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Aqueous two-phase systems have potential as biomimetic materials, but often lack stability and are prone to collapse. Here, the authors use interfacial assembly of chitin nanofibres and cellulose nanocrystals to prepare a biobased system with permeability and switchable motility.

Traditional nanopore sensors use barrel-shaped protein channels. Here, the authors report on a study into the use of globular protein, ferritin, as a nanopore sensor, demonstrating membrane insertion and sensor application, showing the potential of non-barrel-shaped proteins for nanopore sensing.

Natural rubber is a widely used biopolymer and further improving its resistance to crack growth will extend its service life. Here the authors show a strategy to amplify the resistance to crack growth in natural rubber by forming a tanglemer.

Maintaining proper reactive oxygen species (ROS) balance is critical for cellular and individual health, yet its dynamic nature encumbers monitoring and assessment. Here the authors propose a platform using mass cytometry-based detection, termed SN-ROP, to identify distinct ROS profiles associated with specific immune cell functions and disease states.

Chen et al. use UK Biobank data to reveal a dietary pattern associated with a lower risk of dementia, and validate this in additional cohorts.

The observation of nanocrystal crystallisation has long been a fundamental goal in nanoscience and remains a challenge due to the lack of spatiotemporal characterisation techniques. Here authors monitor the crystallisation of perovskite nanocrystals in polymer matrix at single-particle level using super-resolution florescence microscopy.

Previous ophthalmic foundation models have struggled to generalize effectively to diverse and rare fundus diseases, restricting their clinical applicability. Here, the authors introduce a vision-language foundation model that demonstrates superior performance in diagnosing both common and rare fundus conditions.

Cold tolerance at the booting stage is critical for the expansion of rice cultivation area. Here, the authors report that a CAMTA family transcription factor encoding gene CTB3 positively regulates japonica rice booting stage cold tolerance and its upstream and downstream interactors to fulfill the functionality.

Gastric Squamous Cell Carcinoma (GSCC) is a rare subtype of gastric cancer with unknown etiology. Here, the authors identify frequent mutations in epigenetic regulation genes including EZH2 in twenty GSCC patient samples, and demonstrate that EZH2 loss, along with TP53 and PTEN loss, leads to GSCC in mouse models.

Artificial intelligence-based detection of gastric cancer at different stages from noncontrast computed tomography is suggested to be feasible in a retrospective analysis of large and diverse cohorts, including real-world populations in opportunistic and targeted screening scenarios.

A stereotaxic atlas of the whole mouse brain, based on a Nissl-stained cytoarchitecture dataset with isotropic 1-μm resolution, achieved through continuous micro-optical sectioning tomography, promises to be a versatile brainsmatics tool for studying the whole brain at single-cell level.

The performance of devices based on fully non-fused ring electron acceptors has been limited due to the low acceptor crystallinity. Here, authors report these acceptors with peripheral substituents that guarantee the planarity of the skeleton, achieving efficiency of 18.04% in organic solar cells.

Accessing strong correlation effects in Kagome materials remains challenging. Here, the authors realize a Kagome Kondo lattice in CsCr₆Sb₆ exhibiting flat, isolated Kagome bands at the Fermi level.

Spin-waves have a variety of advantages for information processing, and here, Chen, Xu and coauthors demonstrate the deterministic switching of antiferromagnetic spin textures using non-linear spin-waves. The switching process is progressive, mirroring weighted sum operations in neuromorphic computing.

BMP signaling forms an intestinal gradient regulating villus length by balancing cell proliferation with apoptosis to optimize nutrient absorption efficiency across regions.

The function and regulatory mechanism of mRNA acetylation modification in cancer progression remains largely unknown. Here the authors identify that targeting tumor N4-acetylcytidine (ac4C) RNA acetyltransferase NAT10 improves anti-tumor response via MYC/CDK2/DNMT1/dsRNA/type I IFN pathway, and show the synergic anti-tumor effect of NAT10 inhibition with aPD-1.

