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Here, the authors report the fabrication of broadband flexible photodetectors based on composite graphene-copper phthalocyanine heterojunctions, showing that a moderate external pressure can enhance the performance of the devices. The detectors were also applied for simultaneous contact sensing and non-contact perception as electronic skin sensors.

Pangenome analyses of 28 representative Gossypium hirsutum accessions, including a telomere-to-telomere genome for NDM13, and transcriptomic profiling across 15 tissues highlight structural variations associated with breeding traits.

Nuclear morphology plays a critical role in regulating gene expression and cell function. Here, Wang et al. report that topography-induced nuclear deformation enhances the secretome of hMSCs, promoting extracellular matrix (ECM) organization and facilitating bone regeneration through matricrine effects.

Breviscapine is the flavonoid extract from medical plant Erigeron breviscapus for the treatment of cardio- and cerebrovascular disease. Here, the authors identify the key enzymes of the biosynthetic pathway from the plant genome and engineer yeast to produce breviscapine from glucose.

Chen et al. present a deep learning-based lead optimization model that combines generative artificial intelligence with structure-based approaches. The method is successfully applied to the design of drug-like molecules targeting the recently identified LTK protein target with high potency and selectivity.

The integration of organic and enzymatic synthesis enhances molecule construction efficiency. Here, the authors present ChemEnzyRetroPlanner, an AI-driven platform for automated hybrid synthesis planning, improving synthesis route efficiency and sustainability.

Phospholipid remodeling governs cell fate, yet its ferroptosis-related mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we report the cryo-EM structure of phospholipid remodeler TMEM164, identify its lipid remodeling mechanism, and discover Montelukast S- enantiomer as a potent inhibitor.

Authors in this study discover a CCKBR agonist MF-8 with β-arrestin bias. This biased agonist can reduce other CCKBR signaling pathways, including Gαs-induced cAMP and Gαq/11-induced calcium signaling, thereby inhibiting the CCKBR-LTP. This discovery provides us with new ideas for developing drugs targeting CCKBR.

Assembly and analysis of a giant genome of 52.7 Gb, with the largest chromosome so far, and a smaller genome of 3.55 Gb, sheds light on the expansion, maintenance and higher-order chromatin structure of giant genome.

The microbial synthesis of carbon-containing compounds from single carbon precursors is desirable, yet designed pathways to achieve this goal overlap with host metabolism. Here the authors design a de novo metabolic pathway to assimilate formaldehyde into acetyl-CoA that does not overlap with known metabolic networks.

Extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) is a significant cause of human and animal disease. Here, the authors compile a collection of 499 ExPEC samples from swine in China and characterise their phylogenetic population structure and antibiotic resistance profiles.

The authors report a wet-chemistry-based method to fabricate amorphous, transferable high-k copper calcium titanate thin films as dielectrics for two-dimensional electronic devices.

Varying growth temperatures enables the tuning of the degree of disorder, which is fully described by the absence/presence of medium-range order and temperature-dependent densities of nanocrystallites, and electrical conductivity in amorphous monolayer carbon films.

This study presents ECloudGen, which uses latent diffusion to generate electron clouds from protein pockets and decodes them into molecules. The adopted two-stage training expands the chemical space accessible to generative drug design.

A mechanical exfoliation method for producing freestanding metal oxide ultrathin flakes is reported. The flakes can be transferred and integrated with 2D materials, providing a platform to investigate the fundamental properties of ultrathin metal oxides.

Pei et al. overcome desorption of passivating molecules under photothermal stress in wide-bandgap perovskites and achieve perovskite/Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ tandem solar cells with a certified efficiency of 27.35%.

The synthesis of allenes through 1,4-difunctionalization of 1,3-enynes typically requires preformed organometallic species, high temperature or specific alkyl radical precursors. Now an electrochemical multicomponent protocol for the chemo- and regioselective 1,4-difunctionalization of 1,3-enynes is reported, which uses alkyl bromides with aryl bromides, alkyl bromides or H₂O/D₂O as reagents for 1,4-difunctionalization.

SurfGen is a structure-based drug design approach that delves into topological and geometric deep learning techniques for interaction learning, echoing the classical lock-and-key model.

Designing molecules in drug design is challenging as it requires optimizing multiple, potentially competing qualities. Wu and colleagues present a prompt-based molecule optimization method that can be trained from single-property data.

