Search

Active cell contraction drives hole nucleation, fracture and crack propagation in a tissue monolayer through a process reminiscent of dewetting thin films.

Metallocene-based phosphines are compounds with potential use in catalysis. Here, the authors report the electrochemical regioselective functionalization of group 8 metallocenes with phosphine oxides; over 60 examples of phosphorylated (benzo)ferrocenes and ruthenocenes can be accessed via this method without the need for a preinstalled directing group.

Li, Cheng, Yu and colleagues have discovered a Cas13j family, including the compact and highly efficient LepCas13j (529 aa) and ChiCas13j (424 aa), with promising applications in RNA editing in vivo.

Tracing cellular changes in complex biological systems is challenging. Here, authors present a flexible framework that integrates multi-sample data with in-house algorithms to infer comparative and spatiotemporal cell-gene patterns, advancing understanding of cellular dynamics.

Rab-controlled trafficking pathways have been implicated in tumourigenesis. Here the authors show that Rab37 suppresses metastasis by regulating the exocytosis of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1 to repress matrix metalloproteinase 9 and represents a novel prognostic marker for lung cancer.

Commercial complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor and resistive random-access memory technologies can be used to create multibit compute-in-memory circuits capable of fast and energy-efficient inference for use in small artificial intelligence edge devices.

Response rate to anti-CD276 based immunotherapy remains suboptimal in patients with cancer. Here, in a chemically-induced murine model of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, the authors show that expression of ITGB6 in tumor cells promotes resistance to anti-CD276 therapy, associated with accumulation of PF4+ macrophages and T cell dysfunction.

Amado et al. develop a gene therapy for sporadic ALS using motor neuron-targeting AAVs to deliver RNAi targeting ataxin-2. In a mouse model, survival, strength, and disease-related pathology are improved; and human motor neurons are strongly transduced.

Records of the Asian monsoon have been extended to 640,000 years ago, and confirm both that the 100,000-year ice age cycle results from integral numbers of precessional cycles and that insolation influences the pacing of major millennial-scale climate events.

Large-scale roll-to-roll-assisted blade coating is used in the production of scalable ultrastong MXene films with superior mechanical, electromagnetic shielding and bone regeneration properties.

Xue et al. develop a foundation model for spectral analysis. It excels in multiple tasks, such as denoising spectra and quantifying trace molecules, and is especially promising in identifying metabolic biomarkers of diseases such as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and prostate cancer.

Glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) contribute to therapeutic resistance via enhanced capability of DNA damage repair. Here the authors identify that the upregulated transcription factor AATF in GSCs modulates the stability and release of XRCC4 protein to promote DNA repair and resistance to radiotherapy.

KRAS^G12D mutations frequently co-occur with mutated TP53 tumour suppressor in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Here the authors report the design of dual targeted therapeutic extracellular vesicles containing high copy numbers of TP53 mRNA and siKRAS^G12D, showing anti-tumor activity in PDAC preclinical models.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

Quasi-random nanostructures are being considered for many photon management applications but their use has been limited by their costly fabrication. Here, Smith et al. show that the quasi-random patterns on Blu-ray movie discs are already near-optimized for light-trapping applications in solar cells.

As presented at the 2025 AACR Annual Meeting, in an ongoing first-in-human phase 1 trial of a next-generation KRAS-G12C inhibitor in patients with solid tumors, encouraging safety and response results were observed, including in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer.

Magnetic semiconductors provide control of spin states in addition to charge states realized in conventional semiconductors, yet currently limited to weak magnetism at low temperature. Liuet al. introduce oxygen into a ferromagnetic metallic glass, resulting in a Curie temperature above 600 K.

Organic fluorescent nanoparticles have potential biomaterials applications due to their low-toxicity and ‘green’ synthesis. Here, a series of self-assembled nanoparticles and polymers are synthesized with intense visible fluorescence stemming from chromophores of hydrogen-bonded monoacylglycerol clusters.

Using single-cell and spatial molecular profiling of infarcted mouse and human hearts, Li, Ni, Wang and colleagues identify a subset of cardiac fibroblasts expressing CD248 that plays a critical role in fibroblast–T cell interaction, and show that disrupting this interaction with monoclonal antibodies or anti-CD248 chimeric antigen receptor T cells results in reduced cardiac fibrosis and improved function.

Solid-state thermoelectrics can convert waste heat to electrical energy, but applications are hindered by long-term stability issues. Here cobalt is used as a contact layer with direct bonding to thermoelectric MgAgSb, enabling a thermoelectric module to achieve 10.2% conversion efficiency over 1,440 h of thermal cycling.

