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Arginine addiction induced by argininosuccinate synthase (ASSN1) deficiency has been exploited to treat ASS1-deficient cancers. Here, the authors show an alternative therapeutic approach where ASS1 activity is increased by the pesticide spinosyn A and is shown to inhibit breast cancer cell proliferation.

The efficiency of nonlinear optical processes in 2D materials is often reduced by weak light-matter interactions and crystal symmetry constraints. Here, the authors report the enhancement of classical second-harmonic generation in hexagonal boron nitride and quantum spontaneous parametric down-conversion in NbOCl₂ flakes by combining them with Au or SiO₂/Au substrates.

Thermogenic proteins like PGC1α are downregulated under thermal stress, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, the authors show that chaperone-mediated autophagy, regulated by PARK7, controls PGC1α stability and BAT function at thermoneutrality.

Focal cortical dysplasia type II causes epileptic seizures and is associated with various types of neuronal abnormalities. This study uses patient tissue transcriptomics and animal models to reveal that vascular malformations are a key part of the pathology by creating ischemic-hypoxic microenvironments.

Topochemical polymerization (TCP) emerges as a leading approach for synthesizing single crystalline polymers, but the untapped potential of performing TCP in a liquid medium with solid-state structural fidelity presents unsolved challenges. Here, the authors reveal details of single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation during the TCP of chiral azaquinodimethane monomers through in situ crystallographic analysis while spotlighting a rare metastable crystalline phase.

Electronic devices based on conjugated polymers require a preferential molecular orientation to maximize performance. Here a self-induced anisotropy strategy is demonstrated that harnesses intermolecular forces between solvents, dopants and the polymer to orient the film, enabling an enhanced thermoelectric power factor.

Reducing critical materials such as indium and silver is of high importance for photovoltaics. Yu et al. demonstrate a certified 25.94% efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cell replacing part of indium-based electrodes with undoped tin oxide and using copper for contacts.

Li, Zhang et al. analyze blood samples from stroke patients to identify proteins that could determine whether a stroke began within the critical 4.5-hour treatment window. They find six key proteins, which may potentially be used to help more patients receive timely and effective stroke treatment.

Genome assemblies for the SunUp transgenic papaya and its progenitor Sunset identify three transgene-insertions in SunUp. Resequencing of 86 papaya genomes highlights the impacts of breeding and geographic origin.

Mechanical stiffness and self-healing properties are difficult to combine in synthetic hydrogels. Using polymer entanglements in co-planar nanoconfinement, stiff and self-healing hydrogels are fabricated, with applications in biology and engineering.

Three-dimensional architecture engineering allows for higher performance ceramics with more diverse applications. Here, the authors report a simple and efficient manufacturing process for cellular ceramics in programmed cell-based 3D configurations.

Developing heat-resistant dielectric polymers for electrification is challenging due to the inverse relationship between thermal stability and electrical insulation. Using a machine learning-driven approach, the researchers identify and validate high-performance polymers that demonstrate promising thermal resilience and energy density for high-temperature applications.

Compact sources of entangled photons are desired for quantum communication, computing, and cryptography. Here, the authors report high entangled photon pair generation rates in rhombohedral boron nitride, showing its potential as a tunable platform for Bell state generation.

High-entropy alloy nanoparticles (HEA-NPs) are emerging advanced oxidation processes catalysts. Here, authors successfully load HEA-NPs onto a carbon-based carrier and demonstrate enhanced PMS activation, low oxidant consumption, and a rapid and efficient pollutant removal process.

There is a critical crack thickness in the production of thin films. Here, the authors utilize the surface tension of the liquid to eliminate the stresses within the film and produce ceramic layers with a controllable thickness and shape.

High-resolution pulse shaping is highly sought after, but existing systems are impractical outside of laboratory settings. Here, the authors introduce a chip-scale spectral shaper that uses high-Q microresonator filter banks and inline phase control to manipulate lines at GHz-level spacing.

Wang et al. propose EasIFA, an efficient enzyme active site annotation algorithm, to advance various fields including drug discovery, disease research, enzyme engineering, and synthetic biology.

Aberrant hypertranscription in cells can affect development and disease. Here, the authors show that DNA topoisomerase I prevents hypertranscription; not through its catalytic function, but through a DNA binding mechanism.

Based on the correlation analysis of various omics data from Brassica napus L., authors identify one Flavobacterium strain C2 which mitigates P deficiency by regulating fatty acid metabolism and enhancing P uptake, indicating potential strategies to improve P utilization in rapeseeds.

Achieving successful in vivo cartilage regeneration remains challenging. Here they present a cell-free, multiple hydrogen-bond crosslinked hydrogel loaded with tannic acid and Kartogenin with ultra-durable mechanical properties and stage-dependent drug release behavior to promote cartilage regeneration.

