Search

Indium phosphide is the material of choice for bright and color-pure quantum dots for next-generation displays. This study identifies the photophysical processes that have until now prevented the development of lasers based on these particles.

Efficient, large-scale genomic analysis is facilitated on the cloud by a computational tool with error-diagnosing and self-healing capabilities.

A magnetic confinement regime established at the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research device enables the generation of plasmas over 10⁸ kelvin for 20 seconds with the aid of fast ions without plasma edge instabilities or impurity accumulation.

Axonal spheroids disrupt neural circuits in Alzheimer’s disease. In this study, using subcellular proximity labeling proteomics in human brain and iPSC modeling, the authors link spheroid formation to dysregulated mTOR, cytoskeletal and lipid transport signaling.

Electroreduction of CO₂ to CO is a potential valorisation pathway of carbon dioxide for fine chemicals production. Here, the authors show a user-friendly device that couples CO₂ electroreduction with carbonylation chemistry for up to gram scale synthesis of pharmaceuticals even under atmospheric CO₂.

Black phosphorus (BP) is considered a promising van der Waals material for the realization of mid-infrared detectors. Here, the authors report the realization of flexible infrared imagers based on solution-processed BP photodiodes on thin plastic substrates, showing long term stability and mechanical robustness.

Exome sequencing of 851 trios from more than 2,500 individuals finds 187 genes with de novo mutations that contribute to meningomyelocele (spina bifida) and highlights critical pathways required for neural tube closure.

The application and therapeutic success of CAR-T cell approaches are limited by the development of T cell exhaustion. Here, Stewart et al discover a role for IL-4 in driving CD8⁺ CAR-T cell exhaustion and demonstrate the improvement of CAR-T cell effectivity with interruption of IL-4 signalling.

A genome-wide study by the Long COVID Host Genetics Initiative identifies an association between the FOXP4 locus and long COVID, implicating altered lung function in its pathophysiology.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association study data from 77,418 individuals of East Asian ancestry with type 2 diabetes identifies novel variants associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Probing spectral properties of complex quantum many-body systems is challenging with existing theoretical and experimental techniques. Here, the authors introduce quantum simulations as a potential alternative to scattering spectroscopy for estimating the spectral features of many-body systems.

How ketamine and scopolamine produce sustained antidepressant effects remains unknown. Kim et al. show that BDNF-dependent MeCP2 phosphorylation drives sustained antidepressant effects of ketamine and scopolamine with distinct synaptic plasticity changes.

The PSA (KLK3) genetic variant rs17632542 is associated with reduced prostate cancer risk and lower serum PSA levels, although the underlying reasons are unclear. Here, the authors show that this PSA variant reduced proteolytic activity and leads to smaller tumours, but also increases invasion and bone metastasis, indicating its dual risk association depending on tumour context; the variant is associated with both lower risk and poor clinical outcomes.

Lightning Pose is an efficient pose estimation approach that requires few labeled training data owing to its semi-supervised learning strategy and ensembling.

Stable coating of filters with a thin liquid layer enhances adhesion of airborne particulates while maintaining high air permeability, resulting in longer lifetimes and higher efficiency of these filters.

John Chambers, Jaspal Kooner, Pim van der Harst, Shyong Tai, Paul Elliott, Jiang He, Norihiro Kato and colleagues performed a genome-wide association study of blood pressure phenotypes in individuals of European, East Asian and South Asian ancestry. They find trait-associated SNPs at 12 loci, some of which are associated with methylation at nearby CpG sites.

Transcriptomic analyses of acute phase whole blood from a large cohort of patients with COVID-19 identify molecular determinants of post-infection long-term sequelae.

Although progress in the coverage of routine measles vaccination in children in low- and middle-income countries was made during 2000–2019, many countries remain far from the goal of 80% coverage in all districts by 2019.

Changes to actin dynamics during brain aging are not well understood. Here, the authors report that there is an age-related increase in F-actin in Drosophila brain which disables autophagy within the tissue and limits the fly lifespan.

Dietary protein restriction in healthy, lean men elicits an increased energy intake to maintain body weight, which is driven, at least in part, by FGF21-mediated alterations to adipose tissue mitochondria.

Electrolyte engineering has proven an effective approach to enhance the performance of lithium metal batteries. Here the authors propose a strategy by using multiple solvents in weakly solvating electrolytes—dubbed as high-entropy electrolytes—to improve the ionic conductivity while maintaining electrochemical stability, leading to high-performance batteries.

