Comment in 2021

Though the lunar samples returned by the Apollo and Luna missions have been studied for more than 50 years, scientists are discovering new clues into the early evolution of the Moon by looking through the lens of modern analytical techniques.

RNA therapeutics have benefited significantly from decades of research on lipid nanoparticles, specifically its key component—the ionizable lipid. This comment discusses the major ionizable lipid types, and provides perspectives for future development.

While existing microbots display effective propulsion, their functionalities decrease dramatically upon decreasing the robot size. Accordingly, it is desired to customize microscale robots for their specific mission and body location. Selecting the microbot constituents with task-specific tailored functionalities will enhance their practicality in performing their primary mission.

Discoveries of persistent coastal species in the open ocean shift our understanding of biogeographic barriers. Floating plastic debris from pollution now supports a novel sea surface community composed of coastal and oceanic species at sea that might portend significant ecological shifts in the marine environment.

In this opinion piece, we discuss why computational tools to limit the identifiability of genomic data are a promising avenue for privacy-preservation and legal compliance. Even where these technologies do not eliminate all residual risk of individual identification, the law may still consider such data anonymised.

Developing more productive and sustainable crops will be essential to achieving food security in coming decades. A core process in plant evolution has been the transfer of chloroplast-encoded genes to the nuclear genome. We propose reverting this process as a new approach to improve plant disease resistance and photosynthesis in future crops.

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is a key technique for understanding Li-based battery processes. Here, the authors discuss the current state of the art, advantages and challenges of this technique, also giving an outlook for future developments.

An outcome of phage infection, lateral transduction, has been shown to mobilize chromosomal genes between bacterial cells at rates that exceed those of mobile genetic elements such as plasmids. Does this mean that the bacterial chromosome should be considered a mobile genetic element?

While the technological revolution is accelerating, digital poverty is undermining the Sustainable Development Goals. This article introduces a justice-oriented digital framework which considers how fair access to digital capabilities, commodities, infrastructure, and governance can reduce global inequality and advance the SDGs.

Metal electrode interfaces and interphases are critical for the development of future high-energy metal batteries. Here, Dr Jelena Popovic-Neuber discusses the state of the art, issues and strategies to improve the stability of metal electrodes toward practical battery systems.

Climate change negatively impacts the livelihoods of indigenous communities across the world, including those located on the African continent. This Comment reports on how five African indigenous communities have been impacted by climate change and the adopted adaptation mechanisms.

The pandemic has caused disruption to many aspects of scientific research. In this Comment the authors describe the findings from surveys of scientists between April 2020 and January 2021, which suggests there was a decline in new projects started in that time.

The logistical and practical challenges of supplying food for long-term space missions are substantial. In this comment, the authors discuss potential biotechnological approaches that could be used to aid the production of food crops in space.

Partnerships between academic investigators and industry can accelerate the translation of research findings into life-saving products. The healthcare industry has witnessed heightened interest from universities in capitalizing on the discoveries made by faculty to create intellectual property, form new companies and seek investments. However, academic investigators and even Biotechnology start-ups may be unfamiliar with how industry sources and evaluates these opportunities. In this Comment, we share the approaches and principles by which a large healthcare company sources innovation and assesses opportunities to serve as a guide to better deal making with the goal of improving health for humanity.

More and more clinical studies include potentially sensitive human proteomics or metabolomics datasets, but bioinformatics resources for managing the access to these data are not yet available. This commentary discusses current best practices and future perspectives for the responsible handling of clinical proteomics and metabolomics data.

A bank of 59 well-characterised prostate cancer patient-derived xenografts was established, including 17 classed as research-ready covering the disease-spectrum which, plus associated resources (organoids, serum, DNA/RNA profiles, tissue), are available for collaborative projects. This eagerly-anticipated resource will facilitate pre-clinical prostate cancer therapy studies.

Microglia are brain resident immune cells with multiple functions. However, little is known about microglia-vascular interactions. In a recent paper published in Nature Communications, Bisht et al. identify a signalling mechanism that attracts and maintains microglia at the capillary wall. Moreover, they show that microglia regulate capillary vascular tone, playing a more significant role in blood flow regulation than previously thought.

Spatially resolved transcriptomic data demand new computational analysis methods to derive biological insights. Here, we comment on these associated computational challenges as well as highlight the opportunities for standardized benchmarking metrics and data-sharing infrastructure in spurring innovation moving forward.

Synthetic biology has brought about a conceptual shift in our ability to redesign microbial metabolic networks. Combining metabolic pathway-modularization with growth-coupled selection schemes is a powerful tool that enables deep rewiring of the cell factories’ biochemistry for rational bioproduction.

Robust and precise characterization of the interactions between nanoengineered materials and biosystems is vital for the development of safe, efficient diagnostic and therapeutic nanomedicines. This comment discusses the key aspects of nanoparticle characteristics affecting the interpretation of nano-bio interface data.