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The construction of vicinal stereocentres—particularly sterically bulky quaternary motifs—from racemic alkyl halides remains a formidable challenge. Here, a cobalt-catalysed enantioconvergent reductive addition of racemic alkyl halides to imines has been developed, enabling efficient synthesis of diverse contiguous stereocentres, including tertiary–tertiary, tertiary–quaternary and quaternary–quaternary stereocentres, with high diastereo- and enantioselectivities.

Resolution of G4s has been suggested to be required for efficient DNA replication. Here, the authors show that the nuclease DNA2 and the DNA repair complex MutSα (MSH2-MSH6) are required to remove G4 stabilized by environmental compounds to allow efficient telomere replication.

Tandem electro-biocatalytic systems present a versatile platform for producing a variety of synthetic products using CO₂ as a starting material. Here direct ocean carbon capture is incorporated into an electrolysis scheme to produce formic acid from CO₂ dissolved in seawater that is subsequently converted to succinate in a bioreactor.

Mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to septic cardiomyopathy and poor outcomes. Here, the authors identify a cardiomyocyte-enriched non-coding RNA that preserves mitochondrial function and reduces mortality in septic mice by preventing citrate synthase acetylation.

Translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC) is driven by MiT family gene fusions. Here, the authors demonstrate that RNA-binding features of TFE3 fusions facilitate condensate formation, promoting transcriptional hub assembly and oncogenic gene activation.

Accurately describing and tuning active sites remains a major challenge. Here, the authors introduce an effective metal-ion chelation strategy—guided by DFT predictions and in situ Raman measurements—to structurally engineer and quantitatively link the electronic properties of active sites in an ionic liquid.

Li, He, Liu and colleagues characterize the dynamic bivalent chromatin landscape during mouse peri-implantation development. They find that factor ZBTB17 works with KDM6A/B to resolve transiently maintained bivalent domains and prime gene activation.

Arctic Sea Route access will raise global shipping CO₂ by 8.2% by 2100 and worsen regional inequities. IMO 2023 strategy and Green Corridor plans fall short; only a net-zero pathway with stricter fuels and phased rollout eliminates ASR emissions.

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are a versatile class of clinically approved drug delivery vehicles, particularly for nucleic acid cargoes, but they often suffer from instability issues. Here, the authors report that the room temperature stability of small interfering RNA LNPs formulated with unsaturated ionizable lipids can be improved by inclusion of mildly acidic, antioxidant-containing buffers.

The broad activity windows of current base editors pose a major challenge to their therapeutic application. Here, the authors established a generalizable re-engineering framework to narrow the activity windows of diverse base editors, streamlining the development of therapeutic base editing.

Two phase 2 trials, along with translational analysis of prospective cohorts and experimental analysis, indicate that immunosenescence as a mechanism of resistance to immunotherapy can be overcome with the senolytics dasatinib and quercetin in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) of the central nervous system (CNS) are uncommon mesenchymal neoplasms with limited treatment options. Here, the authors perform a multi-omics analysis of 189 cases of CNS SFTs to identify potential clinical biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

African ancestry is a known risk factor for prostate cancer development, but the genetic determinants of this are incompletely understood. Here, the authors identify 172 potentially pathogenic variants which are enriched in an African population.

Construction of chiral nanostructures is impeded by the entropic barrier of dissymmetric blocks. Here, the authors report a dynamic assembly/disassembly strategy to yield single-unit organometallic helices for enantioselective amyloid inhibition.

Using computational and experimental methods, Ouyang and Chen et al. reveal a drug design principle that the hydrophobic properties of small-molecule drugs significantly influence their ability to engage with and effectively target phase-separated proteins.

Dealing with radioactive pollution first requires the detection of radioactive species released to the environment. Here the authors show an ultrasensitive and selective way to detect ⁹⁰Sr, one of the most frequently discharged products from nuclear reactors.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is characterized by fat accumulation and inflammation, partly due to impaired lipophagy. Here, Lan et al. present a dual-targeted nanoparticle system designed to deliver siRNA to liver cells, silencing the protein Rubicon to restore lipophagy for treatment of MASLD.

The practical uses of enzymes often require their immobilization for long-term running, but efficient immobilization methods are lacking. Here, the authors develop an enzyme immobilization approach that allows stable continuous-flow olefin epoxidations, through the design of an interphase system immobilizing enzymes by combining hydrophobic pores and a water‒oil microenvironment.

