Volume 19 Issue 4, April 2024

An intelligent meta-imager can perform multi-channel convolutions to accelerate machine vision for incoherent light.

Chitosan/glucose co-polymers encapsulating silver sulfide quantum dots can be used to improve oral delivery of insulin in different animal models without hypoglycaemic incidents.

Pre-adsorption of water molecules on a material surface, followed by assembly of a van der Waals (vdW) structure, provides a vdW water gap with a height that can be precisely tuned through variation of the amount of water adsorbed at the interface. This approach is applicable to different two-dimensional and even three-dimensional homo- and heterojunctions.

Nanoparticles naturally accumulate in the liver; this can be a major limitation to any therapy needing delivery to other organs or tissues. Here the authors review the reason for predominant liver uptake and explore different strategies used to target non-viral gene delivery nanoparticles to other organs and tissues.

By preadsorption of water molecules on a material surface, a controllable ångström-scale van der Waals (vdW) gap is created, which can be applied to other vdW material systems with controllable gaps.

Multidimensional optical information, including intensity, polarization and wavelength, can be simultaneously detected using double twisted black arsenic–phosphorus homojunctions.

An atomically thin indium tin oxide film in the form of a quantum well exhibits a χ² of ~1,800 pm V^–1. Theoretical calculations point to an asymmetric electronic interband transition resonance as the reason for this large χ² value.

A metasurface-based approach is used to implement computationally expensive digital convolution operations in high-speed, low-power optics for improving the latency and power consumption of machine vision systems.

Ion–ion interactions are crucial to the functioning of biological and artificial ion channels. Here the authors reveal that hydrated alkali metal ions can form one-dimensional closely packed chain structures at charged surfaces to facilitate ion transport.

In contrast to textbook expectations, experimental findings show that, in certain situations, like-charged particles may either repel or attract each other depending on the sign of their charge and on the solvent.

Here, 3D nanofabrication and elasticity programming of monolithic soft microrobots equipped with magnetic springs with strain response at piconewton forces capable of deformation on micrometre length scales is demonstrated for applications in cell force sensing, cell manipulation and soft actuation.

High-density transparent microelectrode arrays with platinum-nanoparticle deposited and interlayer-doped double-layer graphene enable multimodal optical and electrical recordings with high spatiotemporal resolution to decode neural dynamics at different cortical layers from surface potentials.

Bidirectional neural interface electronic devices offer therapeutic options. Here, the authors present wafer-scale fabrication of flexible nanoporous graphene-based implantable microelectrode arrays with low impedance and high charge injection for in vivo brain recording and nerve stimulation.

Nanofibre lung injury has previously been linked to the leakage of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in frustrated phagocytosis. Here the authors use a nanosensor to demonstrate, map and track the generation of reactive species during the frustrated phagocytosis of model glass nanofibres.

Insulin injections are not ideal and have an increased risk of hypoglycaemia. A preferable oral formulation based on silver sulfide quantum dots coated with a chitosan/glucose polymer is discussed, which has controlled insulin release and reduced risk of hypoglycaemia, and demonstrates applications in rodent and non-human primate models.

Protein degradation is a powerful tool for a range of applications and therapies. Here, a selective autophagy receptor mimetic against mutant p53 protein is developed to substantially elevate autophagy levels and to recognize and transport mutant proteins for autophagy-mediated degradation and anticancer effect.

Bladder cancer treatment suffers from low therapeutic efficacy. Here the authors present radioactive ¹³¹I-labelled urease-powered nanobots that exhibit enhanced accumulation at the tumour site, enabling effective radionuclide therapy at low doses as an alternative treatment option for bladder cancer.

Cytokine interleukin-12 (IL-12) has potential for tumour suppression yet off-target effects limit potential applications. Here the authors report on the delivery of IL-12 mRNA encapsulated in extracellular vesicles to lungs via inhalation and demonstrate the immunotherapeutic potential of targeted cytokine mRNA therapy.

Programmes to inspire the next generation of researchers can have a huge impact, as Rachel Lou explains in the recounting of her own experience.