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Amorphous films with tunable thermal conductivity are needed for semiconductor/aerospace fields. Amorphous Al(Ti)N nanoparticles have negligible effect on thermal conductivity of Si₃N₄ 2 W m⁻¹K⁻¹, while incorporating crystal TiN phases increases to 15 W m⁻¹K⁻¹.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Inbreeding depression has been observed in many different species, but in humans a systematic analysis has been difficult so far. Here, analysing more than 1.3 million individuals, the authors show that a genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) is associated with disadvantageous outcomes in 32 out of 100 traits tested.

A repeat endoscopic evaluation of a bleeding lesion on subsequent follow-up is commonly called second-look endoscopy. Tsoi and colleagues review the findings from five randomized, controlled trials and consider whether second-look endoscopy can be recommended as routine practice, and which groups of patients might benefit most. The cost-effectiveness of second-look endoscopy and the use of PPIs versus second-look endoscopy are also discussed.

The conserved surface polysaccharide poly-β-(1,6)-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (PNAG) is a promising vaccine target but antibodies raised against PNAG have shown restricted efficacy. Here, the authors describe an effective n + 2 glycosylation strategy, with control over the degree of N-acetylation, that allows the iterative assembly of partially and fully deacetylated PNAG glycans and investigate their potential as vaccine candidates.

AI-enabled cognitive assistance for therapeutic procedures has rarely been pre-clinically validated. Here, the authors propose an intelligent surgical workflow recognition suit AI-Endo for endoscopic submucosal dissection, extensively validated on external and animal trial datasets.

Optical texture analysis of the retinal nerve fibre layer, via an algorithm integrating thickness and reflectance measurements from standard wide-field optical coherence tomography, outperforms conventional tomographic analysis in the detection of optic neuropathies.

Openshaw and colleagues find myeloid inflammation and complement activation signatures in patients with long COVID who were previously hospitalized.

A combined analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral load and whole-genome sequences from COVID-19 patients, including some who were previously vaccinated, reveals that vaccine breakthrough infections are more commonly associated with antibody-resistant SARS-CoV-2 variants than infections in unvaccinated individuals, and that symptomatic breakthrough infections may be as efficient in spreading COVID-19 as unvaccinated infections.

The impact of the DART spacecraft on the asteroid Dimorphos is reported and reconstructed, demonstrating that kinetic impactor technology is a viable technique to potentially defend Earth from asteroids.

Stig Bojesen, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Alison Dunning and colleagues report common variants at the TERT-CLPTM1L locus associated with mean telomere length measured in whole blood. They also identify associations at this locus to breast or ovarian cancer susceptibility and report functional studies in breast and ovarian cancer tissue and cell lines.

Tumor cell in the peritoneum are often exposed to shear forces generated by ascitic flow during metastasis. Here, the authors show that metastatic cancer stem cells tether more and roll slower than the non-metastatic counterparts, and that sialyl-Lewis^x -P-selectin axis mediates peritoneal metastasis.

Arginine methylation by PRMTs is dysregulated in cancer. Here, the authors use functional genomics screens and identify PRMT1 as a vulnerability in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and further show that PRMT1 regulates RNA metabolism and coordinates expression of genes in cell cycle progression, maintaining genomic stability and tumour growth.

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)-based immunotherapies can induce tumor regressions by targeting HLA class I-bound tumor-associated peptides. Here, the authors identified a peptide derived from Vestigial-like 1 (VGLL1) as a shared, potentially therapeutic CTL target expressed by multiple cancer types.

TGF-β stimulated tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) can exert pro-tumoral functions. Here the authors show that Smad3 activation in TANs is associated with an N2-like polarization state and poor outcome in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma and that Smad3 targeting reprograms TANs to an antitumor state suppressing tumor growth in preclinical lung cancer models.

Rudloff et al. examine the kinetics of CD8⁺ T cell dysfunction/exhaustion. Tumor-specific CD8⁺ T cells in the tumor environment exhibit epigenetic modifications within hours, before cell division. The findings suggest a temporal relationship between tumor antigen exposure, chromatin remodeling and dysfunction ‘imprinting’.

In-plane anisotropic exciton-polariton propagation in SnSe enables nanoscale imaging of the in-plane ferroelectric domains

The small molecule GS-6207, which disrupts the function of the HIV capsid protein, shows potential as a long-acting therapeutic agent for the treatment and prevention of HIV infection.

Vascular protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) regulates thrombosis and targeting extracellular PDI remains a promising antithrombotic approach. Here, the authors show that PDI cleaves allosteric disulfides on histidine-rich glycoprotein to influence its functions during coagulation and thus fine-tune the kinetics of thrombus formation.

INPP5D/SHIP1 is a microglial-expressed gene that has been associated with Alzheimer’s disease through genetic studies. This study reveals that reduction in INPP5D activity induces activation of the NLRP3-inflammasome in human microglia.

Crosstalk between protein oxidation and other post-translational modifications remains unexplored. Here, the authors map the phosphoproteome, cysteine redox proteome and total proteome of adipocytes under acute oxidative stress and reveal crosstalk between cysteine oxidation and phosphorylation-based signalling.

A major question in redox signaling is how H₂O₂ oxidizes target protein thiols in the presence of glutathione peroxidases and peroxiredoxins. We reveal signaling by H₂O₂ via its enzymatic conversion to an alkyl hydroperoxide that stereo-specifically escapes peroxidases and oxidizes target proteins.

Predicting outcomes in upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) is important for identifying patients at high risk of morbidity and mortality who would benefit from early intervention. Various scoring systems have been developed to this end, but could clinical judgment replace or complement these risk stratification scores?

The development of a drug delivery system capable of prolonged retention in the gastrointestinal tract remains a clinical challenge. Here the authors present a bio-adhesive liquid coacervate coating on the intestinal tract that acts as a flowable drug carrier, mediates the sustained release of diverse drugs, and potentially enhances therapeutic efficacy against gastrointestinal diseases.

The kinetics of DNA hybridization can be explored by measuring the conductance of a carbon nanotube that has a single strand of DNA covalently attached to a point defect.

Ni-rich layered cathode materials are promising for high-energy-density Li-ion batteries, but their degradation mechanisms are still poorly understood. A structure-driven mechanism with a lowered accessible state of charge after repetitive cycling is proposed for a typical NMC811 cathode.

This Review summarizes recent and compelling examples of microbiome-based interventions that are ripe for clinical adoption while also discussing the challenges and opportunities facing the field.

In this Review, the authors describe current sperm selection methods and the advances in selection technologies for assisted reproductive techniques, highlighting their mechanisms of selection, advantages, limitations and clinical outcomes. They also propose a conceptual sperm selection model that uses multiple selection mechanisms.