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Dierl, Hinsen et al. investigate long term pulmonary toxicity in pediatric cancer survivors by the use of Free-breathing phase-resolved functional lung (PREFUL) MRI on a low-field system. Subclinical and time-dependent reduction in pulmonary ventilation and perfusion is revealed.

Men and women differ in their lipid biology. Here, the authors identify NCOA1 as a female-specific regulator that promotes the conversion of white fat into energy-burning fat, protecting women from obesity and metabolic disease by enhancing thermogenic activity in subcutaneous fat.

By performing a CAR-adapted base-editing screen of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase delta (PI3Kδ, PIK3CD), Bucher et al. identify mutations affecting endogenous PI3K–AKT signaling that enhances CAR T cell antitumor potency.

Mecp2 deficiency underlies Rett syndrome, a genetic disorder presenting with chronic low-grade inflammation of unknown origin. Here, the authors show that Mecp2 is a central regulator of the onset, breadth and nature of nucleic acid immunity.

Condensates of excitons have been observed in the quantum Hall regime, but evidence for their existence at low magnetic fields remains controversial. Now evidence of coherence between optically pumped interlayer excitons in MoS₂ marks a step towards confirming exciton condensation at low magnetic fields.

Diatoms dominate the oceans, yet sexual reproduction - key to bloom dynamics and species evolvability - is rarely observed. Using a lab-to-field approach, this study presents conserved markers applicable across datasets, revealing widespread sex in both abundant and rare taxa in diatom natural populations.

Adding Strongyloides stercoralis diagnostics to Rwanda’s soil-transmitted helminth control program was evaluated. Following training, Baermann and stool culture tests were implemented successfully, with no reported issues with rapid testing.

Annular phytoplankton blooms over the seamount Maud Rise in the Antarctic Ocean are linked with the presence of heat and dissolved iron upwelled from the deep sea through interactions between the ocean circulation and the topography of the seamount.

Application of a nanopore sequencing workflow for real-time analysis of brain tumors results in molecular classification within a 30-minute intraoperative window, followed by comprehensive profiling within 24 hours.

A purpose-built implantable system based on biomimetic epidural electrical stimulation of the spinal cord reduces the severity of hypotensive complications in people with spinal cord injury and improves quality of life.

Immune genetic and disease surveillance of a wild meerkat population over 20 years shows that tuberculosis imposes strong pathogen-mediated balancing selection on the meerkats’ major histocompatibility complex via rare-allele advantage or fluctuating selection.

Smeland et al. demonstrate greater genetic overlap between neurological and psychiatric disorders than previously recognized, along with diverse neurobiological associations. The findings support a more integrated view of brain-related illness.

Quantitative analysis of embryonic cell dynamics from large data sets remains a major challenge in the field of developmental biology. Here the authors develop software and a workflow to reconstruct cell lineage trees from 3D time lapse imaging data sets from several developing organisms including zebrafish, tunicates and sea urchins.

The chemical properties of molecules are largely determined by the distribution of charge across them. Here, the authors demonstrate how the electrostatic force field, originating from the inhomogeneous charge distribution in a molecule, can be measured with sub-molecular resolution.

Ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses change the properties of dielectrics in different ways. One unexpected outcome is light amplification in an excited dielectric, observed in a two-colour pump–probe experiment.

Mussels use strong filaments to adhere to rocks, preventing them from being swept away in strong currents. Here, the authors borrow and simplify chemistries from the mussel foot to create a one component adhesive system which holds potential for employment in nanofabrication protocols.

Russo et al. show that context-specific place cell assemblies support hippocampal integration of past experiences into future plans during goal-directed behavior and propose a biophysical mechanism behind the formation of goal dependent theta sequences.

Interlayer excitons in bilayer MoS₂ exhibit both a high oscillator strength and highly tunable energies in an applied electric field.

Using degron approaches, the authors show that cancer cells experiencing prolonged DNA methylation loss—without substantial DNA damage—undergo non-canonical senescence. This has important potential implications for cancer treatment.

A reconstruction method for image scanning microscopy exploits all the information encoded in the four-dimensional image scanning microscopy dataset to achieve optical sectioning and maintain super-resolution and high-signal-to-noise-ratio imaging.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) regulates the extracellular composition of the central nervous system (CNS), but it is not known whether its properties differ across CNS regions. Here, the authors show in mice that the BBB exhibits regional specializations, and that such specializations can be important for the function of specific neural circuits.

Weijs, Missura, Potok et al. showed in this study with brain stimulation and electrophysiological methods that self-regulation of pupil size via pupil-based biofeedback modulates cortical excitability, arousal, and task-evoked responses.

The DNA-dependent protease SPRTN cleaves toxic DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs). Here, the authors show that SPRTN is activated by DPC-ubiquitylation through an allosteric ubiquitin binding interface. This regulatory mechanism enables precise control of SPRTN activity during DNA repair.

