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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A β-GalNAc-O-tyrosine glycopeptide co-assembles with Aβ42 into distinct fibrils, reducing toxic oligomers and neurotoxicity in cells and an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model, suggesting a new modality to modulate amyloid aggregation.

Induction of hypothermia during hibernation/torpor enables certain mammals to survive under extreme conditions. Here, the authors show that the natural product P57 induces hypothermia by targeting pyridoxal kinase and has a potential application in therapeutic hypothermia.

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.

Zinc is an essential micronutrient for plants, however its excess causes cellular damage. Here, the authors report that natural variation of Trichome Birefringence (TBR) gene confers zinc toxicity tolerance through modulating root cell wall pectin methylesterification in Arabidopsis.

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.

The heterogeneity of isoform level m⁶A RNA methylation in single cells is unclear. The authors characterize m⁶A at both single-cell and isoform level through ONT long-read sequencing on single-cell cDNA library with APOBEC1-YTH induced C-to-U mutations. They find the role of m⁶A on surveillance of misprocessed RNAs through CDS-m⁶A decay mechanism.

Cancer cells can depend on Pol θ for survival. Here, the authors show that Pol θ typically initiates end-joining at microhomologies that contain mismatches, without requiring bidirectional synthesis. This suggests a revision of the definition of microhomology for analysis of genomic mutations.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For the May Focus issue of Nature Chemical Engineering, we asked seven leading researchers working across automation, control and robotics to share their perspectives on a facet of their field that they believe will drive transformative progress within these interconnected domains.

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.

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.

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.

Electrolyzers operating efficiently at industrial current densities offer promise but face challenges for practical NO_x⁻ -to-ammonia conversion. Here, the authors report a full runner electrolyzer stack that enhances mass transfer in porous electrodes for NO_x⁻ reduction at high current densities.

The interaction between correlated states and the excitonic emission coherence in van der Waals moiré systems remains largely unexplored. Here, the authors report evidence of enhanced interlayer exciton emission coherence in twisted WSe₂/MoS₂ heterobilayers, attributed to exciton-exciton and exciton-electron interactions.

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.

Certain antimetabolites used to treat cancer are more neurotoxic than others, and it is now shown that this is due to their greater tendency to generate DNA double-stranded breaks, whereas less neurotoxic agents induce single-stranded breaks.

Lampreys are jawless vertebrates that can offer unique insights into vertebrate evolution. Here they generate a comprehensive cell atlas of the lamprey, uncovering 70 distinct cell types across 14 tissues, and identify pancreas-like cells in the lamprey small intestine.

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.

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.

The authors report a study increasing hydrogen peroxide electrosynthesis kinetics over a Ni(OH)₂/CNT material. They show that the catalyst enhances H₂O dissociation and proton transfer in neutral media.

Multimodal large language models are shown to develop object concept representations similar to those of humans. These representations closely align with neural activity in brain regions involved in object recognition, revealing similarities between artificial intelligence and human cognition.

The first outbreaks of mpox outside Africa in 2022 were caused by clade II but cases of a new clade Ib have been increasing in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring countries since 2024. Here, the authors describe a case report and public health investigation of the first detected case of mpox clade Ib in China.

Using a tuning fork-based probe, the authors offer evidence of 2D magnetic moment along the c-axis of CsV₃Sb₅. Their findings suggest that loop currents within the kagome lattice can generate orbital magnetism.

The RNA binding protein hnRNPL is recruited to chromatin by the PIK3CB promoter-transcribed non-coding RNA and forms phase-separated condensates, which activates PIK3CB transcription and glycolysis, thus promoting ovarian cancer progression.

Here the authors use genetic mutations to alter TCR signal strength and clonal selection of exhausted CD8⁺ T cells. They implicate CARD11 signaling as a sensor of this TCR signal strength and as a regulator of antitumor function in exhausted T cells that might be targeted to enhance cancer immunotherapies.

The Dark sectioning algorithm removes the background and provides single-frame optical sectioning in fluorescence microscopy. It offers improved quantitative analysis and deep-tissue segmentation accuracy and is compatible to diverse modalities.

Effective delivery of therapeutic agents to the infection site and the modulation of the immunosuppressive microenvironment at the site of infection are vital for the treatment of chronic bacterial infections but remain elusive. Here, the authors address these issues by developing a nanomedicine that combines chemical and immunological therapies for chronic bacterial infection management.

Here, the authors identify mechanistic differences in the dependence on co-transcription factors between orthologous TFs from two related yeast species, S. cerevisiae and C. glabrata. The investigation into intrinsically disordered regions sheds light on the role of autoinhibition in the reliance on co-TFs.

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.

The gut microbiota bacterium Ruminococcus gnavus is implicated in the development of cirrhotic liver encephalopathy through the production of neurotoxins.

The connection between plasma proteomic and brain structure remains unclear. Here, the authors establish a comprehensive atlas of the patterns of associations between microscale proteome and brain structure, and demonstrate their potential value for studying brain disorders.

High mobility group A1 (HMGA1) has been identified to play a role in tumour progression but its involvement in anti-tumour immunity of esophagael squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unclear. Here the authors report that the inhibition of STING-mediated anti-tumour immunity by HMGA1 results in promotion of ESCC tumorigenesis.

This study designed a microsphere-constituted contact lens to provide ultralow-threshold infrared vision by directional photofield enhancement, demonstrating improvement in dark-light imaging and restoration of mammalian dark vision.

Yang et al. developed a new method, BEPH, a foundation model trained on TCGA WSI images. BEPH improves cancer recognition, classification, and survival prediction across subtypes, potentially reducing reliance on expert annotations.

The authors present a 3.5-million-year-long pollen record from the Zoige Basin of the eastern Tibetan Plateau, 3,442 m above sea level. The ~5,000 pollen assemblages retrieved from the core reveal many ecosystem transitions during this time and, when correlated with climatic curves, indicate what effects future warming may have on regional vegetation.

It is generally more difficult to modify the buried interfaces compared to top interfaces in tin-lead perovskite subcells. Here, the authors employ a mercapto-functionalized mesoporous silica layer as a superstructure, realizing maximum efficiency of 29.6% for double-junction tandem solar cells.

The genetic basis of grapevine thermotolerance remains poorly understood. Here, the authors identify WRKY transcription factor TTC4 as a positive regulator of thermotolerance and reveal its possible upstream repressor SPL13 and downstream target genes HSP18.1 and APX3.

Closed pores govern sodium-ion storage performance of hard carbon negative electrodes. Here, authors link pore mouth size evolution of the closed pores to the solvation structure and propose design principles for optimizing both closed pores and intrinsic defects.