Xiang et al. use patient samples and mouse models of osteoarthritis to examine the link with muscle atrophy. They identify that, in osteoarthritis, senescent macrophages promote ferroptosis in skeletal muscle cells, and they show the therapeutic value of targeting this pathological mechanism.

The functionalization of carbon–carbon bonds in amines remains an important challenge in organic synthesis. Now a borane-catalysed method has been developed that enables the insertion of alkynes into the alkyl C–C bonds of amines, providing a versatile approach for the ring expansion of cyclic amines and chain elongation of acyclic amines.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

Epstein-Barr virus is associated with increased cancer risk. Here, the authors analysed two population-based prospective cohorts in Southern China to examine the association between increased seropositivity and the risk of multiple cancer types.

Authors use a high-entropy engineering approach to produce fully amorphous BiTO films by exfoliation and annealing, creating crystalline regions, leading to flexible ceramics with dielectric properties.

The Einstein Probe has discovered a fast X-ray transient, EP240414a, associated with a broad-lined type Ic supernova. Its unusually soft spectrum and weak jet add to the diversity of stellar deaths and suggest a previously unknown Wolf–Rayet star explosion mechanism.

Spectral inhomogeneity of solid-state quantum emitters hinders their application in scalable quantum networks. Here the authors use in-situ 3D strain engineering at cryogenic temperatures to independently tune emission energy and suppress fine structure splitting in quantum dots embedded in photonic structures.

The isolation of a crystalline radical cation carbon(I) species, generated via single-electron transfer between a carbodicarbene and a nitroaromatic compound, is reported. The resulting radical ion pair can mediate various C–O and C–C cross-coupling reactions with electron-deficient arenes bearing a leaving group.

Here, the authors report a transfer printing method of wafer-scale dielectric layers and metallic electrodes pre-deposited on mica substrates without the need of sacrifice buffer layers, enabling the fabrication of high-performance 2D MoS₂ transistors and encapsulated devices based on air-sensitive black phosphorus with one-month stability.

NatD is an acetyltransferase responsible for N-α-terminal acetylation of the histone H4 and H2A and has been linked to cell growth. Here the authors show that NatD-mediated acetylation of histone H4 serine 1 competes with the phosphorylation by CK2α at the same residue thus leading to the upregulation of Slug and tumor progression.

This study reveals that α-lipoic acid (ALA) is reduced in aged mouse and human intestine and ALA supplementation reduces aging hallmarks. Paneth cells play a role in the effects of ALA.

Radiation-induced liver damage is an important side-effect of radiation as a cancer therapy. Here, the authors identify pyroptosis protein gasdermin D as a key driver of liver injury and a potential therapeutic target to alleviate this damage.

Protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (PCECs) interconvert hydrogen and electricity and therefore have potential as long-duration energy storage systems, but the durability of these devices under industrially relevant conditions is limited. Here the authors report a PCEC that maintains low degradation rates throughout exceptionally long-term durability tests.

Formation of a stable self-assembled monolayer for high-efficiency perovskite solar cells remains a challenge. Here uniform and stable SAM anchoring is achieved on a hydroxylated indium tin oxide surface, leading to highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells.

Electronic wound bandages have to balance conformability and wound healing properties. Here, the authors develop a smart patch (iSAFE) using biomaterials with bioelectronics to facilitate permeability with waterproofing. This achieves intelligent wound management with real-time wound monitoring and active therapy.

By engineering the eukaryotic-derived Fanzor2-ωRNA system, Wei, Gao, Pan, Li and Chen developed a compact genome editor enNlovFz2, which demonstrated efficient genome-editing activity in vitro and in vivo, with a broad target-adjacent motif scope.

