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Non-invasive optical imaging tools for early detection of anti-tumor immune responses are essential for precision cancer immunotherapy. Here, the authors report a rare-earth-based NIR-II fluorescence ratiometric nanoprobe (DCGA) for in vivo real-time, precise, and non-invasive visualization of granzyme B activity for early prediction of immunotherapy efficacy.

Single-chain polymer dots used as ultrasmall fluorescent probes enable nanometre-resolution imaging and are capable of tracking kinesin-1 stepwise motion in living cells using a standard spinning-disk confocal microscope.

The relationship between interacting sites and catalytic mechanisms in single-atom catalysts remains unclear. Here a support engineering strategy is used to tune the binding strength between single-metal atoms and the support, optimizing active Cu sites and enhancing CH₄ formation.

Xu et al. reveal that a bottom-up neural circuit from the medial septum to the subfornical organ prevents overhydration in mice by integrating oral and gastrointestinal signals before osmolality changes, demonstrating precise drinking control mechanisms.

Securing edge devices is challenging. The authors present a solution using reconfigurable physical unclonable functions built with carbon nanotube transistors, offering robust security against machine learning attacks and brute force cracking.

Telomere shortening marks cellular aging and links to heart disease. Here, the authors show shared genetic loci between leukocyte telomere length and coronary artery disease, highlighting genes such as SH2B3 and pathways involved in DNA biosynthesis and telomere maintenance.

Continental shelves have become a substantial sink of anthropogenic mercury since the onset of the Industrial Revolution. However, human activities and climate-related processes can remobilize mercury-bearing sediment, potentially transforming this mercury sink into a marine source.

Going from model development to a pilot implementation study, a deep learning model shows that acute aortic syndrome can be diagnosed directly from noncontrast CT, increasing accuracy and decreasing time to diagnosis.

In this Perspective, members of the Aging Biomarker Consortium outline the X-Age Project, an Aging Biomarker Consortium plan for building standardized aging clocks in China. The authors discuss the project roadmap and its aims of decoding aging heterogeneity, detecting accelerated aging early and evaluating geroprotective interventions.

Fine-tuning expression of pathway genes allows pathway flux optimisation and reduces cell stress. Here, the authors develop a CRISPR-mediated method for transcriptional fine-tuning which allows simultaneous targeting of eight pathway genes, demonstrating optimised squalene and heme production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Trained and validated on multimodal data from 14.5 million images from multicountry datasets, a foundation model is shown to increase diagnostic and referral accuracy of clinicians when used as an assistant in a trial involving 16 ophthalmologists and 668 patients.

Knock-in mice conditionally or constitutively expressing Cas12 variants enable a wide range of ex vivo and in vivo applications requiring multiplexed genome engineering.

The gut microbiota bacterium Ruminococcus gnavus is implicated in the development of cirrhotic liver encephalopathy through the production of neurotoxins.

Crystal structure determination from powder X-ray diffraction is challenging but vital for materials research. Here, authors develop PXRDGen, an AI system that automatically solves crystal structures with 96% accuracy across thousands of compounds.

DeepRETStroke is a deep learning system using retinal photographs to detect silent brain infarction and predict future stroke events.

A Leptotrichia buccalis Cas13a diagnostic platform can be used to cleave and detect small concentrations of viral and human DNA.

By engineering the eukaryotic-derived Fanzor2-ωRNA system, Wei, Gao, Pan, Li and Chen developed a compact genome editor enNlovFz2, which demonstrated efficient genome-editing activity in vitro and in vivo, with a broad target-adjacent motif scope.

Accessing strong correlation effects in Kagome materials remains challenging. Here, the authors realize a Kagome Kondo lattice in CsCr₆Sb₆ exhibiting flat, isolated Kagome bands at the Fermi level.

Black phosphorus is an atomically thin material that exhibits excellent properties for electronics applications, but these degrade in atmospheric conditions. Here, the authors demonstrate the fabrication of stable, ultra-clean and high-mobility black phosphorus sandwiched between the layers of boron nitride.

Cellular exhaustion can limit the ability of immune cells to control tumors. Here the authors show that expression of the transcription factor Irf4 marks NK cell percursors that will go on to become exhausted mature NK cells and identify targets to interfere with this trajectory to enhance control over melanoma metastasis.

The use of biomarkers of ageing is crucial for investigating age-related processes. This Review discusses biomarkers of ageing and of ageing-associated physiological changes, at the cellular, tissue and organism levels in humans and non-human primates.

