Detection of COVID-19 from smartwatch data

This issue highlights nucleic acid assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA, immunoassays for the detection of past COVID-19 infection, the use of an open resource of chest computed tomography images and clinical features of patients with pneumonia for the prediction of morbidity and mortality outcomes via deep learning, and the detection of COVID-19 from smartwatch data.

The cover illustrates that physiological and activity data from consumer smartwatches can be used for the real-time detection of COVID-19, often before symptom onset.

See Mishra et al.

Accelerated discovery of antiviral antibodies

This issue highlights a pipeline for the rapid discovery of antiviral antibodies, supramolecular host–guest interactions for the purification of protein therapeutics, a gelling hypotonic solution for ocular delivery, antibody-conjugated magnetic nanoparticles for the capture and delivery of therapeutic exosomes to the heart, nanoparticle-based gene silencing in the haematopoietic stem-cell niche, a hydrogel for the extended intratumoural release of a STING agonist and a chemotherapeutic, and the burst release of annexin A5 in tumours by intravenously injected nanoparticles.

The cover illustrates antiviral human monoclonal antibodies, in this case against the Zika virus, discovered via a pipeline integrating single-cell mRNA-sequence analysis, bioinformatics, synthetic biology and high-throughput functional analyses.

See Gilchuk, P. et al.

Multilayer electronic arrays on balloon catheters

This issue highlights an open-source integrated knee–ankle robotic prosthesis, conformable piezoelectric devices for the decoding of facial strains, strategies for enhancing the decoding performance of neural interfaces, catheter-integrated soft electronic arrays, and the rapid prototyping of soft electrode arrays via the robotically controlled deposition of inks.

The cover illustrates endocardial balloon catheters fitted with soft multilayer electronic arrays for multiplexed high-density spatiotemporal sensing and actuation.

See Han, M. et al.

Microcavity arrays for the standardization of organoid culture

This issue highlights an orally delivered encapsulated bacterial cocktail for reducing urea and creatinine concentrations in blood, organoid culture in microcavity arrays for high-throughput drug screening and high-content image-based analyses, multimodal volumetric single-cell imaging of RNAs and proteins in intact cancer tissues, phosphoproteomic profiling of normal and fibrotic cardiac tissue, bioprinting in tissues of live animals, and cell-laden hydrogels patterned with sacrificial dendritic vessel networks.

The cover illustrates organoids cultured on microcavity arrays without a solid extracellular matrix.

See Brandenberg, N. et al.

Kirigami shoe grips for the prevention of slips and falls

This issue highlights the anatomical annotation of slit-lamp images for the diagnosis of ophthalmic disorders via deep learning, kirigami metasurfaces as assistive shoe grips, the use of post-mortem histopathology to predict transdiagnostic categories of neurodegenerative disease, the monitoring of liver injury via near-infrared imaging of an endogenous pigment, a retrievable implant for the long-term encapsulation of therapeutic xenogeneic cells, the prediction of gene expression from histopathology images via deep learning, and whole-body tracking of single cells via positron emission tomography.

The cover illustrates buckling kirigami structures that, when placed on footwear outsoles, generate friction forces for the mitigation of slipping and falling.

See Babaee, S. et al.

Multimodal nanoparticles for cancer theranostics

This issue highlights the stabilization of a brain–computer interface via the alignment of neural activity, nanoprobes for cancer theranostics, the enhancement of the performance of nanomedicines via the forced clearance of erythrocytes, tumour-targeted nanoparticles for the combination of tumour-infarction therapy and chemotherapy, and tumour-cell-derived microvesicles for relieving biliary obstruction in patients with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

The cover illustrates renally clearable gold–protein nanoparticles displaying multicolour fluorescence for use in the detection, resection and treatment of breast cancer in mice.

See Yang, J. et al.

Pathogen detection on a fidget spinner

This issue highlights a custom fidget spinner for the point-of-care diagnosis of urinary tract infection, a CRISPR-based assay for the monitoring of transplant rejection, the optofluidic detection of biomarkers for traumatic brain injury, a mountable toilet system for the monitoring and analysis of excreta, protein–antigen fusions enhancing the immunogenicity of T-cell vaccines, and the study of lymphatic remodelling in response to lymphatic injury.

