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It is extremely difficult to separate tritium from radioactively contaminated water. Here the authors introduce catalytic hydrogen isotope exchange to water distillation, realizing excellent detritiation performance.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) establishes chronic infection in human, but the underlying mechanistic insights are lacking. Here the authors use single cell RNA and TCR sequencing to profile peripheral blood and mucosal cells from infected patients to report alterations in macrophage differentiation and T cell gene signature that may contribute to persisting H. pylori infection.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

Conventional methods for forming C(sp3)−C(sp3) bonds via radical-radical coupling pathways often suffer from poor selectivity, limiting their practicality in synthetic applications. Herein, the authors report a single electron transfer strategy that enables the cleavage of amine α-C − H bonds and heterobenzylic C − O bonds to form C(sp3)−C(sp3) bonds.

A genome-wide association study meta-analysis combined with multiomics data of osteoarthritis identifies 700 effector genes as well as biological processes with a convergent involvement of multiple effector genes; 10% of these genes express the target of approved drugs.

Developing tactile sensors that can interact with the environment and withstand mechanical stress is challenging. Here, the authors introduce a flexible tactile sensor inspired by insect antennae, enhancing robotic manipulation, navigation, and environmental recognition.

Oxidative stress contributes significantly to postmenopausal osteoporosis by impairing osteoblast function, but its precise mechanisms remain unclear. Here, the authors show that estrogen deficiency reduces GPX4 expression, leading to phospholipid peroxidation that impairs osteoblastogenesis, while GPX4 activators including 6- and 8-Gingerols can mitigate these effects.

The development of catalysts for practical asymmetric hydrogenation of ketones remains an important goal of synthetic organic chemistry. Here, an anionic iridium catalyst with excellent activity is reported and used in a hundred-kilogram-scale reduction as part of a route to chiral nicotine.

Strong magnetic interfacial coupling in van der Waals heterostructures provides a new platform for discovering novel physics and effects. Here, the authors report the formation of skyrmion lattice in the WTe₂/Fe₃GeTe₂ van der Waals heterostructure and a Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction with a large energy density of 1.0 mJm⁻².

Molecular ferroelectric crystals hold promise in data storage applications, yet their preparations by maximizing molecular polarization are challenging. Here, Youet al. report quinuclidinium periodate with six rotation axes and grow them in macroscopic ferroelectric thin films via a solution process.

Small size, precise steering, and visualized functional treatment are crucial for robotic interventional diagnosis and treatment. Here, the authors introduce a fiberscopic robot which integrates maneuvering, imaging, and biomedical operation abilities in the sub-millimeter scale

Early life factors like breastfeeding and maternal smoking may influence oesophageal cancer risk in adults. Here, the authors analyse data from the UK biobank and show that breastfeeding is associated with reduced incidence and mortality of oesophageal cancer and reduced adverse effects of smoking in offspring.

An electron transfer mechanism that involves a light-triggered geometric conversion between metal and oxygen redox chemistry shows superior performance compared with approaches that use either metal or oxygen redox chemistry.

A scenario analysis explores how China, the largest global aquaculture producer, can boost food production, reduce eutrophication and lower carbon dioxide emissions by adjusting growth rates and supporting structural transformations of different aquaculture production systems.

A large number of marketed drugs contains a chiral carboxylic acid scaffold. Here, the authors report the asymmetric hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids to α-chiral carboxylic acids using a cobalt catalyst bearing an electron-donating chiral diphosphine ligand.

Magnetization reversal in magnetic topological insulators drives quantum phase transitions between quantum anomalous Hall, axion insulator, and normal insulator states. Using novel analysis protocol, the authors investigate critical behaviours of these transitions and establish their electronic origin.

The therapeutic approaches directly targeting activated β-catenin in liver cancers are restricted by toxicities. Here the authors identify that the solute carrier transporter SLC13A3 is upregulated by activation of β-catenin and silencing of SLC13A3 induces ferroptosis, which could be exploited as a therapeutic opportunity in β-catenin-driven liver cancers.

Zinc gluconate in oral supplements associates with plasma proteins to form renal-tumour-accumulating ZnO nanoparticles, which have antitumoural immune activity and can also be used for the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents.

The authors develop a deep learning framework for 3D ligand pharmacophore mapping, enabling binding pose prediction, lead discovery, and target fishing. Using this approach, they identify structurally different inhibitors for human glutaminyl cyclases.

Molecular recognition is an important biological process where guest and host molecules interact through non-covalent bonding. Yeet al. show that this can be sensed by the dielectric and ferroelectric signals of the final complexes in a series of metal-coordination compounds with different diol molecules.

An entanglement filter based on Rydberg atoms is demonstrated. It transmits a desired photonic entangled state and blocks unwanted ones. Near-perfect photonic entanglement can be extracted from a noisy input with arbitrarily low initial fidelity.

The ectoenzyme CD73 is often elevated in tumour environments and targeting this protein is a tumour therapeutic target. Here the authors characterise a therapeutic anti-CD73 antibody cocktail which is more effective than either antibody alone and suggest a molecular mechanism of how this antibody cocktail functions.

Regulating spin state of metal cations in catalysts is recognized as a strategy to improve water oxidation. Herein, the authors constructed high-spin cobalt ions in cobalt oxyhydroxides, experimentally demonstrating accelerated electron transfer ability and thereby superior water oxidation performance.

Topological terms arise naturally in gauge theories but have been difficult to implement in quantum simulators. Now, a tunable topological θ-angle is demonstrated with a cold-atom platform.

