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Syntaxin-1A, a SNARE protein mediating membrane fusion for neurotransmission, forms clusters with unclear functions. Using light-controlled clustering, the authors found that phase-separation-driven clusters, regulated by Munc18, suppress fusion, revealing a new phase-separation-based mechanism.

An orally delivered encapsulated bacterial cocktail that metabolizes blood nitrogenous waste products in the gut reduces urea and creatinine concentrations in the blood of animal models of acute and chronic kidney injury.

Infrared information encryption is a promising technique for data transmission, though current strategies fail to transmit data in real-time. Here the authors report a multilayer relaxor ferroelectric polymer stack which exhibits rectangular temperature wave for real-time and programmable encryption.

Molecular bilayer crystals of an organic semiconductor can exhibit metallic charge transport down to 8 K with an electrical conductivity of up to 245 S cm⁻¹, as well as charge carrier mobility values of more than 100 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at 20 K.

Along with the rapid merge and development of biotechnology and nanotechnology, various DNA nanostructure scaffolds have been designed, characterized and exploited for a range of applications. Particularly, we have seen the evolution of surface-confined DNA probes with rational design from one-dimensional to two-dimensional and then to three-dimensional, which greatly improve our ability to control the density, orientation and passivation of the surface. In this review, we aim to summarize recent progress on the improvement of probe–target recognition properties by introducing DNA nanostructure scaffolds. A range of new strategies have proven to provide significantly enhanced spatial positioning range and accessibility of the probes on surface over previously reported linear structures. We will also describe applications of DNA nanostructure scaffold-based biosensors.

Achieving truly continuous and precise analog calculations using DNA neural networks is challenging. Here, the authors develop a fully analog DNA neural network system called CALCUL, that performs highly accurate weighted-sum operations and can be recycled.

It is uncertain how much life expectancy of the Chinese population would improve under current and greater policy targets on lifestyle-based risk factors for chronic diseases and mortality behaviours. Here we report a simulation of how improvements in four risk factors, namely smoking, alcohol use, physical activity and diet, could affect mortality. We show that in the ideal scenario, that is, all people who currently smokers quit smoking, excessive alcohol userswas reduced to moderate intake, people under 65 increased moderate physical activity by one hour and those aged 65 and older increased by half an hour per day, and all participants ate 200 g more fresh fruits and 50 g more fish/seafood per day, life expectancy at age 30 would increase by 4.83 and 5.39 years for men and women, respectively. In a more moderate risk reduction scenario referred to as the practical scenario, where improvements in each lifestyle factor were approximately halved, the gains in life expectancy at age 30 could be half those of the ideal scenario. However, the validity of these estimates in practise may be influenced by population-wide adherence to lifestyle recommendations. Our findings suggest that the current policy targets set by the Healthy China Initiative could be adjusted dynamically, and a greater increase in life expectancy would be achieved.

Cell fate is principally regulated by a common machine or cell-intrinsic machine. Here the authors report the design and testing of an engineered chromatin controller to drive such machine for mouse cell fate transition in precision.

The Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative (TPMI) has built a cohort of more than half a million individuals with Han Chinese ancestry, providing a rich resource of genetic and medical data for this group.

The heterodimer of METTL1-WDR4 is responsible for adding methylation group to the N7 atom of guanine (m7G) in tRNA molecules. Here the authors show how the tRNA m7G modification mediates tRNA stability to control proteostasis by maintaining efficient protein synthesis, which is important for preventing premature senescence and aging.

Analysis of the 'Chicago' Archaeopteryx, a nearly complete and uncrushed specimen, reveals details of the skeleton, soft tissues and plumage of this taxon, providing information on the evolution to avian dinosaur.

Gaining in-depth understanding of photochemical processes is key for developing more sustainable and efficient chemical transformations. Here the authors show that under visible light photochemical conditions, iminoiodinanes undergo formation of triplet nitrenes or nitrene radical anions, depending on the use of a photosensitizer; These reagents are studied in amination reactions with olefins.

Syt1 is a primary Ca²⁺ sensor for secretion but the function of non-Ca²⁺ -affinitive Syt11 remains unknown. Here, authors identify strong but Ca²⁺ -inhibited lipid affinity of Syt11, and a Syt11-1-11 inter-switch during excitation-coupled exo-endocytosis.

Huang et al. show that myocardial infarction (MI)-associated vasculature is structurally and functionally abnormal, impeding vessel function and cardiac repair in mice. Analyses of the transcriptome of the cardiac endothelium after MI identify a PDGF–NF-κB–HIF-1α Snail axis responsible for mesenchymal transformation of endothelial cells and show that genetic ablation or targeted disruption of PDGF signaling normalizes vasculature and improves cardiac function recovery after MI.

The high performance of two-dimensional (2D) channel membranes is generally achieved by preparing ultrathin or forming short channels with less tortuous transport through self-assembly of small flakes. Here, the authors report the construction of vertical channels in graphene oxide membranes based on a substrate template with asymmetric pores demonstrating high flux and metal ion rejection.

