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D-2-hydroxyglutarate (D-2-HG) is an endogenous metabolite that plays both physiological and pathological roles. Here, the authors report a genetically encoded D-2-HG biosensor based on the transcriptional activator HgcR, which enables rapid detection of D-2-HG in vitro and in live cells.

Thin-film composite membranes for reverse osmosis process are effective converting seawater and brackish water into potable water but usually they are not resistant to chlorine and the boron rejection is poor. Here, the authors show a supramolecular nanocrystalline membrane with ultrathin thickness and well-oriented sub-nano-sized channels to allow for high water permeance, sodium chloride and boron rejection as well as chlorine resistance.

C-aryl glycosides are present in many natural products and of interest in drug design, but their chemical synthesis is challenging. This work reports an efficient and diastereoselective ortho-directed C−H glycosylation of arenes and heteroarenes with glycosyl chloride using a palladium catalyst.

Two-dimensional topological insulators support edge conduction electrons but its realization in real materials is rare. Here, Peng et al. report the direct observation of topological states at the step edge of WTe₂.

The feasibility of satellite-assisted quantum communication is demonstrated by a field test on the ground. To supress noise due to sunlight the wavelength of 1,550 nm is chosen, and spectrum and spatial filtering technology developed.

The Dark sectioning algorithm removes the background and provides single-frame optical sectioning in fluorescence microscopy. It offers improved quantitative analysis and deep-tissue segmentation accuracy and is compatible to diverse modalities.

Membranes with a balance between water permeability and salt rejection are desirable, and can be developed through self-assembly and aggregation. Here, the authors report a hydrogen-bonding strategy in a nanoconfined space to give controlled crystallisation, for membranes for reverse osmosis.

Accurate localization of abnormalities is crucial in the interpretation of chest X-rays. Here the authors present a deep learning framework for simultaneous localization of 14 thoracic abnormalities and calculation of cardiothoracic ratio, based on large X-ray dataset with bounding boxes created via a human-in-the-loop approach.

Degradable polymeric porous microcapsules loaded with exosomes from mesenchymal stem cells or regulatory T cells led to the restoration of retinal thickness in mice with retinal ischaemia-reperfusion injury and to reductions in inflammatory cells in monkeys with mycobacterial uveitis.

Here the authors characterize a monoclonal antibody from a COVID-19 convalescent patient that interferes with SARS-CoV-2 spike binding to ACE2 and has prophylactic and therapeutic activity in non-human primates. Antibody-dependent enhancement of infection is prevented by mutating the Fc region of the antibody.

The authors observe a coherent Kondo lattice in a monolayer of VSe₂ grown on a superconducting 2H-NbSe₂ substrate. Superconductivity is established in the Kondo lattice through proximity effect from the substrate.

The interplay of magnetism, various symmetries and correlations can lead to intriguing physics in the solid state. Here, the authors report signatures of a Hund nodal line in the antiferromagnet YMn₂Ge₂.

The ability to manipulate the flux of ions across membranes is a key aspect of diverse sectors including water desalination, blood ion monitoring, purification, electrochemical energy conversion and storage. Here the authors illustrate the potential of using daily changes in environmental humidity as a continuous driving force for generating selective ion flux.

It is shown that gold and several similar close-packed face-centred cubic and hexagonal metals can be vitrified, which breaks the limitation of the glass-forming ability of matter.

Low-frequency quasiperiodic oscillations in X-ray data are thought to trace the accretion flow in X-ray binaries. Here, the detection of 200 keV oscillations probes the innermost regions of MAXI J1820+070, revealing the precession of a small-scale jet.

Evolution of accretion disk and corona during outbursts in black hole binary systems is still unclear. Here, the authors show spectral analysis of MAXI J1820+070 and propose a scenario of a dynamical corona to explain the evolution of the reflection fraction observed by Insight-HXMT.

Twin-field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) over a secure distance of 833.8 km is demonstrated even in the finite-size regime. To this end, an optimized four-phase TF-QKD protocol and a high-speed low-noise TF-QKD system are developed.