Zhao et al. present RAPiDock, an all-atom diffusion model that predicts peptide–protein binding patterns across 92 amino acid types, enabling high-throughput virtual screening for advancing therapeutic peptide design.

Wang et al. propose EasIFA, an efficient enzyme active site annotation algorithm, to advance various fields including drug discovery, disease research, enzyme engineering, and synthetic biology.

The ectoenzyme CD73 is often elevated in tumour environments and targeting this protein is a tumour therapeutic target. Here the authors characterise a therapeutic anti-CD73 antibody cocktail which is more effective than either antibody alone and suggest a molecular mechanism of how this antibody cocktail functions.

Zheng et al. report water vapor treatment for in-situ n-doping of ZnMgO, enabling ideal ohmic electron transport and hole blockage as the electron injection layer for quantum dot light-emitting diodes, and improving the brightness and power efficiency of R/G/B LEDs for general lighting.

Sensing mechanical signals is an important aspect for a range of applications of E-skins. Here, the authors report on the creation of deforming iontronic sensing structures which can use ionic transport through tissues to create a simple and sensitive E-skin for sensing touch, pulse and motion demonstrating application.

In this work the authors present Token-Mol, a token-only 3D drug design model, which deploys the Gaussian cross-entropy (GCE) loss function for regression tasks. It exhibits superior performance in molecular conformation generation, property prediction, and pocket-based generation, thus opening up new avenues for drug design.

Multi-omic analysis of 39 samples of treatment-naive and recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinomas highlights the importance of the tumor microenvironment in promoting radioresistance and immune escape.

A non-contact wearable device that defines and modulates a microclimate adjacent to the skin can measure incoming and outgoing streams of vapourized substances, offering valuable insights into physiological health, wound healing and environmental exposures.

The authors resequence a core collection of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) comprising 419 accessions. They analyze genomic variation and conduct a genome-wide association study for 13 fiber quality and yield traits in 12 different environments.

High-quality genomes of two cultivated tetraploid cottons Gossypium hirsutum cv. NDM8 and Gossypium barbadense acc. Pima90 and resequencing of 1,081 G. hirsutum accessions provide insights into the role of structural variations.

The underlying mechanism of lithium dendrite penetration through ceramic electrolytes is debated. Here, authors employ MD simulations to enable atomic-scale investigation in the process of dendrite penetration and the concurrent development of cracks during solid state lithium battery operation.

A newly discovered benzoxaborole prodrug AN15368 cures Trypanosoma cruzi infection (the cause of Chagas disease) in mice and in naturally infected non-human primates.

High-quality genome of the modern soybean cultivar Nongdadou2 and deep resequencing of 547 accessions provide insights into the role of structural variations in soybean improvement.

The use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs inhibiting COX-1/2 is associated with an increased risk of heart failure. Here the authors show that mPGES-1, a therapeutic target downstream of COX enzymes, protects from cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury, limiting leukocyte-endothelial interactions and preserving microvascular perfusion partly via the endothelial EP4 receptor.

Organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors have enabled high efficiencies yet their charge dynamics and its impact on the photovoltaic parameters are not fully understood. Now, Chen et al. provide a general description of non-radiative voltage losses in both fullerene and non-fullerene solar cells.

Organic photovoltaics are promising for indoor applications, yet their voltage losses are large and limit device performance. Here, Cui et al. present a wide-gap non-fullerene acceptor that retains a voltage of 1.1 V at low light intensities enabling an efficiency of 26.1%.

Halogenation has proved an effective strategy to improve the power conversion efficiencies of organic solar cells but it usually leads to lower open-circuit voltages. Here, Cui et al. unexpectedly obtain higher open-circuit voltages and achieve a record high PCE of 16.5% by chlorination.

It remains unclear how microbes and plants contribute to soil organic carbon (SOC) accrual. Here, using biomarkers, the authors show that microbial necromass and plant-derived lignin components have divergent accumulation mechanisms and that microbial necromass plays a key role in SOC accumulation.

Ocean stratification — density-related layering of seawater — influences oceanographic and climatic processes. This Review outlines observed and projected changes in stratification, noting a 0.8% dec⁻¹ increase in 0–2,000 m stratification from 1960–2024, and a further 1.4% dec⁻¹ increase by 2100 under SSP2-4.5.