Nanotechnology for CAR T cells and tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte therapies.

Adoptive T-cell therapies, and particularly CAR T cells and tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes, have transformed cancer treatment by selectively targeting malignant cells. Despite their clinical success, these therapies face substantial challenges, including costly manufacturing processes and tumour-imposed barriers that limit efficacy. Advances in understanding the nanoscale mechanisms governing T-cell activation and the role of the tumour microenvironment in restricting T-cell responses have driven the development of nanotechnology-based strategies that integrate key chemical and physical cues.

Preclinical assessment of pan-influenza A virus CRISPR RNA therapeutics in a human lung alveolus chip.

CRISPR technology offers an entirely new approach to therapeutic development because it can target specific nucleotide sequences with high specificity, however, preclinical animal models are not useful for evaluation of their efficacy and potential off-target effects because of high gene sequence variations between animals and humans. Here, we explored the potential of using the CRISPR effector Cas13 to develop a new therapeutic approach for influenza A virus (IAV) infections based on its ability to specifically and robustly cleave single-strand viral RNA using a complementary CRISPR RNA (crRNA). We engineered crRNAs to target highly conserved regions in the IAV genome to create a potential pan-viral treatment strategy.

Impact of Mechanical and Architectural Signals in the Tumor Microenvironment on Melanoma.

Compared to sun-exposed melanomas, acral melanomas are genetically diverse and occur in areas with low sun exposure and high mechanical loads. During metastatic growth, melanomas invade from the epidermis to the dermis layers through dense tumor stroma and are exposed to fibrillar collagen architectures and mechanical stresses. However, the role of these signals during acral melanoma pathogenesis is not well understood.

A generalist foundation model and database for open-world medical image segmentation.

Vision foundation models have demonstrated vast potential in achieving generalist medical segmentation capability, providing a versatile, task-agnostic solution through a single model. However, current generalist models involve simple pre-training on various medical data containing irrelevant information, often resulting in the negative transfer phenomenon and degenerated performance. Furthermore, the practical applicability of foundation models across diverse open-world scenarios, especially in out-of-distribution (OOD) settings, has not been extensively evaluated.

Estimating braking and propulsion forces during overground running in and out of the lab.

Accurately estimating kinetic metrics, such as braking and propulsion forces, in real-world running environments enhances our understanding of performance, fatigue, and injury. Wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) offer a potential solution to estimate kinetic metrics outside the lab when combined with machine learning. However, current IMU-based kinetic estimation models are trained and evaluated within a single environment, often on lab treadmills.

Long-range quantum entanglement in dielectric mu-near-zero metamaterials.

Entanglement is paramount in quantum information processing. Many quantum systems suffer from spatial decoherence in distances over a wavelength and cannot be sustained over short time periods due to dissipation. However, long range solutions are required for the development of quantum information processing on chip.

A Call for a Unified Database to Address Exposure Disparities in the United States.

United States (US) drinking water quality is federally regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) with the goal of ensuring clean, safe drinking water for the entire population. However, siting of pollution point sources in historically redlined communities with lower socioeconomic status and higher proportions of people of color adversely affects drinking water quality. Prior studies show higher concentrations of a suite of contaminants in small PWS, PWS in rural areas, and PWS serving greater proportions of people of color.

Perfluorinated carbon chain length drives uptake of diverse Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in field-deployed passive samplers.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of compounds of high concern due to their ubiquity, persistence, and adverse health impacts. With a diversity of chemical structures and properties, detection tools are needed to capture as many PFAS as possible. In this study, a microporous polyethylene tube (MPT) passive sampler was calibrated for 25 target compounds, 8 suspect PFAS and extractable organofluorine (EOF) during 1-2 week deployments in groundwater, a freshwater river, and estuary contaminated by aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF).

Integrated lithium niobate photonic computing circuit based on efficient and high-speed electro-optic conversion.

The surge in artificial intelligence applications calls for scalable, high-speed, and low-energy computation methods. Computing with photons is promising due to the intrinsic parallelism, high bandwidth, and low latency of photons. However, current photonic computing architectures are limited by the speed and energy consumption associated with electronic-to-optical data transfer, i.

