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Here, the authors conduct a metagenomic-based study of England’s rivers to show that biofilm bacteria are taxonomically and functionally diverse and are key to biogeochemical cycling, highlighting the importance of river biofilm bacteria in understanding and monitoring freshwater ecosystem health.

Obesity impairs metabolic flexibility-the capacity to adapt to fluctuating energy demands. Here, authors show that PRMT3 mediates the post-translational adaptation of visceral fat to fasting regulates metabolic flexibility and could be a therapeutic target for obesity.

The factors contributing to the onset of Barrett’s esophagus, a precancerous stage of the highly lethal esophageal cancer, remain elusive. Here, the authors identify inherited mutations in the VSIG10L gene as a key etiologic determinant affecting esophageal biology and facilitating the development of Barrett’s esophagus.

This trial found spinal cord stimulation was well tolerated in people with gait-impaired Parkinson’s disease. It suggests that longer use improved lower-body motor symptoms while reducing thalamic hypermetabolism and cholinergic overactivity.

The mechanical microenvironment for MSCs is crucial for osteogenesis. Here, the authors developed a hydrogel in which MSC-secreted ALP actively remodels the surrounding heterogeneous mechanical microenvironment to promote osteogenesis for bone regeneration.

Bacterial phosphate transporter PstSCAB is essential for survival and virulence. Here, authors reveal cryo-EM structures of PstSCAB in multiple states, uncovering how conformational changes drive phosphate import and providing insights for antibiotic development.

Protein C-terminal diversity is widespread, yet its proteome-wide impact remains unclear. Here, the authors show that C-terminal variations influence the stability of canonical and disease associated mutant proteins and define the sequence features and degradative mechanisms underlying this regulation.

A rate-limiting step to oncology clinical trial enrollment is prescreening. Here, the authors conduct a randomised trial using retrospective electronic health records to compare the accuracy and efficiency of prescreening by trained research staff alone vs. a human + artificial intelligence (AI) model in lung and colorectal cancer cohorts, showing that AI language models can approximate and augment human-driven prescreening in accuracy without changes in efficiency.

In this study, the authors show that chandelier cells in the medial prefrontal cortex integrate circuit inputs, encode stimulus salience across sensory modalities, and thus influence associative learning in male mice.

Many thermophiles that are abundant in geothermal systems have never been cultivated and are poorly understood. Here, Lai et al. describe the cultivation of one such organism, a deeply branching member of the archaeal phylum Thermoproteota, and provide evidence that it has evolved to specialize in branched-chain amino acid metabolism.

Diagnosing breast cancer through MRI is limited by high false-positive rates and inter- reader variability, leading to unnecessary biopsies. In here, the authors find that the BI-RADS 4 Lesions Analysis System (BL4AS) model improves diagnostic accuracy and reduces unnecessary biopsies as well as inter-reader variability

Using single-nucleus and spatial transcriptomics, the authors reveal resilience signatures in neocortical layer 4 neurons. They show KCNIP4 protects these cells by reducing hyperexcitability, a driver of neurodegeneration.

HCMV’s pathogenic mechanism in liver disease is unclear. Using cholangiocyte organoids, this study shows infection induces TGF-β-mediated EMT, causing functional impairment and potentially link the virus to the development of bile duct pathology.

Using ARPES, this work identifies dice-lattice flat bands in the electride material YCl. The authors show that anionic electrons act as lattice sites to create this rare electronic structure.

Painful bone growth after injury or surgery often goes undetected until it is advanced and treatment options are limited. Here, authors demonstrate that a blood test detecting gene expression profiles in isolated circulating mesenchymal progenitor cells could detect early signs of this condition and track treatment success.

This study develops and validates a prognostic staging framework for Alzheimer’s disease by integrating cognitive status with blood-based biomarkers, and neuroimaging data, to improve risk stratification across the disease continuum.

The herpes simplex virus lytic-latent balance is incompletely understood. In this study, the authors show that it is controlled by the relative abundance of host activating and repressive forkhead box (FOX) transcription factors that recruit epigenetic cofactors to the viral genome to remodel viral chromatin.

The authors in this work present a study with multiplexed gene editing that is used to assess all possible mutations at a native drug binding site. The approach yields data that predicts spontaneous resistance, that aligns with in silico predictions, and that promises to facilitate drug discovery.

The growing demand for rare earth elements (REEs) underscores the need for sustainable recovery methods and a reliable supply. Here the authors establish a platform using a yeast to produce bio-oxalic acid for REE recovery, achieving 99% REE recovery from low-grade ore.

This study quantifies the environmental impact associated with photovoltaics manufacturing and demonstrates significant CO₂ emissions savings, depending on solar cell technology and the composition of the electricity mix in the region of manufacture.

MedHELM, an extensible evaluation framework including a new taxonomy for classifying medical tasks and a benchmark of many datasets across these categories, enables the evaluation of large language models on real-world clinical tasks.

Here, the authors find that time-varying brain network analysis better captures cognitive processing than static methods and reveals network measurement linked to task performance and psychopathology that offer precise neural markers for mental health risks.

Beta-glucan is an inducer of trained immunity, an epigenetic and metabolic reprogramming of the innate immune cells conferring immunological memory. Here the authors show that glucan-induced trained immunity enhances response to a cancer vaccine platform in colorectal cancer models, by inducing epigenetic and metabolic rewiring of macrophages that promotes an NK-cDC1 axis boosting anti-tumor immunity.

This study reports NIR probes targeting amyloid-β aggregates and cholinesterases for dual diagnostics and therapy. Lead probe I-43 detects Aβ in APP-PS1 mice, improves memory in a scopolamine model, and offers a template for future probe development.