Dihydroxyacid dehydratase (DHAD) is an essential enzyme for the synthesis of branched-chain amino acids in plants. Here, the authors rationally design a range of DHAD inhibitors as herbicides and present the crystal structure of a lead compound in complex with Arabidopsis DHAD.

The neurotransmitter serotonin regulates cancer through receptor-signaling activation, but also epigenetics mechanisms by serotonylation. Here, the authors show that histone serotonylation promotes pancreatic cancer progression by upregulating stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD), which remodels lipid metabolism, suggesting a potential target for therapy.

The zoonotic parasite Toxoplasma has complex developmental programs to accommodate different lifestyles that are important for parasite transmission and pathogenesis. Here, the authors discover a novel chromatin remodeling complex containing SNF2L in Toxoplasma and report its crucial roles in regulating the parasite’s developmental programs.

Zhang, Peng, and colleagues benchmark metabolic RNA labelling chemistries for time-resolved single-cell RNA sequencing, improving in vivo detection of newly synthesized RNA during zebrafish embryogenesis.

Disruption of dendritic cell (DC) interstitial motility in the tumour microenvironment promotes immune evasion, and enhancement of DC interstitial motility offers a route for DC-centric immunotherapy.

He and colleagues develop LucaOne, a biological foundation model pre-trained on nucleic acid and protein sequences from 169,861 species. It shows an emerging understanding of molecular biology’s central dogma, enhancing bioinformatics analysis and helping explore unknown aspects of molecular biology.

This work develops dye-lanthanide tandem-sensitized perovskite nanocrystals that can harvest a broad range of infrared light, upconvert it to sensitize excitons, and generate multicolor band-edge exciton luminescence

The authors demonstrate ultra-broadband microscale optical dispersion in LiNbO₃ crystals, enabling precise and robust on-demand dispersion engineering in free space, with strong potential for applications in informatics and spectroscopy.

Complex traits present challenges for gene mapping and molecular characterization. Here, the authors develop a 16-generation intercross line of chickens to explore the genetic architecture of complex traits in chicken.

White-light emission from materials and devices usually occurs omni-directional through space. Here, the authors show that sintering carbon dots with TiO₂ forms a microlens-shape surface that enables directional emission with 1/60 solid angle.

Zhang et al. report the incorporation of copper halide perovskite nanocrystals into glass fibre arrays for high-resolution remote scintillation over 5 m without crosstalk. Real-time and 3D X-ray imaging are demonstrated employing 1600 densely packed fibres with a single pixel diameter of about 10.4 µm.

Advanced membranes for industrial-scale water electrolysis hold promise yet pose challenges. Here, the authors report a two-step casting and phase separation strategy to design a composite membrane with differentially structured pores that combines ion transport and gas barrier functions.

The polarity separation within the carbon-metal bonds of traditional organometallic reagents that endows them with exceptional reactivities also imposes limitations, such as air and moisture sensitivity, and flammability. Here, the authors demonstrate that stable and easily accessible benzylic (or allylic) boronate with mild alkali-metal alkoxide as the activator can act as organometallic reagents.

This study uses deep learning and gaze-tracking to track pathologists' work and learn how they review tissue images. This “learned expertise” was applied to guide artificial intelligence models, such as weakly supervised learning and reinforcement learning, to achieve accurate diagnosis of Whole Slide Images.

Currently, most miRNA profiling study of complex tissues are based on bulk sample sequencing, among which the cellular heterogeneity may become an important potential confounding factor. Here, the authors developed a deconvolution method to systematically decode cellular components of complex tissues from miRNA profiling data.

Breast cancer cells interact with cancer-associated adipocytes in the microenvironment. Here, the authors report that the cross-talk between these two cell types is dependent on Zeb1, which remodels the tumor-associated adipose microenvironment to confer breast cancer progression.

Neural networks fundamentally dictate function. Here, the authors show thirteen uniquely connected neuron populations within the anterior thalamic nuclei, suggesting multiple parallel subnetworks support its emotional and cognitive functions.