The authors demonstrate single-photon γ-ray imaging with pixelated CsPbBr3 semiconductor detector, providing enhanced energy resolution and improving performance uniformity by minimizing mechanically induced defects. This advances applications of perovskites in nuclear medicine.

In osteoporosis, bone marrow adipocytes (BMAds) accumulate, but their functions are not well understood. Here, Lin et al. show that BMAds promote senescence in neighbouring cells by releasing excess fatty acids, then develop a BMAd targeting nanoparticle to interfere with BMAd lipid metabolism as a strategy to treat osteoporosis.

Stable and robust topological edge modes are observed at finite temperatures in an array of 100 programmable superconducting qubits because of emergent symmetries present in the prethermal regime of this system.

Metal–organic frameworks hold promise as electrocatalysts for water splitting, but their large-scale production remains a challenge. This study reports on a scalable synthetic approach to fabricate large-area metal–organic framework-based electrodes, achieving high catalytic activity and stability in practical alkaline water electrolysis.

Li-rich oxides suffer from severe degradation in lithium-ion batteries. To investigate this, authors employ operando methodologies to follow microstructural changes and demonstrate that interlayer twinning structures and intralayer frustrations formed during cycling drive performance degradation.

Thermoelectric ionogels are promising materials for harvesting low-grade heat, though it is difficult to balance high thermoelectric performance and mechanical properties, while high humidity environments and planar device structures limit their practical applications. Here, the authors report a thermally actuated thermoelectric ionogels by tailoring the interactions between liquid crystal elastomer networks and ionic liquids and integrate it into smart devices.

Si et al. demonstrated that wheat TaNHLP1 interacts with ABA regulators and RACK1A to increase tiller number, and that promoter variants that elevate TaNHLP1 expression enhance yield. This regulatory module is conserved across plants.

TEX38, essential for sperm function in mice, interacts with ARRDC5 to regulate spermiogenesis, sperm migration and egg binding, suggesting that this interaction could be a target for male infertility treatment and contraception

Barite is a relatively heavy mineral that is used in both the medical field and the oil and gas industry. Formed in marine environments, it also provides a valuable record of deep geological time.

Antibodies (Abs) targeting highly conserved epitopes are important tools against emerging virus variants. Here, the authors characterize Abs that recognize a cryptic epitope in the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike that is well conserved and show that these Abs can neutralize several variants of concerns.

Ambient air pollution exposure in early childhood has been linked to infection risk but the mechanism is unclear. Here, the authors investigate the association between air pollution-linked proteomic profiles in pregnancy and infection in early childhood using data from Denmark and Sweden.

This work reports a self-gelating alginate sponge (Alg-BA@PDA) engineered by introducing 3-Aminobenzeneboronic acid groups and polydopamine nanoparticles. Hydroxyl groups on alginate chains dynamically crosslink with BA to form boronate ester networks, enabling rapid in situ gelation and conformal wound coverage. PDA-NPs endows the sponge with photothermal activity, antibacterial function, and ROS scavenging capacity, while also mitigating nanoparticle cytotoxicity through controlled release. Together, these features suppress inflammation, enhance angiogenesis, and promote collagen deposition. In vivo, the multifunctional Alg-BA@PDA sponge markedly accelerates full-thickness skin wound healing, highlighting its promise as a next-generation wound dressing.

Forecast models of bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance records from 101 countries reveal that the global burden of AMR is associated with the impact of climate change intertwined with the failure to achieve sustainable development goals.

Intravenous delivery of an adenine base editor and a single-guide RNA for the Fah gene can correct an A>G splice-site mutation in an adult mouse model of tyrosinaemia.

Photothermal therapy using photo agents developed with high photothermal conversion efficiency under long-wavelength laser irradiation has been investigated in preclinical cancer treatment. Here this group reports coating mesoporous carbon nanomaterials with a lanthanide oxysulfide up-conversion material (Y₂O₂S:Yb³⁺, Er³⁺) with tumor targeting capability for in situ ocular melanoma tumor treatment.

The regulation of water and ion channels is crucial for moisture energy harvesting. The authors adopt a directional freezing-assisted salting-out method to finely adjust the cross-scale pore structure of ion channels, achieving efficient moisture energy harvesting.

Recently exceptional plasticity has been discovered in defective Bi₂Te₃ crystal. Here, the authors further investigate the plasticity of other Bi₂Te₃-family compounds and then determine the composition range with good plasticity, high power factor and figure-of-merit.