Humans alter the daily timing of animal activity, potentially reshaping predator–prey interactions. This meta-analysis reveals that larger species tend to “lose” under human disturbance, with large predators overlapping less with their prey, and large prey overlapping more with their predators.

In patients with immunotherapy-resistant, HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HPV- HNSCC), cetuximab (EGFR inhibitor) is the standard of care but success is limited. Here, the authors report the results of their phase II trial investigating dalpicilib (CDK4/6 inhibitor) and cetuximab in patients with immunotherapy resistant HPV- HNSCC.

Enhancing the carrier mobility of graphene can enable the investigation of its fundamental properties and promote device applications. Here, the authors report the fabrication of double-layer graphene devices with a quantum mobility up to 10⁷ cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹ and integer quantum Hall features at magnetic fields as low as 0.002 T.

This study shows that acidification increases substrate affinity in ammonia-oxidizing microbes, partly offsetting reduced ammonia availability. Stronger responses in archaea than bacteria explain contrasting ecosystem reactions.

China’s carbon neutrality and clean-air policies cause global warming from reduced aerosols that nearly offsets cooling from reduced CO2 before 2060, with warming emerging afterwards, calling for early carbon neutrality and more mitigation strategies.

O’Shea and colleagues establish that optimisation of charge and stability is sufficient to enable any single-chain variable fragment intrabody to function within the cell. The authors use AI-led inverse folding to optimise intrabody characteristics, and they present hundreds of intrabody sequences targeting sixty cytoplasmic proteins.

Chemical imaging probes enable visualization of dynamic biological processes, but engineering high sensitivity probes remains challenging. Here, the authors present Sensight, a quantitative multivariate framework that integrates key photophysical and physicochemical descriptors to predict and optimize probe performance, and design G₃, a superoxide probe with high sensitivity for detecting early oxidative events.

Interfacial water is of crucial importance in biology and engineering. Here, the authors identify structural transitions of interfacial water at graphite surfaces under varying electric fields and environmental conditions.

Newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants underscore the need for broad-spectrum antiviral solutions. This study shows a macrocyclic peptide inhibitor that locks the SARS-CoV-2 spike trimer into a “closed” conformation by engaging a conserved region, and demonstrates that intranasal administration of the peptide inhibitor protects against Omicron variants.

A streamlined blood test using mass spectrometry improves measurement of amyloid-β for early Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, requiring less sample volume and reagents while maintaining high accuracy, sensitivity and strong agreement with brain imaging.

The contribution of ether lipid species in cancer cell fate has not been fully understood yet. Here the authors show that malignant cancer cells employ ether lipids to modulate membrane biophysical properties, enhancing iron endocytosis and ferroptosis susceptibility.

Peroxidases have long been considered to use ferryl heme intermediates (Fe(IV) = O) to catalyze oxidative chemistries. Here, Williams et al. find that ferric-oxyl (Fe^III–O^•–) excited states exist along the catalytic reaction coordinate of a peroxidase.

Recent work has revealed quantum coherent phase slips and current quantization in superconductors, phenomena dual to Cooper pair tunneling and voltage quantization. By combining the two effects, the authors demonstrate a Bloch transistor, a device that delivers quantized current and features a unique phase-locking mechanism.

Granzyme B is an important factor in cytotoxic T lymphocytes anti-tumour immunity. Here, the authors report on a Pd-FTn granzyme B-mimicking nanozyme with a binuclear catalytic centre, delivered by functionalised nanovesicles to selectively trigger caspase-dependent apoptosis for a T cell-inspired cancer therapy.

Baracchini et al. reveal that temporal variability in fMRI brain signals encodes biologically meaningful information across spatial and temporal scales, highlighting its role in healthy brain function and systems-level organization.

Aerial surveys over the Permian Basin found 500+ major methane leaks, many recurring. A few sites leaked continuously and offer quick mitigation wins. These super-emitters may produce ~50% of regional emissions, underscoring the need for frequent monitoring.

Low oxidation state aluminium complexes have gained wide recognition as discrete and versatile 2-electron reductants, but neutral trimeric structures remain elusive. Here the authors report the synthesis and characterization of two neutral Al(I) trimers whose trimeric structure is retained in solution.

Structural variants are an underexplored source of genetic diversity. Here, the authors use phased pangenome graphs to improve detection of these variants in dairy cattle and link these variants to traits of economic importance.

This study provides a comprehensive profile of human fetal midbrain development and its comparison with lab-grown midbrain cultures. These findings demonstrate that midbrain organoids recapitulate fetal developmental stages while capturing essential spatial and molecular characteristics, relevant to dopamine-related disorders.

Pausing during early transcription by bacterial RNA polymerase is not fully understood. Here, the authors determine the structures of the paused initiation complex in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, revealing how RNA and polymerase interactions create a transcription checkpoint.

After two years of mass azithromycin distribution to preschool age children in rural Niger, in this study, authors present evidence that selection of antibiotic resistance genes was not spread from treated villages to nearby untreated villages.

Tan and colleagues present “cycling molecular assemblies” that borrow cellular lipidation machinery to build nanostructures inside the Golgi apparatus. These tools enable rapid organelle imaging and selective destruction of cancer cells.

This study introduces the Lipid Nanoparticle Database (LNPDB) and web tool that consolidates lipid nanoparticle structure-function data. LNPDB facilitates molecular dynamics and deep learning approaches to advance data-driven design for nucleic acid delivery.

Biological system for stable object manipulation is facilitated by a unified tactile memory system. Here, GenForce enables transferable force sensing across diverse tactile sensors using a unified representation, enhancing robot manipulation through cross-sensor transfer and multi-sensor coordination.

This work highlights how changes to beaches are related to sand movement and human impacts to the coast and illuminates opportunities for sand management to resolve shoreline erosion and enhance beach sustainability.