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Transesterification reactions are essential in organic chemistry, however, performing these reactions in aqueous media is challenging due to the competing hydrolysis reaction. Here, the authors report a mutant of alcohol oxidase from Phanerochaete chrysosporium (PcAOx-VPN) that exhibits no hydrolytic activity, enabling transesterification reactions in water.

A short peptide derived from a commensal-fungal-secreted protein promotes repair in models of colon epithelial damage when delivered directly or via probiotic microbes.

Tools to identify who will develop Crohn’s disease in the future are limited. Here, the authors develop and validate a proteomics-based model that predicts disease onset up to 16 years before clinical diagnosis.

The authors develop a miniaturized Mg3Bi2-based thermoelectric cooler, achieving a high cooling power density of 5.7 W cm-2 and a cooling speed of 65 K s-1, demonstrating great promise for localized thermal management in electronics.

Interlayer coupling between two-dimensional materials is known to result in interesting physical properties. Here, the authors study the effect of a twist angle between two-dimensional molybdenum disulphide on interlayer coupling, observing an indirect bandgap, the size of which depends on the twist angle.

This study identifies copper homeostasis mechanisms in K. pneumoniae, revealing gene deletions reduce tolerance, virulence, and increase susceptibility.

The authors obtain the TiCoSb-based single-crystals with a dimension exceeding 1 cm, leading to an extraordinary enhancement in electron mobility and consequently, an average power factor of 37 W cm⁻¹ K⁻² in the Nb-doped TiCoSb single-crystal.

Owing to strong Coulomb interactions, atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides host strongly bound excitonic complexes. Here, the authors report charge-neutral biexciton and negatively charged trion-exciton complexes in hBN encapsulated monolayer WSe₂ by employing low-temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy.

Undefined vacuole-like ultrastructures between epididymal cells have been observed. Here, the authors reveal that these structures contain organelle residues and protein aggregates that suggest a reservoir for protein recycling.

The mechanisms by which tillandsioids adapt to elevated aerial habitats remain largely unexplored. Here, the authors report their evolution and link life history, diversification, comparative genomic, and functional changes to processes underlying the unique biology of air plants.

Strongly correlated insulating Mott and generalized Wigner phases are detected in WSe₂/WS₂ moiré superlattices, and their electrical properties and excited spin states are studied using an optical technique.

Moiré superlattice exciton states are observed in WSe₂/WS₂ heterostructures with closely aligned layers.

Stacked 2D materials can host excitons with distinct valley selection rules due to the spatial variation of the moiré pattern. The authors demonstrate this via optical spectroscopy, opening a route for control of optoelectronic devices.

Here, the authors employ shotgun-metagenomic sequencing to profile the microbiome of Singaporean octogenarians, finding key microbial shifts and metabolic changes in the gut, in particular expanded butyrate production from alternate precursors and identifying microbes linked to health in aging populations.

Layer-stacking domain walls in bi- and trilayer graphene are engineered individually and moved, erased and mechanically split by means of an atomic force microscope tip.

A high-throughput optical imaging and spectroscopy technique has now been developed that characterizes the chirality and electronic structure of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes either on their growth substrate or in functional devices.

2D surface plasmon polaritons are used to probe the domain-wall solitons in bilayer graphene; near-field infrared nanoscopy reveals various domain-wall structures in mechanically exfoliated graphene bilayers.

The emergence of optically silent phonons show that strong interlayer electron–phonon coupling can arise in van der Waals heterostructures, with the vibrational modes in one layer coupling to the electronic states in a neighbouring layer.

Electrons in graphene have a pseudospin, but controlling this degree of freedom is challenging. Evidence now suggests that the moiré superlattices arising in two-dimensional heterostructures can be used to electrically manipulate pseudospins.

Two concentric carbon nanotubes don’t need to have a common finite unit cell. Absorption spectra of such incommensurate double-walled carbon nanotubes reveal strong hybridization of the electron wavefunctions — unusual for van der Waals-coupled structures. The observations can be rationalized by zone folding the electronic structure of twisted-and-stretched graphene bilayers.

Investigation of the electronic structure in few-layer phosphorene reveals optical transitions relevant for technologically important electronic and optoelectronic applications.

The charge transfer between two layers of different two-dimensional materials occurs at a much faster speed than expected, holding promise for efficient optoelectronic devices.

The long lifetime and spin properties of dark excitons in atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides offer opportunities to explore light-matter interactions beyond electric dipole transitions. Here, the authors demonstrate that the coupling of the dark exciton and an optically silent chiral phonon enables the intrinsic photoluminescence of the dark-exciton replica in monolayer WSe₂

Substitutional doping is well-established in traditional semiconductors but has not been extensively explored in two-dimensional semiconductors. Here, the authors investigate the structural and electronic effects of Nb doping in MoS₂ crystals.

The bandgap of bilayer graphene can be tuned with an electric field and topological valley polarized modes have been predicted to exist at its domain boundaries; here, near-field infrared imaging and low-temperature transport measurements reveal such modes in gapped bilayer graphene.

This Review discusses recent experimental and theoretical efforts in electron dynamics in TMDC heterostructures and the relevance of these effects for potential applications in optoelectronic and valleytronic/spintronic devices.

Phthalate acid ester hydrolases are of promise for the microbial degradation of phthalate acid ester plasticizers, however, only a small number of PAE hydrolases have been characterized. Here, the authors report the structural and functional characterization of MehpH, a monoalkyl phthalate (MBP) hydrolase that degrades MBP to phthalic acid and butanol.