The cover illustrates a custom-made fidget spinner for the colorimetric detection of bacterial load.

See Michael, I. et al.

Glucose-responsive microneedle patches

This issue highlights glucose-responsive transdermal patches for the regulation of blood glucose in minipigs, a supramolecular co-formulation of insulin and pramlintide that enhances mealtime glucagon suppression in pigs, an ‘add-on’ fluorescent label for the femtomolar detection of analytes with standard bioassays, collagen-binding IL-12 for the treatment of ‘immunologically cold’ murine tumours, a robotically handled whole-tissue culture system for the screening of oral drug formulations and the de novo development of proteolytically resistant therapeutic peptides for oral administration.

The cover illustrates a transdermal patch, bearing microneedles loaded with insulin and a glucose-responsive matrix, for the regulation of blood glucose.

See Yu, J. et al.

Fluidically linked organ chips

This issue highlights translational bioprinting, engineered tissues in reproductive medicine, tissue chips connected via robotically fluid exchanges for the quantitative prediction of drug-pharmacokinetic responses in humans, a bone-marrow-on-a-chip for predicting clinically relevant aspects of bone marrow injury, revascularized bioengineered livers transplanted into immunosuppressed pigs, cardiac organoids modelling the structure and function of the human heart after myocardial infarction, and growth factors with enhanced syndecan binding for promoting tissue healing in mice.

The cover illustrates a set of fluidically linked vascularized organ chips for the prediction of the pharmacokinetics of orally administered drugs or intravenously injected drugs in humans.

See Noval, R. et al. and Herland, A. et al.

Optoacoustic imaging of tumour responses to vascular-targeted therapies

This issue highlights the fluorescence-guided resection of liver tumours in patients, the fluorescence-guided detection of epithelial cancers of the upper intestinal tract in animals and in a human, a fluorescent tumour-selective imaging probe, pH-sensitive positron-emitting polycationic polymers for the detection of small tumours with PET, carbon-coated FeCo nanoparticles as magnetic-particle-imaging tracers, the monitoring of the turnover of cellular metabolites in vivo via 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and the imaging of sub-100-nm strains in intact joints via synchrotron X-ray tomography.

The cover illustrates the use of high-resolution raster-scanning optoacoustic mesoscopy to obtain detailed morphological and physiological insights into the responses of tumours to vascular-targeted therapies.

See Haedicke et al.

Wireless mechano-acoustic sensing of vital signs

This issue highlights technology for interfacing neurons and nerves, including a nanoelectrode array for recording from thousands of connected neurons, reconfigurable nanophotonic probes for sub-millisecond deep-brain optical stimulation, an intraneural electrode array for the selective activation of optic-nerve fibres, a photovoltaic subretinal prosthesis implanted in non-human primates, and a small and ultrasonically powered implantable neural stimulator. The issue also highlights a device for the mechano-acoustic sensing of body motions, CAR-T-cell-functionalized nitinol thin films for the treatment of solid tumours and implantable functionalized carbon nanotube bundles as electrochemical sensors of disease biomarkers.

The cover illustrates a wireless device, designed to be conformally placed on the suprasternal notch, that provides continuous information of essential vital signs as well as talking time, swallow counts and sleep patterns.

See Lee, K. et al.

Therapeutic extracellular vesicles produced at scale

This issue highlights the use of deep learning to detect anaemia from retinal fundus images, the local delivery of newly identified vasodilators for reducing ureteral contractions, a biomaterial-based vaccine to treat acute myeloid leukaemia, the reduction of the therapeutic dose of silencing RNA via its integration into extracellular vesicles, cellular nanoporation for the large-scale production of functional mRNA-encapsulating exosomes, anionic nanoparticles that enhance the intestinal permeability of orally delivered proteins, base editing in a mouse model of tyrosinemia, the optimization of the delivery of base editors, and a comparison of compatibilities in protospacer adjacent motifs and of on-target and off-target activities of SpCas9 variants.

The cover illustrates the production, via cellular nanoporation, of large quantities of extracellular vesicles loaded with endogenously transcribed therapeutic mRNAs and targeting peptides.

See Yang, Z. et al.