30 September 2026

In a phase 3 trial of 284 Chinese adults with early type 2 diabetes, the oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist safiglipron, taken without fasting rules, lowered HbA1c by 1.2-1.45 percentage points more than placebo at 32 weeks.

Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04651-9

A first-in-human trial of RO7589831, a covalent inhibitor of the Werner helicase, in 88 patients with microsatellite-unstable tumours gave 74% disease control and 11% partial responses, with mostly grade 1-2 side effects. WRN loss is lethal specifically to cells with mismatch repair defects.

Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04657-3

Expression of CCNB1IP1 in the brain rose step by step across primate evolution, in line with cortex size. Adding the gene to mice, which have smooth brains, produced cortical folding; it works by degrading the transcription factor E2F1 and expanding basal progenitors.

Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41588-026-02773-x

Clonal blood-cell expansions with DNA-damage-response mutations after PARP inhibitor treatment are mostly explained by earlier carboplatin exposure. Patients with inherited homologous recombination defects showed less expansion, which may change who is at risk of therapy-related leukaemia.

Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41588-026-02752-2

Bayesian optimisation over six rounds in one month found dry formulations of Moderna-type and Pfizer-BioNTech-type mRNA vaccines that kept full activity after more than two months at 37 °C, and still induced immune responses in rodents and monkeys.

Nature Biotechnology · doi:10.1038/s41587-026-03331-w

Lipid nanoparticle potency drops as mRNA gets longer. Screening 384 lipids with a 5.7-kb editor mRNA found LC-1, which gave up to 79% Cas9 knockout in liver and 48% in brain, up to four times the clinical lipids ALC-0315 and LP-01.

Nature Biotechnology · doi:10.1038/s41587-026-03298-8

A light-switchable Cas12f small enough to fit with its guide RNA in one AAV was activated deep in mouse muscle by focused ultrasound acting on light-emitting particles, restricting editing to the treated site without surgery.

Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2026.09.005

Indole-producing E. coli in the gut were linked to worse stroke outcomes in mice and patients. Indole acts through the AHR receptor in intestinal dendritic cells; blocking AHR increased regulatory T cells in the meninges and reduced brain inflammation.

Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2026.09.013

A pooled CRISPRi library covering every protein-coding gene in Bacillus subtilis was grown in about 150 stress conditions. Follow-up showed the essential, uncharacterised protein YneF is part of the signal recognition particle secretion pathway.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2619440123

Simulations fitted to nucleosome-resolution Micro-C maps show that active chromatin (euchromatin) is not uniformly open: it forms compact domains as dense as heterochromatin but smaller, with active regions on their surface.

Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41588-026-02775-9

A machine-learning model predicts which phages infect which bacterial strains from genomes alone, across genera, without relying on phylogeny. It was tuned over 13.2 million training runs and reached AUROC 0.84 on 1,240 new E. coli phage-host pairs tested in the lab.

Nature Microbiology · doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02482-5

A Bayesian model joining rodent population dynamics with disease transmission, fitted to 20,249 captures of the multimammate mouse from 1994 to 2023 and 7,850 serology tests, shows rainfall drives rodent recruitment and arenavirus spread. The framework is built to transfer to Lassa virus.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2625913123

Nature feature: a guide to the genome editors that have followed CRISPR-Cas9.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02964-w

Nature reports that companies are now paying researchers to peer review manuscripts for journals.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02277-y

An analysis of new US food and drink products found that front-of-pack claims such as "low", "plus" or "natural" do not reliably signal better overall nutrition; foods with trans fat claims and drinks with sodium claims were often worse than products without claims.

Nature Food · doi:10.1038/s43016-026-01435-9

Nature correspondence argues that debates over whether AI can be an author miss a larger change in how scholarly knowledge is produced.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03055-6

Nature reports on a new Chinese-owned science journal set up to compete with the leading journals.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02759-z

An attribution study reported by Nature finds that greenhouse gases emitted since the 2015 Paris agreement made Europe's heatwaves more severe.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03035-w

Nature correspondence argues that biodiversity protection should include preserving endangered languages.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03056-5

Transplanted hearts from older donors shift towards the biological age of a younger recipient, Nature reports.

Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03043-w