-free survival at a 3.2-year follow-up.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08488-5D1- and D2-expressing striatal neurons encode separate parts of a learned reward distribution, paralleling modern approaches in machine learning.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08599-7Changing from a five-point scale to a two-point scale for rating workers reduces racial discrimination by making customers focus on whether the work was good or bad instead of their own personal biases.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00535-zWhich universities top the retraction chart? Plus, meet the scientists editing Wikipedia in their spare time.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08564-wThis Perspective considers the application to infectious disease modelling of AI systems that combine machine learning, computational statistics, information retrieval and data science.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08776-8Publisher Correction: Skin autonomous antibody production regulates hostmicrobiota interactions

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08602-1Deterministic generation of a continuous-variable eight-mode entanglement on an integrated optical chip is reported.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08492-9A new method hypotaxy enables wafer-scale, single-crystal transition metal dichalcogenides growth directly on crystalline, lattice-mismatched and amorphous substrates.

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08358-0Reply to: Atlantic oceanic droughts do not threaten Asian water tower

Nature, Published online: 19 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08585-zAs proof of principle, an analysis using a suite of human-aligned immunocompetent mouse models of hepatocellular carcinoma identifies a promising therapeutic candidate, cladribine, which acts in a highly effective subtype-specific manner in combination with standard-of-care therapy.

Nature, Published online: 20 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00540-2The Trump administration is exploiting a loophole to keep a funding freeze in place, leaving researchers in limbo.

Nature, Published online: 20 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00528-yOne-shot approach that uses machine learning to screen immune cells could help to detect conditions with overlapping symptoms.

Nature, Published online: 20 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00207-yTracy Wietecha says the experience swallowed up evenings and weekends, but taught her budgeting, networking and conflict-management skills.

Nature, Published online: 20 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08782-wStructural dynamics of human fatty acid synthase in the condensing cycle

Nature, Published online: 20 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08789-3Author Correction: The genetic origin of the Indo-Europeans