Search

Exhaustion is a functional state that hampers anti-cancer and antiviral CD8 T cell activity, and is preceded by a stem-like state, maintained by the transcription factor TCF1. Here authors develop mouse models that allow a precise understanding of the developmental trajectory between the stem-cell-like and exhausted states of CD8 T cells and find that while constitutive overexpression of TCF1 expands the stem-like T cell pool, TCF1 expression specifically in already exhausted cells is unable to promote dedifferentiation.

Experimentally assessing entropy production in nanosystems is challenging. Now, the dissipation is visualized in a time-dependently driven non-Markovian quantum-dot blinking process in real time.

From 2014–2017, marine heatwaves caused global mass coral bleaching, where the corals lose their symbiotic algae. The authors find, this event exceeded the severity of all prior global bleaching events in recorded history, with approximately half the world’s reefs bleaching and 15% experiencing substantial mortality.

The microbiomes associated with reef corals are complex and diverse. Here, the authors investigate fire coral clones naturally occurring in distinct habitats as a model system to disentangle the contribution of host genotype and environment on their microbiome, and predict genomic functions based on taxonomic profiles.

Earth’s core is arguably the largest reservoir of hydrogen (H) on the planet. Experiments show that H sequestration is coupled with those of Si and O, enabling the core to store the equivalent of dozens of Earth’s oceans.

This paper uses multiomics to profile a large cohort of meningioma samples to highlight the role of the tumor microenvironment in driving the epigenetic changes underpinning tumor classification and prediction of outcome.

Gallrein et al. pair functional assays with clocks to compare chronological versus biological age of single neuron types in C. elegans, to probe their vulnerability or resilience to neurodegeneration, and use an in silico screen to identify neuroprotective drugs.

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

Symmetry breaking is key to tissue formation. Now it is shown that symmetry breaking of epithelial spheroids is controlled by an interplay of collective migration with curvature and matrix remodelling.

Natural products populate areas of chemical space not occupied by average synthetic molecules. Here, an analysis of more than 180,000 natural product structures results in a library of 2,000 natural-product-derived fragments, which resemble the properties of the natural products themselves and give access to novel inhibitor chemotypes.

Optically trapped CaOH molecules in parity-doublet states achieve coherence times exceeding vibrational lifetimes, which are a defining milestone for the use of polyatomic molecules in quantum science.

The study shows a micron-scale polariton structure where an artificial gauge field creates topological, non-reciprocal edge transport without strong magnetic fields, overcoming key limits for topological polariton lasers and devices.

The authors report the experimental observation of room-temperature condensation of exciton polaritons in quasi-2D layered crystals of halide perovskite, integrated into an open optical microcavity. These materials combine van-der-Waals properties with dominant exciton physics at room temperature.

A cortical premotor network in HVC, once initiated, can sustain and regulate the sequential production of zebra finch song syllables without major extrinsic inputs.

The ribosomal GTPase, LepA or EF4, can promote back-translocation of tRNAs, thus reversing translocation. The cryo-EM structure of the ribosome with EF4 now suggests how such back-translocation can be allowed to occur and reveals that the tRNA is in an intermediate state that deviates from its canonical position.

One of three back-to-back papers to show dosage of BACH2 can modulate T cell differentiation and function and how we might apply this to enhance chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapies for cancer.

Caspase 8 protein expression is largely absent in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. Here, the authors generate a caspase 8 deletion SCLC mouse model and show that it promotes a neuronal progenitor-like cell state and pre-tumoral immunosuppression triggered by necroptosis that promotes metastasis.

Zygnematophycean algae are the closest algal relatives of land plants. This study compares the osmatic stress response of two of these species, finding a core set of molecular protective components and providing insights into the toolkit needed for plant terrestrialization.

How do bacteria control formate flow, essential for microbial life? Researchers detected specialized molecular checkpoints that fine-tune small-molecule transport by combining cryo-electron microscopy with in silico, in vitro and in vivo approaches.

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome is characterized by premature aging with cardiovascular disease being the main cause of death. Here the authors show that inhibition of the NAT10 enzyme enhances cardiac function and fitness, and reduces age-related phenotypes in a mouse model of premature aging.

While the photoreceptor outer segments in the bird outer retina have access to oxygen, the inner retina operates under chronic anoxia, supported by anaerobic glycolysis in the retinal neurons.

Integrating complex multi-omics data for individual patient decision making can be challenging. Here, the authors develop Knowledge Connector as a decision support system to generate and document Molecular Tumor Board recommendations and support medical decision-making.

This study reveals that closely related microorganisms tend to inhabit similar communities across all major environments and phyla. The authors term this phenomenon ‘community conservatism’, extending the ecological concepts of phylogenetic signal and niche conservatism to the microbial world.

Bessler et al. developed a human organoid model for H3.3K27M-altered diffuse midline glioma that recapitulates key tumor features and demonstrated its utility for modeling CAR T cell and microglia functions.

