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Association analyses in over 1 million individuals identify 535 new loci influencing blood pressure traits. The results provide new insights into blood pressure regulation and highlight shared genetic architecture between blood pressure and lifestyle exposures.

An ambipolar ferromagnet with both electron- and hole-doped ferromagnetism in a single material would facilitate understanding of ferromagnetic semiconductors for spintronic applications. Here the authors demonstrate ambipolar ferromagnetism in LaMnO₃, using ionic liquid gating enabled electrostatic doping to produce electron–hole asymmetry.

The synthesis of patchy colloids is limited by poor control over the location and shape of ligand domains. Here, the authors use adaptable polymer masks to protect select areas of the particle during functionalization, allowing them to create patchy colloids with unconventional surface morphologies.

The memory retention for a ferroelectric field-effect transistor is limited by the depolarization effects and carrier charge trapping. Here, the authors fabricate a long-retention memory cell with a metal-ferroelectric-metal-insulator-semiconductor architecture built from all van der Waals single crystals.

The researchers showcase a flexible meta-sensor array based on classical Mie resonance, enabling precise detection of in-plane strain direction and magnitude using dynamically transmitted terahertz (THz) signals. The sensor array holds immense promise for the real-life applications as it possesses high sensor density and has a very large size up to (110 ×130 mm²).

Reversible strains are widely used in high-technology systems, with piezoelectrics showing fast response but low strain. Here, ferroelectric C₆H₅N(CH₃)₃CdCl₃ is shown to produce a strain of 21.5%, two orders of magnitude larger than other piezoelectrics, due to organic molecules preventing 180° polarization switching.

Electrical control of topological magnets is of great interest for future spintronic applications. Here, the authors demonstrate the effective manipulation of antiferromagnetic order in a Weyl semimetal using orbital torques, with implications for neuromorphic device applications.

Genomic and transcriptomic analysis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) in Asia indicates that Asian LUADs have fewer mutations, lower driver prevalence and fewer copy number alterations than European LUADs.

Here, the authors report the direct growth of periodic arrays of 2D semiconductor ribbons by exploiting the step edges of high-miller-index Au facets, showing potential for 2D electronic devices. The synthesized ribbons could also be merged to obtain wafer-scale single-crystal monolayers.

A study combining spectroscopy and mathematical topology  reports the observation of linked node loops in a quantum magnet, with properties suggesting a Seifert bulk–boundary correspondence.

Conventional material processing methods often suffer by strength-ductility trade-off. Here, the authors show high-pressure and high-temperature treatment can transform an eutectic high entropy alloy to having a hierarchical microstructure with simultaneous enhancements of strength and ductility.

Modern computation relies on modular architectures, breaking a complex algorithm into self-contained subroutines, whereas current quantum computers do not have such capability. Here, the authors provide an experimental demonstration of a modular quantum computation protocol using a trapped Yb ion.

There is an urgent need for biomarkers for type 2 diabetes progression that provide a deeper understanding of the disease process. Here, the authors identify biomarkers in three molecular classes, replicate them in other cohorts and explore top protein biomarkers in detail in functional studies.

A genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI) detects 97 BMI-associated loci, of which 56 were novel, and many loci have effects on other metabolic phenotypes; pathway analyses implicate the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and new pathways such as those related to synaptic function, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.

Andrew Morris, Mark McCarthy, Michael Boehnke and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for type 2 diabetes, including 26,488 cases and 83,964 controls from populations of European, east Asian, south Asian and Mexican and Mexican American ancestry. They identify seven loci newly associated with type 2 diabetes and examine the genetic architecture of disease across populations.

While neutral-charge quantum dots in optically active WSe₂ do not show spin-valley initialization, localized holes possess a net spin and their spin-valley state can be selected with the helicity of the laser excitation.

A ‘which-way’ scattering process can generate entanglement between single photons and collective chiral vibrations in two-dimensional tungsten diselenide. The result opens up ways for engineering non-reciprocal interactions at the quantum level.

A well-defined catalyst with dual Ni/Fe atomic active sites was created using a pyrolysis-free approach. The as-made catalyst was used for overall electrochemical water splitting in both acidic and alkaline electrolytes with low overpotentials.

A study reports a dual quantum spin Hall insulator in monolayer TaIrTe₄, arising from the interplay of its single-particle topology and density-tuned electron correlations.

Perovskite light-emitting diodes show promising color tunability and device performance but suffer from emission color shift at higher driving voltages. Here Xing et al. report color stable blue light-emitting diodes by drastically increasing the phase purity of the quasi-2D perovskite thin films.

Doping approach is a conventional method to increase ZT values of thermoelectric materials. Here, authors propose a facile strategy to enhance thermoelectric performance by mixing boron particles into GeTe-based thermoelectric materials, leading to a ZT value of 2.45 at 613 K.

