Search

A reinforcement learning-based virtual reality system, implementing a series of sport sessions with coaching, was as effective as standard physical activity in reducing fat mass in adolescents, with positive effects on cognition.

Cross-ancestry and sex-stratified genome-wide association analyses for 21 amygdala volumetric traits in East Asian and European individuals provide insight into the genetic architectures of amygdala and subnucleus volumes.

Worldwide, the number of only-child families is increasing. This research examines how growing up without siblings affects adult brain structure, function and connectivity, cognition, personality and mental health.

Socioeconomic status is multidimensional and can change over time. Xu, Lui, Ji et al. found dimension-specific, late-stage-specific and change-specific socioeconomic effects on brain, cognition, personality and emotion.

Cross-ancestry genome-wide association studies of 3,414 brain imaging phenotypes in Chinese Han and white British participants identify autosomal and X-chromosomal associations in more diverse populations.

Previous studies have shown genetic associations between leprosy and 18 different genes/loci. Here, Wang and colleagues perform genome-wide association study in Han Chinese leprosy patients and describe four novel loci to be associated to the disease.

Genome-wide association meta-analyses in populations of East Asian and European ancestries identify variant–trait associations for 44 hippocampal traits and provide insight into the genetic architectures of hippocampal and subfield volumes.

The acetylene hydrogenation activity and stability of a palladium single-atom catalyst are both controlled by the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the oxide support.

Metamaterial analogues of electromagnetically-induced transparency provide interesting optical components and applications. By actively tuning the dark mode of a metamaterial, Guet al. optically control its electromagnetically-induced transparency, showing tunable group delay of terahertz light.

Minimizing the non-radiative energy loss without sacrificing the charge collection efficiency is the key to improve the performance of organic solar cells. Here, the authors develop hybrid side chain-based asymmetric small molecule acceptors and achieve maximum power conversion efficiency of 19.76%.

Ding Ma, Xing Xie, Yongyong Shi and colleagues report a genome-wide association study of cervical cancer in the Han Chinese population. They identify two new susceptibility lociat 4q12 and 17q12.

The Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei is an important aquaculture species and a promising model for crustacean biology. Here, the authors provide a reference genome assembly, and show that gene expansion is involved in the regulation of frequent molting as well as benthic adaptation of the shrimp.

Here, the authors present structural and mechanistic characterisation of the UDP-dependent glycosyltransferase SgUGT94-289-3, which generates two mogrosides of interest as natural sweeteners. Structure-based engineering yielded variants with improved specificity and activity.

This study reveals how avian influenza viruses adapt to human hosts. It shows that viral infection upregulates human ANP32A/B SUMOylation, which recruits the viral NS2 protein, boosting polymerase activity and aiding early infection in human cells.

Increased nutrient uptake of cancer cells offers a possible therapeutic target. Here, the authors designed a nanoparticle to deliver phenylboronic-acid-modified cholesterol which reacts in cancer cells to trigger Gaucher disease-like metabolic damage to tumour cells, demonstrating potential application.

The BHMbot provides an efficient running gait and a novel actuation mechanism for insect scale legged microrobots to solve the bottleneck problem of the severe running speed degradation after carrying essential payloads for untethered locomotion.

Solar-powered, untethered, sustained flight of an ultralight micro aerial vehicle under natural sunlight conditions is achieved using an electrostatic-driven propulsion system with a high lift-to-power efficiency.

Xu et al. show that satellite-measured urbanicity (living in a densely populated area) is correlated with brain volume, cortical surface area and brain network connectivity in a sample of 3,867 people from China and Europe.

The accurate inheritance of the genetic material in offsprings is crucial for life. Here, the authors reported an artificial cell capable of the dynamic mimicry of the plasmid segregation process as well as the gene inheritance after division.

Here, the authors apply the Activity-by-Contact (ABC) model to infer enhancer-gene regulation and the effect of associated variants across multiple cancer types, integrating genetic and multi-omics data. Then, they explore the mechanisms associated with ABC regulatory variants in colorectal cancer.

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.

Egg-laying performance is an important phenotype for breeding chicken. Here, the authors explore the regulatory networks driving phenotypic differences in egg-laying, and identify laying-related variants and endocrine factors.

High-throughput proteome-wide methods for identifying endogenous proteins that phase separate or partition into condensates during certain physiological events are needed but remain a challenge. Now, a high-throughput, unbiased and quantitative strategy can identify endogenous biomolecular condensates and screen proteins involved in phase separation on a proteome-wide scale.

The molecular mechanisms of lung cancer metastasis remain incompletely understood. Here the authors show that the transcription factor ZBTB11 drives metastasis in preclinical models of lung cancer both through SE translocation (SET)-dependent and independent manner.

Bottleneck effects of plant barriers on pathogenic invasions remain unclear. Using a random barcoding approach, this study investigates how plant root permeability limits the invasion and population bottlenecks of a phytopathogenic Ralstonia.

Most synthetic communities are unidirectional or two-way interaction without dynamic feedback. Here, the authors report a dynamic feedback system involving artificial cell species, biological cell species, and their environment using pH-sensitive molecule that phase-shift between fluid and gel phases.

Here the authors pull apart the cellular composition of the tumor microenvironment using RNA sequencing data from a wide variety of cancer types. They identify immunity quantitative trait loci and integrate these data with analysis of colorectal cancer cohorts, creating a polygenic risk score and a database for community access.

Protoissues have received a lot of attention for studying cell interaction and for biomedical engineering. Here, the authors demonstrate a high-throughput, bottom-up approach to assemble spatial programmable prototissues based on the magnetic Archimedes affect and demonstrate biomedical application for producing NO for vasodilation.

Bin Han and colleagues report the draft genome sequence of the grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idellus, a major commercially farmed species of freshwater fish. Analyses of the grass carp genome identify lineage-specific duplications that may have contributed to the adaptation of this species to a vegetarian diet.

The electrical properties of solution deposited organic semiconductor channels are sensitive to substrate surface and processing conditions. Here, authors develop organic-last-integration technology to fabricate multilayer organic thin film transistor material stack onto micro light-emitting diode.

The increase in detoxification gene expression is a common transcriptome marker for longevity interventions. Here, the authors show that nomilin extends lifespan and healthspan in animals through activation of PXR regulated detoxification functions.

While photoredox catalysis presents exciting avenues for molecular transformations, balancing optimal photochemical and materials properties can be challenging. Here, the authors prepare carbon-coated In₂O₃ nanoparticles as recoverable photocatalysts for arylboronic acid oxidative hydroxylation.

To execute higher-order functions, cells self-assemble into spatially coded tissue configurations. Here the authors magnetically assembly giant unilamellar vesicles into three dimensional tissue-mimic structures with collective osmotic stability.

Controlling selectivity between homochiral and heterochiral reaction pathways on surfaces is intriguing but challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate strategies in steering the reactions of prochiral terminal alkynes between the homochiral and heterochiral pathways by tuning the precursor substituents and the kinetic parameters.

Blue large-amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) represent a mysterious class of hot stars pulsating in an unexpectedly extreme way. Here we report the discovery of an unusual BLAP at a short-lived phase that provides a new path to understand their physical origins.

TGF-β-signalling inhibitors allow for the long-term expansion of epicardial cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells by means of the temporal modulation of canonical Wnt signalling under chemically defined xeno-free conditions.