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Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of proteins can be considered an intermediate solubility regime between disperse solutions and solid fibers, relevant to both pathogenic and functional amyloids. Here, the authors review the evidence that links spider silk proteins (spidroins) and LLPS and its role in the spinning process.
Shock compression is a highly dynamic, useful tool for exploring the stability of novel alloys such as quasicrystals, but their formation conditions and the nucleation-growth mechanisms occurring during shock experiments remain largely elusive. Here, the authors provide a summary of quasicrystal shock-syntheses and discuss the advantages and difficulties caused by the experimental complexity.
The bottom-up reconstitution of natural filaments within simplified artificial cellular compartments, such as coacervates, offer a model to study, mimic, and potentially exploit cellular functions. Here, the authors summarize the latest developments towards assembling confined fibrillar networks inside coacervates and related compartments, including a selection of examples ranging from biological to fully synthetic building blocks.
Immune-cell reprogramming driven by mitochondria-derived reactive electrophilic immunometabolites (mt-REMs) is an emerging phenomenon of major biomedical importance. Here, the authors highlight the latest advances and overarching challenges in precision indexing of mt-REMs’ cellular responses with spatiotemporal intelligence and locale-specific function assignments.
Nucleic acids are key elements in numerous applications such as therapeutics and nanotechnology. However, the synthesis of long and modified oligonucleotides remains challenging and alternative, biocatalytic approaches are needed. Here, the authors discuss recent progress in the controlled enzymatic synthesis of oligonucleotides.
The electrochemical Leaf (e-Leaf) is an emerging technology that addresses complex enzyme cascades nanoconfined within a porous conducting material—exploiting efficient electron tunneling and local NADP(H) recycling to transduce catalysis and electricity. Here, the authors describe how the e-Leaf was discovered, the steps in its development so far, and the outlook for future research and applications.
Molecular complexes with single-molecule magnet or qubit properties are great candidates for quantum information storage and processing, however, device implementation requires controlled surface deposition and property retention, which is a challenge. This Perspective gives a brief overview of molecular properties on a surface relevant for magnetic molecules and how they are affected by surface deposition, pointing out possible ways of overcoming the problems encountered so far.
Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) is one of the most important fluorescence mechanisms, with multi-step FRET systems enabling sequential energy transfer as seen in natural photosynthetic systems. Here, the authors review recent progress in exploiting discrete supramolecular assemblies to achieve multi-step FRET between donors and multiple acceptors.
Self-sustainable autonomous soft actuators have emerged as naturally evolving out-of-equilibrium systems that do not require human intervention. Here, the authors discuss recent advances in the field, with a focus on shape-morphing materials, motion characteristics, built-in negative feedback loops, and constant stimulus response patterns.
