Perspectives in 2025

Astrobiology’s insights from biological systems and extreme environments on Earth can directly advance sustainable technologies, from energy production to bioremediation. This perspective urges a deliberate translation of astrobiology to applied sciences to support both planetary stewardship and the search for life beyond Earth.

Ibanez et al. introduce multimodal diversity, a synergistic framework integrating multimodal brain metrics, whole-body health, and exposomic data through neurosyndemic computational modeling to advance context-sensitive precision brain health across global settings.

Operando infrared spectroscopy tracks surface species during catalysis. Here, the authors report that some observed adsorbates act as storage rather than active sites, emphasizing the need for cautious interpretation of kinetic and spectroscopic data in CO oxidation and hydrogenation reactions.

Mobility impairment reduces autonomy and social participation. Here, the authors discuss how wearable technologies are transforming assisted mobility towards more adaptive, intuitive, and user-centered solutions.

Phage therapy shows promise for treating bacterial infections, including those resistant to antibiotics, but its development faces scientific and regulatory hurdles. This Perspective outlines the regulatory landscape in TATFAR member states and their collaborative effort to advance phage therapy.

In this Perspective, the authors provide a view on the state of the microbiome research in Latin America and the Caribbean, and present the Latinbiota Consortium, a collaborative network to foster inclusive participation by regional researchers within global microbiome science.

Orphan crops hold great potential to address global food security challenges. Here, the authors review recent advances in orphan crop genomics and discuss the potential for accelerating orphan crop breeding by integrating de novo domestication, speed breeding, and AI-assisted phenomics.

This paper proposes a research agenda towards the more just, equitable and effective integration of gender into blue carbon initiatives. It is a call-to-action towards closing the gender gap in the conservation and restoration of these ecosystems.

Drug-tolerant persister (DTP) cells are a rare subpopulation of cancer cells that can survive chemotherapy through reversible non-genetic mechanisms. Here, the authors provide their perspective on the existing gaps and outline the research paths still required to bridge basic DTP research with effective clinical strategies.

Edge AI enables intelligent perception in sensory devices, yet at excessive energy costs. This Perspective outlines a neuro-inspired vision for efficient edge perception, sketching the design space of data-driven and stateful dynamic sparsity to selectively activate sensors, memory, and compute.

Synthetic riboswitches are a burgeoning regulatory tool in the field of molecular biology. Here, the authors explore the unique features of synthetic riboswitches, highlight key applications, assess current bottlenecks and limitations and put them in context with emerging solutions.

Small-angle scattering is widely applied to nanoscale material systems enabling in-situ measurements, statistically significant analysis and the study of stimuli dependent dynamic changes. Here, the authors show how small-angle scattering techniques can be applied to the characterization of supramolecular polymers and complement other routinely used techniques.

In this perspective, the authors propose integrating urban nature and its biodiversity into the 15-minute city concept to meet both human needs and biodiversity conservation goals.

Bio-hybrid photoelectrochemical systems integrate microbial components with abiotic conductors/semiconductors for solar fuels and chemical conversion. Here, the authors analyze the bottlenecks related to catalytic efficiency, stability and scalability, and propose strategies to address these challenges.

Meningeal immunity represents an emerging focus in neuroimmune interactions with implications for vaccine development. Here, the authors review how insights from meningeal immunity are being integrated into vaccine innovation, with implications for treating CNS tumors, infectious diseases, and age-related neuroinflammation.

Synthetic one-carbon assimilation could contribute to a more sustainable and circular carbon economy, but much work in this field has focused on model microorganisms. Here the authors provide their perspective on the potential value of non-model microbes, and how that potential could be realised.

Aging is a complex process resulting in a decline in organ function. Here the authors proposes that chronic activation of tissue damage response mechanisms drives aging, with aged organs displaying features similar to those seen after acute injury. This provides a unifying framework for understanding the aging process and suggests new directions for treating age-related diseases.

This study develops a biophysical theory explaining root anatomical allometry as a regulator for carbon-nutrient exchange with mycorrhizal fungi. Accordingly, arbuscules residing inner cortical layers can improve carbon efficiency in nutrient uptake.