As temperatures plummet this winter in the Northern Hemisphere, we found ourselves wondering what are the weirdest and quirkiest things currently stored in the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s freezers?

Imagine being able to pinpoint exactly where in an aggressive brain tumour certain genes are turned on – like mapping a city’s most active neighbourhoods at rush hour. That is the promise of spatial transcriptomics, breakthrough technologies that are changing how scientists understand tissues, health and disease, and development.

From looking at the human body down the microscope to writing code; Manas Dave is using his range of skills to create a resource that will help inform our understanding of the origins of human development.

When most people think about genetic changes, or mutations, they imagine inherited conditions that are passed on from parents to offspring. However, the vast majority of mutations in our DNA are not inherited at all. Instead, they arise quietly, cell-by-cell throughout our lifetime. These are somatic mutations, and they are one of the most important – yet least understood – forces acting inside our bodies.

For many, flu season has come earlier this year with hospitalisations rising by more than 50 per cent in one week in the UK. The so-called ‘super flu’ is causing a media frenzy – but what actually is it? Why are we seeing it earlier than usual? And how can we be better prepared in the future?