LZTR1 is a melanoma oncogene that promotes invasion and suppresses apoptosis.

Leucine zipper like transcription regulator 1 (LZTR1) is amplified in acral melanomas, is required for melanocytes and melanoma cell proliferation, and it induces anchorage-independent growth, by yet unknown mechanisms. We therefore performed comprehensive studies to identify its activity in melanomas employing proximity biotinylation and co-immunoprecipitation combined with LC-MS/MS proteomics and molecular characterization. The results show that LZTR1 regulates the ubiquitin proteasome system in melanoma cells and also associates with actin-related proteins and actin cytoskeleton organization.

Cell Viability, Drug Screening, and Mechanism Study Under Mild Phototherapy Integrated Chemotherapy (PIC).

Phototherapy integrated chemotherapy (PIC) offers a promising cancer treatment strategy as single chemotherapy approaches are less effective due to tumor heterogeneity and drug resistance, and phototherapy often involves harmful radiation, and the potential of mild phototherapy to enhance chemotherapy remains underexplored. Cancer cells, as key drivers of tumor metastasis, are crucial targets, but current methods for visualizing their response to theranostics are slow. Here, nondestructive real-time impedance spectroscopy to monitor cancer cell response, identifying an optimal light exposure time of 60 min and defined cell viability and resistibility through impedance measurements, achieving high correlation (92.

Machine Learning Enables Rapid Detection of Slips Using a Robotic Hip Exoskeleton.

Fall incidents due to slips are some of the most common causes of injuries for industry workers and older adults, motivating research to assist balance recovery following slips. To assist balance recovery during a slip, a detection algorithm that can work with an assistive device, such as an exoskeleton, needs to be able to detect slips rapidly after onset, which remains a critical gap in the field. Here, we compared the ability of linear discriminant analysis (LDA), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and convolutional neural networks (CNN) to detect slip using only native sensors on a hip exoskeleton.

Maintaining diversity in structured populations.

We examine population structures for their ability to maintain diversity in neutral evolution. We use the general framework of evolutionary graph theory and consider birth-death (bd) and death-birth (db) updating. The population is of size .

Accelerated maturation of branched organoids confined in collagen droplets.

Droplet-based organoid culture offers several advantages over conventional bulk organoid culture, such as improved yield, reproducibility, and throughput. However, organoids grown in droplets typically display only a spherical geometry and lack the intricate structural complexity found in native tissue. By incorporating singularised pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells into collagen droplets, we achieve the growth of branched structures, indicating a more complex interaction with the surrounding hydrogel.

Liver and Intestinal Fatty Acid Binding Proteins Are Not Critical for Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) Tissue Distribution and Elimination in Mice.

Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) is a persistent environmental pollutant in the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) class, known to accumulate in the liver and trigger hepatotoxicity. While studies suggested that fatty acid-binding proteins (FABPs) drive the hepatic accumulation of PFAS, evidence is entirely lacking. Using wild-type and mice with global deletion of liver-type and intestine-type FABP (L-FABP, I-FABP), we measured PFOS toxicokinetics by administering single oral doses (0.

Variational scarring in graphene quantum dots.

A quantum eigenstate of a classically chaotic system is referred to as scarred by an unstable periodic orbit if its probability density is concentrated in the vicinity of that orbit. Recently, a new class of scarring - variational scarring - was discovered in numerical studies of disordered quantum dots, arising from near-degeneracies in the quantum spectrum associated with classical resonances of the unperturbed system. Despite the increasing body of theoretical evidence on variational scarring, its experimental observation has remained out of reach.

Mechanically Active and Antimicrobial Wound Closure Using an Adhesive Hydrogel-Elastomer.

Chronic wounds affect millions worldwide and lead to pain, infection, and impaired quality of life. Current wound sealing technologies for chronic wound care remain largely palliative, with poor adhesion, weak mechanical properties, and limited ability to deliver therapeutics. Emerging technologies, including autologous blood products, growth factor-enhanced scaffolds, and artificial skin, although clinically successful, are limited from widespread adoption by the high cost of production and challenging clinical workflow.