In this study, Weber et al., investigate the long-term survival and integration of human stem cell-derived neural progenitors into the stroke-injured mouse brains. They report grafted cells integrate into host circuits and mediate repair through graft-host crosstalk via neurexin, neuregulin, neural cell adhesion molecules, and SLIT signalling pathways.

McGrail and colleagues report that high intratumoral bacteria abundance is associated with an immunosuppressive microenvironment and resistance to immune checkpoint blockade in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Pulmonary type 2 inflammation is associated with type 2 innate lymphoid cells. Here the authors use the Collaborative Cross mouse panel to show that ILC2 abundance during type 2 lung inflammation is different across the panel and identify free-fatty acid receptor 3 (Ffar3) as a gene responsible and show cytokine and ILC2 functional changes.

The authors propose and demonstrate the concept of photonic-electronic arbitrary-waveform generation, overcoming the bandwidth limitations of all-electronic systems. The idea is to exploit quadrature multiplexing of optical waveforms and opto-electronic conversion by phase-stabilized coherent detection.

Synaptic vesicle fusion is essential for neuronal communication, yet its nanoscale sequence has not been directly confirmed. Here, the authors use timed in situ cryo-electron tomography to visualize the full fusion process and its link to vesicle resupply.

SpbK protects Bacillus subtilis from phage infection by depleting NAD⁺. In this study, the authors uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying SpbK’s self association-dependent NADase activity and its activation by the SPβ phage portal protein YonE.

As quantum simulations advance, improving classical methods for modelling quantum systems remains crucial as they provide key benchmarks for quantum simulators. Here the authors present a scalable tensor-network algorithm for simulating open quantum systems, addressing key limitations of existing approaches.

A combined cryo-electron tomography and cryo-electron microscopy pipeline was developed to inflict axonal damage and monitor the cellular response induced by epothilone B, revealing that microtubule polymerization at and beyond the lesion site promote axon regeneration.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) variability and its phenotypic consequences aren’t well studied in relation to viral replication fitness and disease severity. Here, the authors identify a replication-enhancing domain in non-structural protein 5A, linking high replication fitness to severe disease outcomes, with implications for understanding HCV pathogenesis in immunocompromised patients.

A cell surface reporter that binds to a fluorine-18-labelled radioligand enables the monitoring of CAR T cells and gene therapy vectors in preclinical models using PET imaging.

Magneto-optical traps (MOTs) are a workhorse for laser cooling of atoms and were recently extended to molecules. Yet, new mechanisms for molecular trapping and cooling are still an open area of exploration. Here, the authors show a blue-detuned MOT based on a conveyor-belt effect for CaF molecules, yielding higher number densities, comparable with some atomic MOTs.

Building scalable quantum technologies requires generating robust many-body entanglement in solid-state platforms. This Review highlights how engineered light–matter interactions, optical nonlinearities and coupling to nanophotonic structures enable coherent many-body entangled states that are resilient to disorder and decoherence.

Authors show that single-molecule mapping of sugar–receptor interactions on immune cells uncovers strong subcellular variation linked to receptor function.

Analysis of the ejection of electrons in a plane perpendicular to an incident electron beam reveals unexpected differences between the ionization behaviour of atoms and molecules. For molecules that have nuclei at their centres of mass, the angular distribution of emitted electrons is similar to that of atoms. But for those that don’t, the shape of this distribution is qualitatively different.

Here, as part of the Sherlock-Lung study, the authors profile the microbiomes of 940 lung cancers in never smokers finding no significant associations with demographic and clinical features, suggesting lung bacteria are unlikely to have a sizable role in lung cancer.

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.

The authors demonstrate a proof-of-principle example of an NH-π hydrogen bond on the surface of an intrinsically disordered protein through detection of weak scalar couplings by NMR, supported by Molecular Dynamics simulation and DFT calculations.

Here the authors report that brown adipocyte-derived vaspin reduces heat-producing activity in brown fat by blocking adrenergic signals, helping to regulate energy expenditure and maintain metabolic balance.

Neural networks fundamentally dictate function. Here, the authors show thirteen uniquely connected neuron populations within the anterior thalamic nuclei, suggesting multiple parallel subnetworks support its emotional and cognitive functions.

During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, the Antarctic ice sheet crossed several thresholds that formed a stable West Antarctic Ice Sheet and amplified 100,000-year variability.

The authors use femtosecond-timed Coulomb explosion to study in real time the bimolecular reaction of a single lithium ion diffusing toward a benzene dimer inside a liquid helium nanodroplet until formation of an ion-molecule complex.

Current photoproximity labelling methods often require metal-based catalysts to map protein interactomes but, owing to their toxicity, they have limited intracellular applicability. A deazaflavin cofactor has now been developed as a biocompatible alternative for diazirine activation inside living cells, offering accurate mapping of protein interactors and dynamics with excellent spatio-temporal control.

Designing single molecules capable of complex sensing functions is challenging. Now, using crowdsourced RNA designs from the online game Eterna, compact single-molecule sensors have been demonstrated for a variety of tasks, including a complex three-input tuberculosis diagnostic. The development of a Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm enabled automated design of similarly sophisticated nucleic-acid sensors.