Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Recent Advances in Energetics of Metal Halide Perovskite Interfaces

Metal halide perovskites, a class of crystalline semiconductors with unique optical and electronic properties, are emerging as potential solutions for low-cost photovoltaics and photonic sources in fields of solar cells, sensors, light-emitting diodes and lasers. Regardless of significant progress on device efficiency with the control over perovskite structures and film morphologies, unveiling the interface energetics and band alignment of these perovskite systems is indispensable for the performance optimization in the optoelectronic applications by grasping the photon harvest and charge transport processes. Herein we review the recent advances in the energetics of metal halide perovskite interfaces. The electronic properties of perovskite materials are addressed in terms of halide substitution, thermal annealing and substrate effects as well as trap states. The energy level alignments of interfaces between perovskite films and charge transport layers are then discussed, which is correlated to the photovoltaic properties in perovskite solar cells

Lensfree OLEDs with over 50% external quantum efficiency via external scattering and horizontally oriented emitters

Light extraction approaches based on a macroscopic lens in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) enables competitive performance, but compromise on the technology’s key benefits. Here, the authors demonstrate ultrahigh efficiency OLEDs via a device strategy based on forward light scattering