Search

Hepatitis C virus remains a health burden due to the lack of an effective vaccine, hindered by difficulties in replicating the native E1E2 antigen structure. Here, the authors engineer a stabilized E1E2 heterodimer using cryo-EM-guided modifications, enhancing immunogenicity and paving the way for future HCV vaccine development.

Although river protection is core to social and environmental well-being, the extent to which river conservation policies are effective is difficult to assess. This study reveals that, under all relevant protection mechanisms in the contiguous USA, only 12% of rivers are adequately protected.

This study mapped normative growth trajectories of 28 fetal brain phenotypes derived from 4,205 3D ultrasound scans collected across 7 international sites. The low variance between sites reinforces the principle that the brain develops similarly when environmental constraints are minimal.

Post-acute infection syndromes often have heterogeneous symptoms that are difficult to interpret. Here, the authors develop a latent trajectory analysis framework designed to categorise complex relationships in longitudinal data into distinct disease phenotypes and analyse transitions between them.

Conventional slurry electrodes limit high-energy lithium batteries. This work shows that dry-processed electrodes with molecularly coupled carbon–binder networks enable high mass and active material loading, supporting stable high-voltage operation and enhancing battery energy density.

A 3D human gut–brain–vascular microphysiological system reveals bidirectional blood-borne signaling, in which gut-derived bacterial toxins induce neuroinflammation and tau pathology, while Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease–associated brain signals compromise vascular and intestinal barrier integrity.

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.

Mucosal administration of a multivalent, adjuvanted vaccine against Clostridioides difficile promoted bacterial clearance and protected against morbidity, mortality, tissue damage and recurrence in mice.

Here the authors compare genetic testing strategies in rare movement disorders, improve diagnostic yield with genome analysis, and establish CD99L2 as an X-linked spastic ataxia gene, showing that CD99L2–CAPN1 signaling disruption likely drives neurodegeneration.

Synthetic materials are known for their outstanding durability and water stability, however, in contrast with biological structures they are not biodegradable. Here, the authors produce a biological material that gains strength in contact with water and becomes waterproof.

While therapies targeting type I BRAF mutations have been developed, there are limited options for those with type II and III mutations. Here, the authors identify a subset of BRAF-mutant non-small cell lung cancer patients and characterise the pan-RAF inhibitor exarafenib, demonstrating efficacy in preclinical models and investigating subsequent resistance mechanisms.

Here, the authors show that 2’-O-methylated RNA fragments from ribosomal RNA naturally block TLR7 and TLR8, helping to avoid avoid harmful self-RNA detection and autoimmunity.

In this study, the authors present optimization and efficacy testing of apolipoprotein-based lipid nanoparticles for delivering various nucleic acid therapeutics in vivo to immune cells and their progenitors in the bone marrow.

Electroreduction of CO is an emerging route to produce multicarbon molecules, but achieving this efficiently in solid-state devices is challenging. Here the authors develop a cation-functionalized layer using polyacrylate in a solid-state electrolyser that produces ethylene stably and efficiently from syngas.

In vitro propagation of the pathogenic bacterium Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q fever, leads to attenuated virulence and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) truncation. Here, Long et al. show that a strain considered to be avirulent (NMII) can be recovered from infected animals, and these isolates display increased virulence and an elongated LPS due to reversion of a 3-bp mutation in a gene.

Analysis of the somatic and transcriptomic profile of 123 acral melanoma samples from Mexican patients helps understand tumour origins and prognosis, and highlights the importance of including samples from diverse ancestries in cancer genomics studies.

Chen et al. developed a self-powered smart magnetoelastic stent for real-time hemodynamic monitoring and stenosis detection.

This study shows how the bacterial retron Eco2 defends against viruses. Phage nucleases trigger activation of Eco2, which cuts RNAs, shuts down protein production and stops phage replication.

Saturated, three-dimensional scaffolds are key in modern drug discovery, and highly strained rings serve as privileged building blocks for their synthesis. Now, by tailoring the substitution patterns of 1,4-precursors, the authors suppress the competing di-π-methane rearrangement, enabling an efficient and divergent synthesis of highly strained housanes via an intramolecular [2 + 2] cycloaddition.

The electronic behaviour of complex oxides such as LaNiO₃ depends on many intrinsic and extrinsic factors, making it challenging to identify microscopic mechanisms. Here the authors demonstrate the influence of oxygen vacancies on the thickness-dependent metal-insulator transition of LaNiO₃ films.