Circulating metabolites reflect complex disease risk and are shaped by diverse genetic factors. Here, the authors show widespread pleiotropy across 249 metabolic traits, identify rare variant and sex-specific effects, and implicate lipid-related pathways in metabolism.

The role of CXCR2 in epithelial and endothelial cells on lung infection remains unclear. The authors here use conditional CXCR2 knockout mice to manifest that epithelial and vascular CXCR2 mediates transcytosis of CXCL1, leading to neutrophil infiltration and controlled lung inflammation.

Arousal levels regulate sleep, but accurate noninvasive measures are lacking. Here, a novel method is introduced to track pupil-indexed arousal levels during human sleep, revealing pupil size changes during sleep events critical for overall health.

High productivity and associated carbon uptake, significant carbonate deposits and substantial global area extension render coralline algal beds as highly relevant contributors to the present and future oceanic carbon cycle

Pancreatic β-cells release insulin, which controls energy homeostasis in vertebrates, and its lack causes diabetes mellitus. The transcription factor neurogenin 3 (Neurog3) initiates differentiation of β-cells and other islet cell types from pancreatic endoderm; here, the transcription factor Rfx6 is shown to direct islet cell differentiation downstream of Neurog3 in mice and humans. This may be useful in efforts to generate β-cells for patients with diabetes.

The authors introduce the Neurolipid Atlas, a dynamic resource for the community to gain insight into lipid alterations in neurodegenerative disease, and they leverage the platform to show how cholesterol alterations in astrocytes can dysregulate neuroinflammatory pathways in Alzheimer disease.

Targeting a non-natural micropeptide ‘killswitch’ to several biomolecular condensates altered condensate compositions and revealed condensate functions in human cells

The Galactic Centre should host up to 10% of the newest stars in the Galaxy, but the only two known young star clusters in the Galactic Centre account for less than 10% of this expected mass. A high-angular-resolution near-infrared survey of the Sgr B1 region finds another 25% of the expected mass of very young stars.

Zhang et al. use single-cell RNA sequencing and functional analyses to describe the hyaluronic acid–GPRC5C signalling axis as an essential component controlling the state of dormancy for human and mouse haematopoietic stem cells.

Reduced nickel-rich metal and oxidized nickel carbonate inclusions within diamonds provide evidence of metasomatic redox reactions and support the role of carbonatitic melts in oxidizing small volumes of the deep upper mantle and transition zone.

Here the authors perform the reconstruction and analysis of pathological ALys amyloid fibrils extracted from fat tissue from a patient carrying the D87G variant. They reveal an intact amyloid fibril with no evidence of proteolysis and four intact disulphide bonds.

Human pluripotent cells are differentiated into lung progenitors and alveolar type 1 cells.

Uechi et al. found that a small-molecule lipoamide dissolves stress granules (SGs) by targeting SFPQ, a redox-sensitive disordered SG protein, alleviating pathological phenotypes caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-associated FUS and TDP-43 mutants.

Understanding the effects of protein point mutations is crucial for pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications, yet achieving a balance between prediction accuracy and computational efficiency remains challenging. Here, the authors introduce QresFEP-2, a hybrid-topology free energy perturbation protocol that offers exceptional accuracy and efficiency, and robustly assesses effects of mutations on thermodynamic stability, protein-ligand binding and protein-protein interactions.

In wildlife tagging, stress from capture and handling can alter post- release behavior and potentially study interpretations. This study of 42 mammal species shows that these effects diminish within 4–7 days, and quicker for animals in high human activity areas indicating adaptation to disturbance.

Cassava mosaic disease is caused by geminiviruses and suppresses cassava yields throughout the tropics. Here, the authors show that mutations in MePOLD1, encoding DNA polymerase δ subunit 1, co-segregate with CMD2, the major source of genetic resistance for this disease.

UM171 is being used to promote self-renewal and expansion of human hematopoietic stem cells in vitro. Here, authors show through clonal analysis that UM171 also biases the differentiation trajectories of hematopoietic progenitor cells in culture.

High-resolution Micro-C is applied to characterize the effect of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) loss on chromosome looping, finding that the formation of enhancer–promoter, but not promoter–promoter, loops are dependent on RNAPII binding to their anchors.

Whole-brain anatomical and activity surveys identify the lateral hypothalamus as a key driver of recovery from spinal cord injury, leading to a deep brain stimulation therapy that augments the recovery of walking in humans.

pH alterations are a hallmark of many pathologies including cancer and kidney disease. Here the authors describe [1,5- 13 C2]Z-OMPD as a probe for hyperpolarized 13C-MRI with good pH sensitivity and hyperpolarization properties which combined with tailored MRI protocols allow sub-minute imaging of pH, renal perfusion and filtration simultaneously.