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Volume 21 Issue 11, November 2024

Microscopic art

An image of a section of small intestine from a mouse won fourth place in the Nikon Small World 2024 Photomicrography competition.

See Editorial

Image: Amy Engevik, Medical University of South Carolina. Cover design: Thomas Phillips

Editorial

  • With a pictorial Editorial this month, we celebrate the beauty of microscopy images.

    Editorial

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This Month

  • When spouses are both scientists, they mix the typical research career decisions with some marriage-related ones.

    • Vivien Marx
    This Month
  • The Australian bearded dragon is so called for its distinctive ‘beard’ of spiky scales that can darken and expand during social and defensive displays. This lizard has become a reptilian model system to study the evolution, function and dynamics of neurons and neural circuits (including during sleep) in the amniote brain.

    • Lorenz A. Fenk
    • Felix Baier
    • Gilles Laurent

    Collection:

    This Month
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Correspondence

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Research Highlights

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Technology Feature

  • A new generation of increasingly powerful magnets is dramatically extending the resolution, speed and analytical capabilities of magnetic resonance imaging for brain research.

    • Michael Eisenstein

    Collection:

    Technology Feature
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News & Views

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Research Briefings

  • Very high-resolution images of the human brain obtained in vivo in a few minutes with MRI at an ultra-high magnetic field of 11.7 T reveal exquisite details. Biological and behavioral tests confirm the safety of the method, opening the door for human brain exploration at mesoscale resolution.

    Research Briefing
  • Quantitative and sensitive methods for the detection of pseudouridine (Ψ) have been lacking. Now, a method termed 2-bromoacrylamide-assisted cyclization sequencing (BACS) has been developed that enables the accurate quantification of Ψ stoichiometry, precise identification of Ψ positions and robust detection of densely modified Ψ sites.

    Research Briefing
  • Similarly to CRISPR–Cas systems, TnpB proteins from bacterial transposons can be employed as RNA-guided endonucleases for genome editing. By combining rational protein design and machine learning, ISDra2 TnpB variants with enhanced editing efficiency and a broader targeting range were developed, along with a prediction tool to design effective guiding RNAs.

    Research Briefing
  • We developed LABEL-seq, a platform that enables measurement of protein properties and functions at scale by leveraging the intracellular self-assembly of an RNA-binding domain (RBD) and protein-encoding RNA barcode. Enrichment of RBD–protein fusions, followed by high-throughput sequencing of the co-enriched barcodes, enables the profiling of protein abundance, activity, interactions and druggability at scale.

    Research Briefing
  • The accuracy of SCUBA-D, a protein backbone structure diffusion model trained independently and orthogonally to existing protein structure prediction networks, is confirmed by the X-ray structures of 16 designed proteins and a protein complex, and by experimental validation of designed heme-binding proteins and Ras-binding proteins.

    Research Briefing
  • Voltage imaging, a promising technique for directly recording neuronal activity, faces barriers to broad application due to current limitations in compatible imaging modalities. Our team introduces an advanced confocal light field microscopy method enabling high-throughput, rapid and low-noise 3D voltage imaging in awake mice.

    Research Briefing
  • A robotic neural recording system can sense the intended motion of the mouse that it is connected to, and it moves with the animal as it explores physical spaces. The robot can support recording interfaces that are much heavier and larger than mice and provide new capabilities for brain-wide recordings in locomoting mice.

    Research Briefing
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Review Articles

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Brief Communications

  • PGGB is a modular framework for efficiently building unbiased pangenome graphs, supporting diverse downstream analyses.

    • Erik Garrison
    • Andrea Guarracino
    • Pjotr Prins
    Brief Communication
  • In a technological tour de force, a whole-body 11.7-T MRI scanner has been developed. Here images of the human brain are presented while safety for the imaged human volunteers has been ascertained.

    • Nicolas Boulant
    • Franck Mauconduit
    • Denis Le Bihan
    Brief Communication Open Access
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Articles

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Analysis

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