Using two newly developed immunoassays tested in three clinical cohorts, this study highlights CSF DOPA decarboxylase as a promising biomarker for differentiating dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease from Alzheimer’s disease and controls.

Verhaege et al. identify a conserved fibroblast barrier population at the base of the choroid plexus that compartmentalizes brain–CSF interfaces and is disrupted by inflammation, revealing a new site of central nervous system immune entry and barrier regulation.

Over the past 40 years, 42% of tropical and subtropical ecosystems have experienced an increase in plant reliance on past precipitation, consistent with greening during the late growing season in drylands and drying during the wet-to-dry period in non-drylands.

Birds are iconic and valued users of urban parks. An assessment of 935 parks across 186 US cities shows that a range of park features across multiple parks are needed to broadly support avian diversity and that the regional and seasonal effects of tree canopy cover are especially important.

A follow-up analysis of a clinical trial that evaluated anti-PD-1 therapy in patients with cancer who are living with HIV provides mechanistic insights into transcriptomic, cellular and cytokine changes related to immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment and identifies a signature associated with clinical response.

A scalable architecture that is based on a quantum dot crossbar array comprising tightly pitched spin-qubit tiles and implemented in planar germanium, can be used characterize spin qubits.

Plasma p-tau217 tests used to develop clocks that predict when cognitively unimpaired individuals would develop symptoms of Alzheimerʼs disease.

This study identifies KAT7 as a key factor converting zinc deficiency into reduced H3K14ac. This signal drives both physiological zinc homeostasis and, upon prolonged deficiency, pathophysiological liver fat accumulation.

Vertical transmission is thought to favour beneficial host–microbe interactions, but these may also be context dependent. Here Bruijning et al. show with a model that variable environments can select for bet-hedging by hosts via imperfect vertical transmission of microbes.

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.

Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgardarchaeota, in conditions that may have given rise to early eukaryotes.

The lowest-frequency gravitational wave background may be shaped by supermassive black hole binaries that scatter nearby stars or dark matter. In this case, the NANOGrav 15-year dataset favours dense galactic centres with 10⁶ solar masses per cubic parsec.

Carboxysomes are cyanobacterial CO₂-concentrating compartments with a proteinaceous shell. The elucidation of the role of the shell adaptor protein ApN in stepwise β-carboxysome assembly will aid the engineering of these structures in plants.

Boosting mitochondrial metabolism in neurons in central memory circuits by enhancing Ca²⁺ retention in the mitochondrial matrix is shown to improve long-term memory formation in flies and mice.

Using 63 globally distributed grassland and shrubland sites from the International Drought Experiment, this study identified plant traits linked to drought resistance after 1 year of extreme drought across growth forms, lifespans and climate.

A national classification system of wetland hydrologic connectivity to streams, which could be applied globally, demonstrates and advances current understanding of how wetland connectivity affects surface water quality.

Human visual system relies on temporal attention to detect moving objects before high-level processing with large computational overheads. Wang et al. emulate this function in a neuromorphic hardware, showing a 400% speedup compared to algorithm-based visual perception and surpassing human capabilities.

Natural genetic variation of photosynthesis is an underexplored resource for plant genetic improvement. Here, the authors find allelic variations of YS1 affect Arabidopsis photosynthesis acclimation using genome-wide association study, reverse genetics, and quantitative complementation approaches.

Conventional type 1 dendritic cells (cDC1) can boost the precursor exhausted T cell population thought to be essential for efficacy of immune checkpoint therapy. Here the authors enhance this cellular network using Flt3L to expand cDC1s and then map the movement of T cells and DCs between tumors and lymph nodes.

Global Burden of Disease estimates show that between 1990 and 2023, the prevalence and burden of drug use disorders, inclusive of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and opioid use, have been increasing in high-income countries, particularly in the USA.

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.

Biodegradable enzymatic microbubble robots self-propel in urea, are magnetically or chemotactically guided, provide ultrasound imaging and enhance intratumoural drug delivery with focused ultrasound.

In this article, the authors characterise genetic variation in CARTaGENE, a population-based cohort from Quebec, Canada. This genomic resource enables population and disease genetic studies in a founder population and other under-represented groups.