CDK4/6 inhibitor resistance is common in breast cancer. Here, the authors show that p16 overexpression may be linked to reduced efficacy of CDK4/6 inhibition, and show that the combination with PI3K inhibitors may increase anti-tumour effects.

The fabrication of singly dispersed metal cluster catalysts with atomic-level control of dopants is a long-standing challenge. Here, the authors report a strategy for the synthesis of a precisely doped single cluster catalyst which shows exceptional activity for electrochemical dinitrogen reduction.

The genetics and clinical consequences of resting heart rate (RHR) remain incompletely understood. Here, the authors discover new genetic variants associated with RHR and find that higher genetically predicted RHR decreases risk of atrial fibrillation and ischemic stroke.

Here, the authors provide detailed analyses of viral RNA structure in virions and in infected cells for four dengue virus serotypes and four Zika virus strains, and identify conserved structures that are important for virus replication.

High-phase-purity and stable 1T′-transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers are grown on 4H-Au nanowires by a facile and rapid wet-chemical method, enabling ultrasensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection.

Amino acid levels are known to regulate anabolic and catabolic pathways. Here, the authors report that amino acids also affect membrane trafficking by stimulating endosome-to-Golgi retrograde trafficking and regulating cell surface localization of certain Golgi proteins through Ragulator and Arl5.

A transancestral exome-wide association study for body-fat distribution identifies protein-coding variants that are significantly associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index.

Metal species are highly mobile within mesoporous silica, making it difficult to template growth of metallic nanocrystals inside the channels. Here, the authors introduce a solid-liquid-solution interfacial strategy to suppress migration of the metal species, achieving control over a variety of mesostructured nanomaterials.

Clamping effects in ferroelestastic thin films limits their usefulness for applications such as sensitive mechanical sensors. Here, the authors report on non-local mechanical force induced switching in PbTiO₃ thin films by tuning the material to a state of nearly energetically degenerate co-existing domains.

The seawater oxidation reaction faces challenges from competitive chloride oxidation reaction. Herein, the authors have utilized chlorine adsorption to modulate the single-atom Ir coordination state and promote seawater oxidation and catalyst stability.

Difficulty with purification, structural heterogenicity, and limited water solubility of β-glucans has significantly limited their therapeutic applications. Here, the authors report the synthesis of (1→6)-β-glucose-branched poly-amido-saccharides as glycan-mimetics and demonstrate macrophage stimulation and polarization.

The authors report a study preparing single atom (M = Pt, Ag, Fe, Co, and Ni) arrays on Au/Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ nanosheets using electric field polarization techniques. Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction is shown to proceed effectively over Au/Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂.

Kyle Gaulton, Mark McCarthy, Andrew Morris and colleagues report fine mapping and genomic annotation of 39 established type 2 diabetes susceptibility loci. They find that the set of potential causal variants is enriched for overlap with FOXA2 binding sites in human islet and liver cells, and they show that a likely causal variant near MTNR1B increases FOXA2-bound enhancer activity, providing a molecular mechanism to explain the effect of this locus on disease risk.

Two-dimensional materials have recently emerged as interesting materials for optoelectronic applications. Here, Shang et al. demonstrate two-dimensional semiconductor activated vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers where both the gain material and the lasing characteristics are two-dimensional.

A χ⁽²⁾ nonlinear micro-waveguide platform is demonstrated based on the birefringence phase matching for simple and efficient long-wavelength infrared generation, which could trigger new frontiers of MIR integrated nonlinear photonics.

Directing nanomedicines to desired locations - such as tumour sites - is difficult to achieve selectively. Here, the authors develop a method to covalently crosslink peptide-modified upconversion nanocrystals into tumour sites for photodynamic therapy and show in vivotumour inhibition in mice.

A new type of Hall effect—the layer Hall effect—is produced in a 2D antiferromagnet that does not exhibit any net magnetization.

Molten-salt-assisted chemical vapour deposition is used to synthesize a wide variety of two-dimensional transition-metal chalcogenides.

Coherent twin boundaries (CTBs) in face-centered cubic metals are usually considered unable to slide at room temperature. Here, the authors use in situ transmission electron microscopy and molecular dynamics to show CTB sliding in copper nanopillars when leading and trailing partial dislocations have similar Schmid factors.

The stability of non-noble catalysts is key for their use in proton exchange membrane water electrolysers. Here, authors study activity-stability relationships of MoS_x allotropes for H₂ production, reporting allotrope-dependent stabilities and dissolution pathways, and propose operation guidelines.

Herold et al. present an integrated meta-omics framework to investigate how mixed microbial communities, such as oleaginous bacterial populations in biological wastewater treatment plants, respond with distinct adaptation strategies to disturbances. They show that community resistance and resilience are a function of phenotypic plasticity and niche complementarity.