Although transition metal-based complexes featuring metal atoms in formally negative oxidation states are known, their stabilization without an organic ligand remains challenging. Now, lanthanide–nickel intermetallic complexes featuring an organic-ligand-free Ni²⁻ ion bound to electropositive lanthanides have been stabilized in fullerenes.

A zeolite-confined Cu single-atom cluster was developed for the electrochemical CO reduction application, which can achieve stable CO-to-acetate conversion at an industrial current density of 1 A cm⁻² at 2.7 V with a high acetate Faraday efficiency for over 1,000 h at atmospheric pressure.

The death of massive stars has traditionally been discovered by explosive events in the gamma-ray band. Liu et al. show that the sensitive wide-field monitor on board Einstein Probe can reveal a weak soft-X-ray signal much earlier than gamma rays.

SERS can be unreliable for biomedical use. The authors demonstrate a metal-free nanostructure composed of porous carbon nanowires in an array as a SERS substrate. It offers 10⁶ signal enhancement due to strong broadband charge-transfer resonance and substrate-to-substrate, spot-to-spot and time-to-time consistency in the SERS spectrum.

Understanding the development of subsolid nodules (SSNs) in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is important for their clinical management. Here, the authors perform proteogenomic analysis of 66 LUAD displayed as SSNs from 3 histological stages and highlight the role of endoplasmic reticulum stress in progression.

In this prespecified analysis of the ongoing TORCHLIGHT phase 3 trial, first-line treatment with toripalimab and nab-paclitaxel in patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer led to significantly longer progression-free survival in the PD-L1-positive population compared to nab-paclitaxel alone.

Heterocycles containing difluoromethyl groups are molecules with potential application in pharmaceutical, agricultural and materials science. Here, the authors show an organophotocatalytic difluoromethylation of heterocycles using O₂ as green oxidant and preliminarily study the products’ bioactivity.

The instability of quantum dot inks hinders the scaling up of colloidal quantum dot electronics. Now, Shi and team stabilize the inks with an iodine-rich environment in a weakly coordinating solvent, achieving 13.4% in small-area solar cells and over 10% in modules.

The authors design the stretchable thermoelectric porous graphene foam-based materials via facile laser scribing, demonstrating decoupled sensing of strain and temperature during the wound healing process in situ.

A computational framework to integrate microbial GWAS and single-cell RNA-sequencing profiles of 24 human organs reveals interactions between the host cells and microbes.

Heterometallic nanomaterials in unusual crystal phases that are impossible to form in the bulk state can show interesting physical and chemical properties. Here, crystal-phase heterostructured 4H/fcc Au nanowires are used as seeds to epitaxially grow a variety of binary and ternary hybrid noble metal nanostructures on the phase boundary.

Valley states can be used to realise topologically protected transport. Here, He et al. show that considering additional degrees of freedom, together with glide symmetry, allow the design of 2D acoustic topological pseudospin-valley coupled saddle surface states in 3D structures.

Linear scaling relationships often hinder the optimization of heterogeneous catalysts. Now, an intermediate spillover strategy is put forward by designing bi-component catalysts, thereby decoupling elementary electron-transfer steps and circumventing linear scaling relationships.

Brain iron accumulation has been associated with multiple brain disorders, but the mechanism is not well understood. Here, the authors investigate the genetic determinants of brain iron accumulation and their implications for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Diagnosing inherited retinal degeneration is challenging. This exploratory study showed that metabolomic profiles differ among different subtypes of IRD, and potential biomarkers could be identified to facilitate diagnosis workflow in the near future.

Effectiveness of the hepatitis E vaccine HEV 239 amongst high-risk groups isn’t well studied. Here, Zhuang et al. analyse a decade of surveillance data (2007–2017) from Dongtai, China, and estimate HEV 239 effectiveness of 72% amongst hepatitis B virus infected people.

Boron nitride nanosheets possess high in-plane thermal conductivity and high thermal contact resistance. Here the authors discover obliquely aligned nanosheets at the interface can act as a phonon bridge to lower the contact resistance.

Impaired mitochondrial long-chain fatty acid β-oxidation (mtLCFAO) in type 2 alveolar epithelial (AT2) cells is thought to aggravate alveolar inflammation in acute lung injury. Here, the authors show that the mtLCFAO rate limiting enzyme CPT1a is decreased in AT2 cells in acute respiratory distress syndrome, highlighting the role of mtLCFAO in immunometabolism in this context.