Cardiac fibrosis is a common feature of chronic heart failure, and the mechanisms of cardiac fibrosis are unclear. Here, the authors show that iroquois homeobox 2 (IRX2) regulates the early growth response factor 1 (EGR1) pathway upon fibrotic stimulation and drives cardiac fibrosis.

DNA computing has emerged as a transformative approach for molecular decision-making but is limited in interpretability and scalability. Here, the authors develop a DNA-based decision tree computing system for interpretable, scalable, and memory-efficient decision-making at the molecular level.

The ALICE Collaboration provides details on the microscopic mechanism that ends up creating antideuteron in high-energy proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

This study provides a single-cell and spatial atlas of the prometastatic tumor microenvironment in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and characterizes the immunosuppressive function of GPR116⁺ pericytes in cancer metastasis and immune evasion.

The use of time modulation to break reciprocity is well understood for light, sound or charge diffusion, but it’s unclear whether it can work for thermal diffusion. Here, the authors answer in the negative by analysing diffusive processes under time modulation, and giving numerical and experimental evidence.

Sequencing of 144 ancient genomes from Shimao city and its satellites presents pedigrees among tomb owners spanning up to four generations showing predominantly patrilineal descent structure across Shimao communities, and possibly sex-specific sacrificial rituals.

The ‘Tianjic’ hybrid electronic chip combines neuroscience-oriented and computer-science-oriented approaches to artificial general intelligence, demonstrated by controlling an unmanned bicycle.

Achieving generality in asymmetric catalysis with highly reactive radicals is a challenge. Now it is shown that a sequential copper-catalysed approach enables the efficient, enantioselective cross-coupling of over 50 diverse radicals, providing unified access to C-, P- and S-chiral products and advancing the asymmetric synthesis of challenging molecular architectures.

Pulmonary veno-occlusive disease (PVOD) is a fatal disease characterised by remodelling of pulmonary veins and haemosiderin accumulation in macrophages. Here the authors examine the lack of GCN2 in PVOD as this has been observed in human disease and deficiency of GCN2 in mouse and rat PVOD models alters transcriptome profiles and increases macrophage ferroptosis.

Ribonucleoprotein aggresomes exclude ribonucleases and protect mRNA to promote rapid translation reactivation and cellular recovery after stress alleviation in Escherichia coli.

Artificial DNA circuits that can perform neural network-like computations have been developed, but scaling up these circuits to recognize a large number of patterns is a challenging task. Xiong, Zhu and colleagues experimentally demonstrate a convolutional neural network algorithm using a synthetic DNA-based regulatory circuit in vitro and develop a freeze–thaw approach to reduce the computation time from hours to minutes, paving the way towards more powerful biomolecular classifiers.

Direct visualization of chiral effects in topological chiral semimetals remains elusive. Here, Sessi et al. demonstrate that quasiparticle scattering at impurities in the two enantiomers of PdGa gives rise to handedness dependent quantum interference patterns.

Rapid, simple, and accurate PAM determination assay in mammalian cells facilitates the advancement of CRISPR/Cas nucleases, especially for gene therapy and medical research.

Erbium quantum emitters operating in the telecom C band are promising for spin-photon interfaces but achieving both optical and spin coherence has been challenging. Gupta et al. report two types of erbium dopants in epitaxial Y₂O₃ thin films occupying distinct lattice sites and exhibiting long spin and optical coherence times

In plants and algae, isoamylases drive phytoglycogen-to-amylopectin conversion. Here, the authors show that ISA1 and ISA2 form a heterocomplex that coordinately trims glucan branches to promote starch granule formation, defining a key step in starch biosynthesis.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

A facile light-triggered doping strategy involving a series of inactive photoactivable dopants is described that facilitates tunable regionally controlled n-doping of organic semiconductors, resulting in stable patterning of the doping profile at record high resolutions.

In this study, Yang et al. compile a global dataset to uncover the degree to which plants coordinate root and seed traits. They report a global positive correlation between root diameter and seed size, driven by dual roles of arbuscular mycorrhiza in phosphorus uptake and pathogen defence.

The pathogenesis of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains to be understood. Here the authors identify that USP26 deubiquitinase drives the progression of HBV-associated HCC via regulating the protein stability of Sirtuin 1.

Here, the authors describe a highly efficient gene drive targeting the non-coding miR-184 gene. Disruption of the miR-184 gene by the gene drive reduces mosquito lifespan and interferes with survival after a blood meal, both traits that may reduce malaria burden.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Cholinergic neurons in the diagonal band of Broca degenerate early in Alzheimer’s disease. Here the authors show that in healthy mice, these cholinergic inputs innervate newborn neurons in the hippocampus, and that loss of this innervation in an Alzheimer’s disease model leads to impairments in spatial memory.

Cr³⁺-sensitized lanthanide-doped nanoparticles afford high-brightness luminescence in the near-infrared region for applications in in vivo non-invasive bioimaging.

There is a lack of guiding parameters to design metallic materials such as high-entropy alloys with strength-ductility synergy. Here, the authors propose such an effective parameter κ, the ratio of short-ranged interactions between closed-pack planes, experimentally validated by six alloys.