The initiation of translation is a highly regulated process that contributes to specific gene expression programs. Here the authors find that, in vertebrate, threonyl-tRNA synthetase (TRS) can act as a scaffold for the initiation machinery to stimulate the translation of a specific set of mRNAs.

Pair density modulation, an unusual superconducting state whose superconducting gap is modulated by the wavelength corresponding to the lattice periodicity, is described and observed in exfoliated thin flakes of the iron-based superconductor FeTe_0.55Se_0.45.

Vaccination regimens and the number of doses required for optimal immunity and protection are critical factors in the translation of vaccines. Here the authors show administration of a three dose protocol of a single T cell epitope to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein induces a robust CD8⁺ T cell response and confers protection in a lethal murine challenge model of infection.

Spin waves are excited in a thin film of bismuth-doped yttrium iron garnet using radio-frequency pulses and interact with magnetic domain walls. Pulses as short as 1 ns translate a domain wall over 15 µm distances, offering control over domain-wall dynamics.

From 1980 to 2018, the levels of total and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreased in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe.

A wireless device designed to be conformally placed on the suprasternal notch can continuously provide real-time information of essential vital signs as well as talking time, swallow counts and sleep patterns.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association analyses identify new risk loci for Parkinson’s disease, and fine-mapping and co-localization analyses implicate candidate genes whose expression is associated with disease susceptibility.

Analysis of whole-genome sequencing data across 2,658 tumors spanning 38 cancer types shows that chromothripsis is pervasive, with a frequency of more than 50% in several cancer types, contributing to oncogene amplification, gene inactivation and cancer genome evolution.

Development of safe and effective non-viral delivery systems is important for broadening clinical applications of mRNA delivery. Here, Vlasova et al. create a library of ionizable lipopolymers using split-Ugi reaction to develop nanoparticles for targeted pulmonary delivery of mRNA.

OrganEx—an extracorporeal pulsatile-perfusion system with cytoprotective perfusate for porcine whole-body settings—preserved tissue integrity, decreased cell death and restored selected molecular and cellular processes across multiple vital organs after 1 h of warm ischaemia in pigs.

SARS-CoV-2 induces mild infection in ferret model. Here, Ryan et al. characterise optimal infection dosage inducing upper respiratory tract (UTR) viral shedding, progression time of viral shedding, and pathology in ferrets and finally provide evidence for protection after re-challenge.

Lauer and colleagues examine CD8⁺ T cells following cure of human hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. CD8⁺ T cells exposed to chronic HCV-specific activation show durable functional, phenotypic and transcriptional exhaustion that is maintained even after antigen stimulus is removed.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

Stratified medicine promises to tailor treatment for individual patients, however it remains a major challenge to leverage genetic risk data to aid patient stratification. Here the authors introduce an approach to stratify individuals based on the aggregated impact of their genetic risk factor profiles on tissue-specific gene expression levels, and highlight its ability to identify biologically meaningful and clinically actionable patient subgroups, supporting the notion of different patient ‘biotypes’ characterized by partially distinct disease mechanisms.

Blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and more than 200 genetic loci associated with BP are known. Here, the authors perform discovery GWAS for BP in East Asians and meta-analysis in East Asians and Europeans and report ancestry-specific BP SNPs and selection signals.

The implications of early telencephalic development in cortical disorders remain elusive. Here, the authors define risk gene dynamics and perturbation effects in neural stem cells, revealing vulnerability phases during early human corticogenesis.

In lung cancer, relatively few germline mutations are known to impact risk. Here the authors looked at rare variants in 39,146 individuals and find novel germline mutations associated with risk, as well as implicating ATM and a new candidate gene for lung cancer risk.

An innovative method using superconducting sensors precisely measures the recoil energy of lithium-7 nuclei, setting a lower limit on the spatial extent of neutrino wavepackets, advancing understanding of neutrino properties and weak nuclear decays.

Similarities in cancers can be studied to interrogate their etiology. Here, the authors use genome-wide association study summary statistics from six cancer types based on 296,215 cases and 301,319 controls of European ancestry, showing that solid tumours arising from different tissues share a degree of common germline genetic basis.

The selectivity of a catalytic reaction is manipulated by straining a polymer support to which the catalyst is covalently bound. Enantioselective rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation of a series of 2-acetamidoacrylates is shown to increase with macroscopic strain, with enantiomeric ratios reaching twice their initial values.

Human airway contains physiologically relevant yet rare cells, but their scarcity prevents thorough profiling and differentiation studies. Here the authors use single cell RNA sequencing to identify rare ionocytes and tuft cells, as well as a potential progenitor population with cytokine-guided differentiation into either the ionocytes or tuft cell lineage.