Volume 4 Issue 2, February 2026

Textile waste can be transformed into functional fibres through mechanical, chemical and enzymatic recycling, followed by spinning techniques. These upcycled materials enable the sustainable development of value-added products for applications such as wound care, antibacterial textiles, energy harvesting and storage, and environmental sensing.

Ageing, disease and trauma can lead to impaired muscle function, which could be restored by implantable artificial muscles. Here we outline key performance metrics required for soft artificial muscles to restore function in stress urinary incontinence and to enable sit-to-stand transfer.

Wearable biosensors can continuously monitor disease biomarkers, therapeutic drugs and health-related analytes to provide real-time diagnostic insights. The wearable biosensor Aptalyzer integrates hydrogel microneedles and an electrochemical aptamer-based biosensor to assess biomarkers in the skin interstitial fluid.

Climate change and geopolitical uncertainties require proactive measures to ensure food security and human resilience, with a focus on sustainable agricultural practices and soil preservation. We explore innovative solutions to preserve, improve and restore soil health and highlight how they can address global soil degradation and ensure sustainable food production.

This Review discusses sex-related differences in brain disorders and surveys in vitro models, including 2D and 3D organ-on-a-chip technologies. It emphasizes the need to address sex-related differences in brain research, which remain under researched in 2025.

Early cancer biology and detection research is limited owing to a lack of clinical samples from pre-malignant and early-stage tumours. This Review discusses engineered in vitro systems that mimic early disease stages to investigate tumour progression and identify biomarkers for early cancer detection.

Functional nucleic acids (FNAs) achieve specific target recognition, molecular binding and catalytic activity by folding into defined secondary and tertiary structures. This Review focuses on two major classes of FNAs — aptamers and DNAzymes — and discusses their structural features, production strategies and engineering approaches as well as their clinical applications in diagnostics, targeted therapy and precision medicine.

Bioelectronic devices enable real-time monitoring, diagnosis and treatment by blending biological processes with electronic technology. This Review examines the material property landscape of low-dimensional materials in bioelectronic systems by device component, emphasizing their role in enabling the development of miniaturized bioelectronic platforms for wireless and connected health-care applications.

Bacteria can be engineered as biosensors for the detection and analysis of DNA in unpurified samples. This Review examines the engineering of bacterial DNA biosensors, highlighting performance metrics and applications in comparison with in vitro DNA biosensors.