Toti-N-glycan Recognition Enables Universal Multiplexed Single-Nucleus RNA Sequencing.

Sample barcoding-based multiplex single-cell and single-nucleus sequencing (sc/sn-seq) offers substantial advantages by reducing costs, minimizing batch effects, and identifying artifacts, thereby advancing biological and biomedical research. Despite these benefits, universal sample barcoding has been hindered by challenges such as inhomogeneous expression of tagged biomolecules, limited tagging affinity, and insufficient genetic insertion. To overcome these limitations, we developed Toti-N-Seq, a universal sample multiplex method, by tagging Toti-N-glycan on cell surfaces or nuclear membranes via our engineered streptavidin-Fbs1 GYR variant fusion protein, which could be used not only for sc-seq but also for sn-seq.

Rising CO and Decarbonization Strategies of Aviation in China in the Coming Decade.

The aviation industry, contributing 2.8% of global carbon dioxide (CO) emissions, faces significant decarbonization challenges. This study examines China's aviation sector, which is expected to become the world's largest market.

Photophoretic flight of perforated structures in near-space conditions.

Lightweight nanofabricated structures could photophoretically loft payloads in near-space. Proposed structures range from microscale engineered aerosols, to centimetre-scale thin disks with variations in surface accommodation coefficients, to sandwich structures with nanoscale thickness that might be extended to metre-scale width. Quantitative understanding of how structural and surface properties determine photophoretic lofting forces is necessary to develop a practical flying device.

Drone-based application of whale tags: A "tap-and-go" approach for scientific animal-borne investigations.

Deploying animal-borne suction-based tag devices on whales has been one of the primary tools used by researchers over the past several decades to gather high-resolution scientific information, such as bioacoustics, heart rate, dive depth, and body orientation. However, the process of successfully applying animal-borne tags is logistically challenging and requires substantial operator skill. Current methods apply tags by approaching the whale in a boat and adhering the tag via a long extension pole.

Shear Stress Targeted Delivery of Nitroglycerin to Brain Collaterals Improves Ischaemic Stroke Outcome.

In patients with ischaemic stroke, retrograde perfusion of the penumbra by leptomeningeal collateral vessels (LMCs) strongly predicts clinical outcome, suggesting that enhancing LMC flow can offer a novel therapeutic approach. Using in vivo measurements and computational modelling it is shown that LMCs experience elevated fluid shear stress that is significantly higher than that in other blood vessels during ischaemic stroke in rats and humans. We exploit this to selectively enhance flow in LMCs using shear-activated nanoparticle aggregates carrying the vasodilator nitroglycerin (NG-NPAs) that specifically release drug in regions of vessels with high wall shear stress (≥100 dyne cm).

Hybrid Kerr-electro-optic frequency combs on thin-film lithium niobate.

Optical frequency combs are indispensable links between the optical and microwave domains. Chip-scale integration promises compact, scalable, and power-efficient frequency comb sources, enabled by the resonantly-enhanced Kerr effect or the electro-optic effect. While combs utilizing the former can reach octave-spanning bandwidths, and combs based on the latter can feature microwave-rate spacings, achieving both features at the same time has been challenging.

Acryloyl Gelatin as Polymer Additive to Droplet Digital LAMP for DNA Quantification.

Absolute quantification of target nucleic acids is essential for life analysis and can be achieved through droplet digital microfluidic nucleic acid quantification (droplet digital NAQ). Recent advancements in this field have incorporated polymers into droplets to form microgel particles, which add new functionalities to the droplets and offer opportunities for tandem analysis. However, the range of materials available for microgel-based droplet digital NAQ remains limited.

Twist-Induced Beam Steering and Blazing Effects in Photonic Crystal Devices.

Twisted bilayer photonic crystals introduce a twist between two stacked photonic crystal slabs, enabling strong modulation of their electromagnetic properties. The change in the twist angle strongly influences the resonant frequencies and available propagating diffraction orders with applications including sensing, lasing, slow light or wavefront engineering. In this work, we design and analyze twisted bilayer crystals capable of steering light in a direction controlled by the twist angle.