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Poly(carboxybetaine) lipids enhance mRNA lipid nanoparticles efficacy and reduce their immunogenicity, being promising alternatives to poly(ethylene) glycol lipids used in traditional mRNA lipid nanoparticle formulations.

Molten salts support clean energy, but modeling their behavior is complex. Here, authors introduce SuperSalt, a machine learning potential, and SuperSalt-BO, a global optimization tool, to predict chloride melt properties and discover optimal compositions.

Grain boundaries have an important role in determining the properties of polycrystalline materials but little has been known about changes in their atomic structure. Timofey Frolov and colleagues show that variations in atomic density in a boundary can produce different and unexpected boundary structures.

Riebesell et al. introduce Matbench Discovery, a framework to compare machine learning models used to identify stable crystals. Out of several architectures, they find that universal interatomic potentials perform best in the competition.

Grain boundaries strongly influence the properties of crystalline materials, but identifying their multiple phases remains difficult. Here, authors show a new tool for automated grain boundary structure prediction with an application to Ti.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells, and the complete aetiology of the disease is still unclear. Here the authors perform an additional GWAS analysis followed by a meta-analysis with existing GWAS and replication genotyping and identify 6 novel risk loci and utilise gene expression, epigenetic profiling and in situ Hi-C data to further our understanding of MM susceptibility.

The electrostatic interactions in aqueous ionic media are screened by mobile charge carriers, limiting device design and operation speed. Here the built-in electric field is leveraged to dope ions into vanadium dioxide, triggering a surface insulator-to-metal transition, further enabling high-speed in-memory sensing in aqueous solutions.

Previous genome-wide association studies have identified loci associated with the risk of multiple myeloma. Here, the authors present a meta-analysis of six genome wide association studies of the disease and identify eight new loci; functional studies identify genes as candidates for the basis of these associations.

Genome-wide association analyses of intracranial and nine subcortical brain volumes in 74,898 participants of European ancestry identify 254 independent loci and yield polygenic scores accounting for brain variation across ancestries.

Oestrogen negative breast cancer is associated with a poor prognosis. In this study, the authors perform a meta-analysis of 11 breast cancer genome-wide association studies and identify four new loci associated with oestrogen negative breast cancer risk. These findings may aid in stratifying patients in the clinic.

Metal alloys consisting of three or more major elemental components show enhanced mechanical properties, which are now shown to be correlated with short-range order observed with electron microscopy.

Understanding the emergence, evolution, and transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) is essential to combat antimicrobial resistance. Here, Munk et al. analyse ARGs in hundreds of sewage samples from 101 countries and describe regional patterns, diverse genetic environments of common ARGs, and ARG-specific transmission patterns.

The hippocampus in mammalian brain varies in size across individuals. Here, Hibar and colleagues perform a genome-wide association meta-analysis to find six genetic loci with significant association to hippocampus volume.

Materials design and informatics have become increasingly prominent over the past several decades. Using the Materials Project as an example, this Perspective discusses how properties are calculated and curated, how this knowledge can be used for materials discovery, and the challenges in modelling complex material systems or managing software architecture.

Cortex morphology varies with age, cognitive function, and in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Here the authors report 160 genome-wide significant associations with thickness, surface area and volume of the total cortex and 34 cortical regions from a GWAS meta-analysis in 22,824 adults.

Genome-wide analysis identifies variants associated with the volume of seven different subcortical brain regions defined by magnetic resonance imaging. Implicated genes are involved in neurodevelopmental and synaptic signaling pathways.

Conventional plasmons in metals often suffer from high plasmonic loss in the optical range. Here, the authors report a distinct form of tunable correlated plasmons in Mott-like insulating Sr_1−xNbO_3+δfilms, with multiple plasmon frequencies and low loss in the visible-ultraviolet range.

Various known structural descriptors of metallic glasses have limitations in quantitatively predicting properties. Here authors define a physically-motivated measure and show it to correlate strongly with elastic properties, local structure and relaxation kinetics over a wide range of simulated compositions.

A high proportion of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases in Denmark were sequenced during the pandemic and linked to demographic, spatial and temporal data. Here, the authors analyse 290,000 genomes sampled in 2021 to demonstrate the value of this high coverage, detailed data set.

High and medium-entropy alloys have shown excellent mechanical performance, yet the role of short-range order (SRO) on these properties has been unclear. Here, the authors demonstrate that the reduction of SRO by deformation leads to rejuvenation, explaining their remarkable damage tolerance.

There is a lack of guiding parameters to design metallic materials such as high-entropy alloys with strength-ductility synergy. Here, the authors propose such an effective parameter κ, the ratio of short-ranged interactions between closed-pack planes, experimentally validated by six alloys.

Corrosion is a ubiquitous failure mode in materials. Here the authors report a percolating 1D wormhole corrosion morphology using advanced electron microscopy and theoretical simulations. The work presents a vacancy mapping method with nm-resolution, identifying the incubation sites of the wormholes.

Surfaces of electrodes evolve with charging and discharging cycles, leading to deterioration of battery performance. Here Lin et al. report structural reconstruction and chemical evolution at the surface of a stoichiometric layered cathode material with spectroscopy and microscopy techniques.

Compositional heterogeneity in high-entropy alloys (HEAs) has gained lots of attention, but its relation with the properties remains vague. Here the authors report an anomalous size effect on strength by the compositional heterogeneity, which provides new insights in its connection to properties.

Transmission electron microscopy reveals the electroplastic effects in a Ti–Al alloy, which can be uncoupled from Joule heating effects. Electropulsing during deformation enhances wavy slip of dislocations, reconfiguring the dislocation pattern, and hence increases the ductility.

Refractory high entropy alloys hold big promise for elevated-temperature applications. Here the authors investigate the influence of short-range order on the mobility of dislocations in high-entropy alloys by large-scale molecular dynamics simulation based on a machine-learning interatomic potential.

Individual addition of O or Al is known to deteriorate ductility of Ti alloys, especially at cryogenic temperatures. Here the authors demonstrate a counter-intuitive effect where significant addition of both Al and O substantially improves both strength and ductility in a Ti-6Al-0.3 O ternary alloy.

The performance of wide-bandgap perovskite photovoltaics is limited by the undesired phase transition and high density of deep level traps. Here, Tan et al. incorporate dipolar methylammonium cation to make the material defect-tolerant and achieve a high power conversion efficiency of 20.7%.

Observing defect formation during bulk metallic glass deformation remains challenging. Here, the authors combine in situ nanobeam electron diffraction and large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to directly link changes to the local atomic ordering with shear band formation in a metallic glass.

How genetic variation contributes to brain morphology is still poorly understood. Here Chenet al. combine brain imaging with single-nucleotide polymorphism data to discover that a substantial degree of cortical variation is derived from underlying genetic differences.

In many concentrated alloys of current interest, the observation of diffuse superlattice intensities by transmission electron microscopy has been attributed to chemical short-range order. We briefly review these findings and comment on the plausibility of widespread interpretations, noting the absence of expected peaks, conflicts with theoretical predictions, and the possibility of alternative explanations.

The computational characterization of short-range order in compositionally complex materials relies on effective interatomic potentials. In this Review, challenges and opportunities in developing advanced potentials for such systems are discussed, with a focus on machine learning-based potentials.

Fergus Couch and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for modifiers of breast cancer susceptibility in BRCA1 mutation carriers. They identify a locus at 19p13 associated with breast cancer risk in BRCA1 mutation carriers, and further replication studies identify this locus as associated with estrogen receptor–negative breast cancer in the general population.