Methods for the direct construction of 1,3-disubstituted planar chiral ferrocenes are elusive. Now, a modular platform enables the construction of planar chirality in 1,3-disubstituted ferrocenes/ruthenocenes via enantioselective relay remote C–H arylation. The strategy involves an initial enantiodetermining ortho-C‒H activation enabled by a Pd(II)/chiral amino-acid ligand, followed by relay to the remote meta-position by a bridgehead-substituted norbornene mediator.

A nanocrystalline metallic alloy with ultrahigh tensile strength and good ductility is achieved by introducing compositional undulation in a highly concentrated solid solution.

Under near-infrared-light excitation, anti-Stokes-shift superfluorescence is observed near 590 nm at room temperature in a medium of lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles. The spectral width and radiative decay lifetime are 2 nm and 46 ns, respectively, in the single-nanoparticle case.

Understanding the mutation landscape of cancer may enable the development of more targeted therapies. Here, the authors sequence a panel of genes in a large Asian cohort and compare to American cohorts and find 64% of the Asian patients have actionable mutations.

Small cell cervical carcinoma (SCCC) is a rare but aggressive malignancy. Here, the authors report human papillomavirus features and genomic landscape in SCCC via high-throughput sequencing methods and identify MYC, SOX, NR4A, ANKRD and CEA family genes as HPV-integrated hotspots.

Transmitting the time signal and generating the secure key with the same carrier photon improves the security of a satellite-based quantum-secure time transfer protocol, which uses two-way quantum key distribution.

The solid–electrolyte interphase is widely viewed as key to governing the performance of rechargeable batteries, but its electrical properties remain elusive. Here the authors develop an experimental approach to directly measure the properties and show that the solid–electrolyte interphase has a voltage-dependent conducting behaviour.

The “storage” of sunlight as a chemical fuel can provide renewable on-demand energy, although current earth-abundant materials usually show low activities. Here, authors construct a carbon nitride material whose half-metallicity and micro grid resonance structure boost light-driven H₂ evolution.

Despite acral melanoma being the most common melanoma subtype in non-White individuals, its molecular drivers remain unknown. Here, the authors integrate genomic and clinical data from 104 patients and identify late-arising focal amplifications of chr22q11.21 and LZTR1 as a key tumour promoter in this region.

The rational design of efficient water oxidation electrocatalysts is paramount to the development of electrochemical devices. Now, a Co-TiO₂ single-site catalyst is presented for alkaline water oxidation with high intrinsic activity, and its mechanism has been studied by grand canonical quantum mechanics calculations and in situ techniques.

An efficient entanglement-based quantum key distribution is sent from the Micius satellite to two ground observatories 1,120 kilometres apart to establish secure quantum cryptography for the exchange of quantum keys.

Ding Ma, Hui Wang, Xun Xu and colleagues report a genome-wide map of HPV integration sites in cervical cancer samples and cell lines. In addition to discovering new integration hot spots, the authors identify microhomology-mediated DNA repair as a likely mechanism by which HPV integrates into the human genome.

Partial loss of psychiatric risk gene Mir137 in mice causes repetitive behavior and impairs sociability and learning via increased Pde10a.

Ding Ma, Xing Xie, Yongyong Shi and colleagues report a genome-wide association study of cervical cancer in the Han Chinese population. They identify two new susceptibility lociat 4q12 and 17q12.

Analysis of viral samples from deceased piglets shows that a bat coronavirus was responsible for an outbreak of fatal disease in China and highlights the importance of the identification of coronavirus diversity and distribution in bats in order to mitigate future outbreaks of disease.

Dai Zhang and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population. They identify a new susceptibility locus at 11p11.2 and also identify a locus at 6p21-22.1 in the extended MHC region, which has previously been reported to be associated with schizophrenia in individuals of European descent.

Li Dong Wang and colleagues report a genome wide association study for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in the Chinese population. They identify two risk loci at PLCE1 and C20orf54.