Molecular design is key to the power conversion efficiency in organic photovoltaics. Jiang, Sun, Xu et al. develop a non-fullerene acceptor with asymmetric structure and phenyl-substituted side chains that minimizes photon and carrier losses, enabling 20.2% efficiency.

Shaping ceramics is important for realizing their material properties. Here, the authors modify a Joule heating method to generate morphing thermomechanical fields, guiding the shape formation of ceramics into complex 3D configurations.

Sequencing of haploid sugarcane, Saccharum spontaneum, allows assembly of a prototypical version of the sugarcane chromosome set. This new reference genome will serve as a resource to accelerate sugarcane improvement.

ROAM, based on large regions of interest and a pyramid transformer, can automatically capture key morphological features consistent with the experience of pathologists to provide accurate, reliable and adaptable clinical-grade diagnoses of gliomas while advancing the discovery of molecular and morphological markers related to glioma diagnosis.

Multiple sclerosis and some other neuroinflammatory diseases are associated with aberrant CD4⁺ T cell differentiation and regulatory T cell function. Here authors show that the E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF213 is central to both physiological and pathologic CD4⁺ T cell differentiation, and finetunes IFN-β responses in multiple sclerosis.

Combining studies of star formation rates with studies of cloud–magnetic field alignment has revealed that magnetic fields are a primary regulator of star formation. Perpendicular alignment inhibits star formation, whereas parallel alignment facilitates it.

A spatial multi-omics method with high decoding capacity and reduced sequencing and imaging costs enhances the high-throughput detection of gene mutations, allele-specific expression and RNA modifications in tissue samples.

CD47 is expressed on tumour cells and binds to SIRPα, expressed on myeloid cells, preventing phagocytosis. Here, the authors show that injection of tumour cells lacking CD47, or cells coated with an anti-CD47 antibody, into mice mounts a strong immune response, resulting in a reduction in tumour growth.

Metastasis is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death. Here, the authors report a pro-metastatic role of PRAK in breast cancer lung metastasis via a mechanism involving enhanced HIF-1α translation, and propose PRAK targeting as a strategy to treat metastasis.

A photonic Terahertz source based on injection-locking an integrated dual-laser chip generates and transmits a 131 Gbps THz signal over 10.7-m distance, showing great potential towards fully integrated and energy-efficient THz transmitters for 6G.

Promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML) is the scaffolding protein that organizes PML nuclear bodies. Here the authors determine the crystal structure of a PML B1-box multimer and characterise the oligomerisation behaviour of the PML RBCC construct and show that disrupting B1-B1 interactions precludes promyelocytic leukemia leukemogenesis in transgenic mice.

This study demonstrated how the oomycete effector RxLR23^KM can trigger plant defense responses by interacting with NbERD15La, a regulator of abscisic acid and salicylic acid pathways in tobacco, which in turn regulates the downstream immune activator NbNAC68.

In conjugated polymers, n-doping is often limited by the tradeoff between doping efficiency and charge carrier mobilities, since dopants often randomly distribute within polymers, leading to significant structural and energetic disorder. Here, the authors screen a large number of polymer building block combinations and explore the possibility of designing n-type conjugated polymers with good tolerance to dopant-induced disorder.

With widespread generation and availability of synthetic data, AI systems are increasingly trained on their own outputs, leading to various technical and ethical challenges. The authors analyse this development and discuss measures to mitigate the potential adverse effects of ‘AI eating itself’.

Understanding how membrane-bound styrene oxide isomerase (SOI) catalyses the Meinwald rearrangement—a Lewis-acid-catalysed isomerization of an epoxide to a carbonyl compound—can be useful as SOI represents a green alternative to chemical synthesis. Here, the catalytic mechanism of SOI was determined using cryo-EM, EPR spectroscopy, mutagenesis, functional assays and docking experiments.

Rapid summer Russian Arctic sea-ice decline is responsible for about 80% of the increase in vapor pressure deficit controlling wildfires over eastern Siberia. The rest is controlled by internal atmospheric variability related to changes in Siberian blocking events.

A surface functionalization approach allows for preparing a nanostructured molecular protection layer, enabling stretchable polymer electronics that stably operate in physiological environments over 80 days.

Designing efficient blue perovskite LEDs by using mixed halides perovskite is still a challenge, limited mainly by the phase segregation issue. Here, the authors demonstrate in situ fabrication of quasi-2D CsPbClBr2 nanocrystal films with mixed ligands to overcome the constraint.

Intrinsic mechanical properties of sub-100 nm thin films are markedly difficult to obtain, yet an ever-growing necessity for emerging fields such as soft organic electronics. Here, the authors present a shear motion assisted transfer technique for fabricating free-standing sub-100 nm thin films and measuring their inherent structural–mechanical properties.

While acidic water splitting offers a renewable means to obtain renewable hydrogen fuel, the catalysts needed to oxidize water often require expensive noble metals. Here, authors show manganese oxyhalides as acidic oxygen evolution electrocatalysts.