Switchable structural and physical bistability in ferroelectric materials can be achieved as result of molecular orbital breaking. Here, the authors describe the photo-mediated bistability in organosilicon Schiff base ferroelectric crystals for the modulation of dielectric, second-harmonic generation, and ferroelectric polarization and showing good in vitro biocompatibility.

Inbreeding depression has been observed in many different species, but in humans a systematic analysis has been difficult so far. Here, analysing more than 1.3 million individuals, the authors show that a genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) is associated with disadvantageous outcomes in 32 out of 100 traits tested.

Although COVID-19 vaccines are proving to be generally effective, new therapeutics to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 are required. Here, the authors engineer bispecific antibodies from ACE2-blocking B38 and H4 SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and demonstrate their superiority in mice and nonhuman primates.

Although transition metal-catalyzed C–H bond functionalization is a widely used method in organic synthesis, many methods rely on metals of low abundance. Here, the authors report a copper-catalyzed, asymmetric C–H arylation using diaryliodonium salts.

Counterflow superfluidity is a quantum phase in which two fluid components flow in opposite directions without resistance, cancelling out their overall combined motion. This phase has now been observed in an optical lattice system hosting Bose mixtures.

Here, the authors report a study of the infrared optoelectronic properties of twisted 2D black phosphorus (BP), showing photoluminescence emission from optical transitions that are symmetry-forbidden in BP and spontaneous electronic polarization generating interfacial bulk photovoltaic effect.

Improved host-guest electronic interplay within stable metal-organic cages (MOCs) presents opportunities for photocatalysis. Here, the authors use pyridinium-derived ligands with solubilizing counteranions to prepare highly soluble Zr-MOCs and demonstrate the use of host-guest charge-transfer complexation to enhance photo-induced electron transfer.

In this study, Wits and Stanford researchers use short- and long-read DNA sequencing to profile the gut microbiome of women living in rural and urban South Africa and identify transitional composition, high inter-individual diversity, and many undescribed taxa.

The precise regulatory mechanisms controlling ciliary Hedgehog signaling remain incomplete. Here, the authors use ciliary proteomics to reveal that Numb facilitates the endocytosis of the receptor Ptch1 from the ciliary pocket, thereby enabling activation of Hedgehog signaling.

Coupled oxygen evolution mechanism provides an optimized electron transfer route during oxygen evolution process, but the underlying structure-activity relationship is still unclear. Here the authors investigate the role of eg* band broadening on the coupled oxygen evolution mechanism-based activities for Fe-doped NiOOH materials.

A new procedure for cataract removal that preserves lens epithelial progenitor cells in mammals, which require Pax6 and Bmi1 for their self-renewal, achieves lens regeneration in rabbits, macaques and in infants with cataracts.

Organic martensitic compounds are emerging smart materials with intriguing physical properties. Here authors show that upon H/F substitution a series of 1,4,5,8-naphthalenediimide derivatives exhibit reversible ferroelectric and martensitic transitions with a large thermal hysteresis.

Circulating tumour DNA is used as a biomarker for cancer diagnosis. Here, the authors identified a DNA methylation biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma and developed diagnostic and prognostic models to predict specificity and survival of patients.

A trans-ancestry meta-analysis of GWAS of glycemic traits in up to 281,416 individuals identifies 99 novel loci, of which one quarter was found due to the multi-ancestry approach, which also improves fine-mapping of credible variant sets.

Eliminating the substrate-specific constraints in alkene hydroalkylation reactions, where heteroatom-containing substrates are often required to achieve enantioselectivity, remains a challenge. Now a cobalt-hydride catalyst is shown to overcome heteroatom constraints through C–H···π interactions between substrates and catalysts, enabling the efficient construction of chiral tertiary carbon centres at the benzyl position.

Chiral succinimides are ubiquitous in bioactive compounds. Here, authors report a stereodivergent method for accessing 3,4-disubstituted succinimides, and the origin of stereoselectivity is elucidated by experimental and theoretical investigations.

Delivering bacteria-based drug for cancer therapy is limited by their penetration into extracellular matrix (ECM). Here the authors report effective depletion of ECM with hyperbaric oxygen therapeutic strategy to enhance bacterial accumulation within tumors and to induce immunogenic cell death.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Based on a newly developed deep-learning model for predicting the binding affinities of protein–protein interactions, the effects of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variants on binding to the ACE2 receptor and neutralizing antibodies were analyzed and used to predict immune escape and viral evolution.

A recombinant vaccine that targets the receptor-binding ___domain of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 induces a potent antibody response in immunized mice, rabbits and non-human primates, and protects primates from infection with the virus.

Cyprinids fish species contain multiple subgenomes as a result of past duplications. Here, Xu et al. report new genomes of 21 cyprinid fish and conclude that observed subgenome dominance patterns are likely due to both maternal dominance and transposable element densities in each polyploid.

A meta-transcriptomic analysis of the viromes of 2,438 mosquitoes of 81 species from across China identifies geographic hotspots of mosquito virus diversity, links between mosquito virome composition and host phylogeny, and a suggestion of long-distance mosquito dispersal.

Understanding origin and adaptation of weeds is important for their management. Here, via genome assembly, population genomics, and QTL mapping, the authors establish Cardamine occulta as a model to study weed ruderality and show FLC and CRY2 as genetic drivers for the establishment of short life cycle.

Membranes are useful for removing pollutants from water, but the pore size of most commercial membranes is larger than the molecular size of many trace organic contaminants. Here an engineered covalent organic framework allows pore size regulation to efficiently remove organic pollutants.