Nanoscale biophysics articles from across Nature Portfolio

Multifunctional nanomaterials promise to boost biomedical applications by integrating diverse properties into single systems. Here, the authors synthesize metallic alloy nanomushrooms with enhanced photoluminescence and photothermal conversion, enabling precise tumor visualization and ablation; this innovative design offers a potent theranostic agent, addressing current limitations in photoluminescent nanomaterials for biomedicine.

Engineering synthetic mechanosensing systems with both cell-specificity and programmability remains challenging, especially for classical mechanoreceptors. Here, the authors develop an all-DNA mechanosensing platform based on aptamers that transmit force through noncanonical surface receptors.

Protein oligomerization can regulate cellular functions. Here, authors identify a small molecule that selectively induces WDR5 oligomerization using nanopore screening and show it disrupts cancer-driving interactions, highlighting a potential anti-tumor strategy.

Manipulating chemical interactions is crucial in protein assembly. Here, the authors highlight the importance of accounting for solvent forces mediated by interfacial hydration structures when designing protein assemblies at liquid-crystal interfaces.

The theoretical framework by de Gennes suggested that the mesh size of polymer solutions influences the entry of molecules into nanopores, but experimental validation was lacking. The authors conducted experiments using solid-state nanopores to investigate how polymer concentration, chain length, and nanopore size affect the entry dynamics of neutral polymers and the detection of polysaccharides and peptide biomarkers.

The mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis requires coordinated protein–lipid signals. Here, Gelles et al. show that a BAX lipid-binding cavity for 2-trans-hexadecenal cooperates with BIM to allosterically activate BAX prior to membrane insertion.

Living organisms and soft materials pose specific challenges to metrology, as Pavao Andričević and Hüsnü Aslan explain.

Biological systems have evolved bonds that strengthen under load, enabling cells to adhere in high shear flow. A DNA-based artificial motif has now been designed to mimic these catch bonds.

In this issue we feature several articles that explore advances in the study of phase separation. They highlight some recently reported mechanistic features and progress in the methodology used to study it within cells, and they delve into the implications that phase separation has for select cellular functions.

A DNA-based nanorobotic arm connected to a base plate through a flexible joint can be used to store and release mechanical energy. The joint acts as a torsion spring that is wound up by rotating the arm using external electric fields and is released using a high-frequency electrical pulse.

Sequencing of proteins is a technically difficult task that typically requires digestion into short peptides before detection and identification. We developed a digestion-free method to chemically unfold and ‘scan’ full-length proteins through a nanopore, producing electrical fingerprints unique to individual protein molecules that are useful in their identification.