By map-based cloning and knockout experiments, a study identified and validated ZmDMP to be one of the two genes known to control haploid induction in maize. A single-nucleotide mutation in ZmDMP causes a 2–3-fold increase in the haploid induction rate.

Quantum optical skyrmions are promising for quantum photonic applications but have not been experimentally realized. Now nanophotonic quantum skyrmions are generated using a semiconductor quantum dot–Gaussian microcavity quantum electrodynamics system.

A hydrated lunar mineral, (NH₄)MgCl₃·6H₂O, is found in Chang’e-5 samples. The presence of abundant water and ammonium molecules on the Moon provides insight into the lunar degassing history and a potential resource for lunar habitation.

Proton-coupled electron transfer reactions are key steps in electrocatalysis. Here the authors introduce a computational method to model such processes including nuclear quantum effects under a grand canonical constant electric potential.

Agonists of the cytosolic DNA-sensing STING pathway potently remodel the tumour immune microenvironment to support anti-tumour adaptive immunity, but at the expense of adverse systemic inflammation. Here authors exchange the STING agonist MSA-2 with its prodrugs that are suitable for nano-liposomal delivery and thus achieve increased efficiency and decreased toxicity.

While graphite negative electrodes pose dendrite risks, high-potential fast-charging titanium-based alternatives limit battery energy. Here, authors develop a titanium oxide negative electrode with tailored atomic distortions that safely operates at 0.5 V vs. Li ⁺ /Li, boosting cell voltage by 50%.

Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides hold promise as scalable single-photon sources. Here, the authors demonstrate all-electrical, single-photon generation in tungsten disulphide and diselenide, achieving charge injection into the layers, containing quantum emitters.

Spatiotemporally activating DC cells in lymph nodes (LN) for cancer vaccine therapy remains a challenge. Here the authors combine antigen loaded STING nanoadjuvants with LN-confined laser or ultrasound stimulation to activate DC cells, sequentially enhances antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cell response and reduces tumor size.

A strategy for combinatorial cancer immunotherapy uses Cas13d to knock down immunosuppressive genes in vivo.

Ultrafast diffraction is fundamental in capturing the structural dynamics of molecules. Here, the authors establish a variant of quantum state tomography for arbitrary degrees of freedom to characterize the molecular quantum states, which will enable the reconstruction of a quantum molecular movie from diffraction data.

The populous global land monsoon region has been suffering from extreme precipitation. Here, the authors show that limiting global warming to 1.5 °C instead of 2 °C could reduce areal and population exposures to baseline once-in-20-year rainfall extremes by 25% (18–41%) and 36% (22–46%), respectively.

A synthetic approach is described, for efficiently converting non-van der Waals solids into two-dimensional van der Waals transition-metal chalcogenide layers with specific phases, enabling the high-throughput production of monolayers.

Organic memory devices, with small dimension, fast speed and long retention are promising candidates for data archiving. Here, the authors present a molecular hard-disk logic scheme capable of executing in-situ encryption of data in pW/bit power-consumption range.

Developed on cytology images of hydrothorax and ascites from 57,220 cases at four hospitals, a deep-learning model shows high accuracy in tumor origin prediction and presents prognostic value when patient treatment is consistent with the cancer origin predicted by the model.

Spontaneous parthenogenesis in sunflower has been used to develop a scalable doubled haploid breeding system.

Insulinomas develop from pancreatic β-cells and secrete insulin, but the underlying genetic defects are largely unknown. In this study, Cao et al. identify recurrent T372R mutations in the transcription factor YY1, and validate this hotspot mutation in 30% of insulinomas.

The application of pressure effectively suppresses the spin–charge order in trilayer nickelate La₄Ni₃O_10−δ single crystals, leading to the emergence of superconductivity.

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.

An endohedral metallofullerene–polymer layer, which features ultrafast electron extraction and in situ encapsulation, improves the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells.

The role of PIWI proteins in mammalian reproduction remains poorly understood. Here, using golden hamsters, the authors establish expression profiles for all four PIWIs during gametogenesis and characterize their associated reproductive defects.

The precise control and transition between multiple stochiometric phases is challenging. Here, the authors grow and characterize four wafer-scale stoichiometric phases of a Pd-Te binary compound through a sequential multi-step nucleation process.

Altermagnets combine the spin splitting of ferromagnets and the magnetic ordering of collinear antiferromagnets. These technologically promising features have led to an aggressive search for altermagnetic materials. Here, Regmi et al synthesize CoNb₄Se₈, a layered intercalated material, and confirm altermagnetism via a combination of neutron and magnetotransport measurements and DFT calculations.