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Optimizations of X-ray nanotomography including the choice of resin allows high-resolution imaging of mouse brain tissue, approaching the resolution of volume electron microscopy. Since it does not require slicing the tissue, this technology may become an attractive alternative to current standard methods for connectomics.

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an inherited gastrointestinal syndrome associated with duodenal adenoma formation. Here the authors show that IL17A-producing NKp44- group 3 innate lymphoid cells accumulate in FAP duodenal tissue and are associated with duodenal adenoma formation in patients with FAP.

Microplastics research is often based on commercial model particles. Here, the authors show that nominally identical particles may differ significantly in their properties and thus in their interactions with cells.

Our understanding on the humoral immunity induced by SARS-CoV-2 is still lacking. Here the authors analyze B cell responses at the single cell level to find that, in severe COVID-19 patients, plasmablasts shift from IFN to TGFβ instruction to produce IgA antibodies that are not specific to dominant SARS-CoV-2 antigens.

Expression profiles and genomes of Bacilli species show modular organization of the life cycle and mosaic evolution of life cycle changes. Experimental evolution shows parallel losses of the sporulation life stage under conditions that promote colony growth.

Coherent energy transport is key to the operation of the photosynthetic machinery and the successful implementation of molecular electronics; self-assembled supramolecular nanofibres based on carbonyl-bridged triarylamines are now shown to transport singlet excitons over micrometre-scale distances at room temperature.

Stacked elastomeric arrays containing plasmonic nanoparticles show efficient chiral responses that can be fully controlled by mechanical compression and stack rotation. These simple layered materials may be useful modulators for photonic applications.

An imaging technique has been developed to characterize state mixtures caused by partial coherence and fluctuations in dynamical systems.

Epstein-Barr virus causes lymphoma. Here the authors describe a direct complex of the viral oncoprotein LMP1 with the cellular TRAF6 protein as a critical virus-host interface for lymphoma survival and validate this complex as a potential therapeutic target.

Sequential acquisition and image reconstruction in super-resolved structured illumination microscopy (SR-SIM) is time-consuming. Here the authors optimise both acquisition and reconstruction software to achieve multicolour SR-SIM at video frame-rates with reconstructed images displaying with only milliseconds delay during the experiment.

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 has been linked with substantive inflammation, lung pathology and development of COVID-19. Here the authors spatially associate CCL18 and CCL21 in distinct tissue niches with lung pathology of severe COVID-19.

Administration of an antisense oligonuceotide in a preterm infant with severe early-onset SCN2A developmental and epileptic encephalopathy was well tolerated and led to a 60% decrease in seizure frequency.

There is an unmet clinical need to identify therapeutic options for the treatment of pancreatic cancer (PDAC). Here the authors present a systematic screening approach for the identification of potential PDAC cell surface target candidates for CAR-T cell based immunotherapy, followed by their functional validation in preclinical models.

Vietri et al. show that the micronucleus fails to restrain ESCRT-III spreading due to its small size, resulting in aberrant accumulation of ESCRT-III to drive micronuclear collapse and DNA fragmentation.

TCRs are often thought to be pre-clustered before T cell activation. Rossboth et al. use super-resolution microscopy and statistical image analysis to demonstrate that TCRs are in fact randomly distributed on resting T cells.

The depolarizing funny current contributing to cardiac pacemaking is upregulated in the myocardium of  failing and infarcted hearts, but whether the current is implied in disease mechanisms is unclear. Here the authors generate HCN4 transgenic mice and show that upregulation of funny current to the levels observed in human heart failure alters calcium homeostasis leading to cardiac remodelling and arrhythmia.

Sensor histidine kinases (SHK) consist of sensor, linker and kinase modules and different models for SHK signal transduction have been proposed. Here the authors present nano- to millisecond time-resolved X-ray scattering measurements, which reveal a structural mechanism for kinase domain activation in SHK.

Here, the authors characterize the structural organization and condensate behavior of the microtubule plus-end tracking protein Bik1, employing SAXS, computational modeling, microscopy, and crosslinking mass spectrometry.

Microfluidic reprogramming of human somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells is rapid and highly efficient, enabling large-scale derivation from patient cells as well as seamless on-chip differentiation without cell expansion.

Histone variant macroH2A1.1 inhibits PARP activity to maintain mitochondrial NAD⁺ pools in muscle cells, thus linking chromatin state to optimal energy metabolism.

A genetically encoded tension sensor module for measuring molecular forces at 3–5 pN along with tools for multiplexed tension sensing and data analysis reveal an intramolecular tension gradient across talin-1 during cell adhesion.

Two related papers show that cells disseminated from malignant lesions at early time points during tumorigenesis can contribute to metastases at distant organs and provide insights into the molecular basis of dissemination.

An imaging method that combines small-angle X-ray scattering with tensor tomography to probe nanoscale structures in macroscopic samples is introduced and demonstrated by measuring the main orientation and the degree of orientation of nanoscale mineralized collagen fibrils in a human trabecula bone sample.

Memory B cells are important for protecting the host from pathogen rechallenge, but their properties and locations remain ill-defined. Here the authors show, using single-cell transcriptomics and repertoire analyses, that mouse spleen and bone marrow host distinct populations of isotype-switched memory B cells to potentially optimize for rapid recall responses.

Excitation with thermal light from a superluminescent diode is shown to yield enhanced fluorescence from both quantum dots and dyes, potentially enabling higher-sensitivity biological imaging.

Ptychographic X-ray imaging is a powerful technique for extracting detailed phase (and hence structural) information from weakly absorbing objects. Here it is shown how this technique can be combined with methods for tomographic reconstruction to generate full three-dimensional maps of the object under investigation. The approach has sensitivity to density variations of less than one per cent, and can resolve structures on the 100 nm length scale.

Nicole Soranzo and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association datasets identifying 22 associations to 8 clinically relevant hematological traits. They also identify a long-range haplotype at 12q24 that includes variants associated with platelet counts as well as coronary artery disease and shows evidence of a selective sweep in Europeans.

Despite being implicated in several neurological diseases, the gut-brain axis remains poorly understood. Here the authors describe a mechanism of communication between the brain and the gut in a Parkinson’s disease mouse model mediated by CD11c⁺ macrophages.

Joyce and colleagues use bulk and single-cell profiling of T cell phenotypes in human samples from primary brain tumors and brain metastases as a resource for understanding the biology and therapeutic relevance of the brain tumor microenvironment.

ESCRT-III, a protein complex best known for membrane constriction and sealing during various cellular processes, mediates reassembly of the nuclear envelope during late anaphase.

Catalyst deactivation in fluid catalytic cracking processes is unavoidably associated with structural changes. Here, the authors visualize the deactivation of zeolite catalysts by ptychography and other imaging techniques, showing pronounced amorphization of the outer layer of the catalyst particles.

Colonizing enteric bacteria are shown to inhibit the antimicrobial process of host cell apoptosis through the action of NleB1, a type III secretion system effector with N-acetylglucosamine transferase activity, which can bind and modify eukaryotic death-domain-containing proteins.

PALM and STORM are powerful methods for studying membrane-protein clustering. However, fluorophore blinking can lead to miscounting artifacts. A new method shows that varying label density works for artifact-free analysis of membrane-protein nanoclusters.

The self-sustained motion of bacterial suspensions can lead to irregular, highly dynamic vortex patterns, reminiscent of turbulence. Exploring the impact of shear-thinning on these active fluids, the authors predict a non-equilibrium transition between the macroscopically quiescent suspension and mesoscale turbulence, characterized by hysteresis and spatial coexistence.