Perspectives

This Perspective highlights the role that nanotechnology might play in tackling the rise of new SARS-CoV-2 variants.

This Perspective suggests a characterization cascade for nanoparticle-based vaccines that takes into consideration the complexity of the materials and of their immunomodulatory responses, providing a roadmap for the preclinical validation of potential vaccine candidates.

This Perspective relates seemingly diverse examples of chemically driven non-equilibrium systems (dissipative assembly, self-replicators, molecular motors, oscillators) using a common conceptual framework, and discusses how catalytic cycles can be coupled to dynamic processes.

This perspective presents a framework with a tiered approach for human health risk assessment of nanopesticides that will facilitate informed decisions by regulators and industry.

This Perspective aims to place nanoplastics in the context of global plastic pollution by assessing its sources and risks, and by assessing commonalities nanoplastics may share with other nanosized objects in environmental systems.

This Perspective examines how the characteristics of nanoplastic impact environmental fate, potential effects on biota and human health, sampling and analysis in a different way from either microplastic or engineered nanomaterials.

Despite its high promise, there are still many challenges for CRISPR-mediated plant genetic engineering, yet nanotechnology can play an important role in lowering and possibly eliminating these challenges.

This Perspective reflects current understanding and future prospects of nanoscale biological recognition at the bio–nano interface and the opportunity that such insights provide for advancing nanoscale therapies. The authors describe the key mechanisms and propose a framework of principles that could guide future research efforts in the area.

This Perspective describes the key advances in nanocatalysts that have led to the impressive electrochemical conversion of CO₂ to useful products and provides benchmarks that others can use to compare their results.

Compared to cancer nanomedicine, cancer immune nanomedicine presents unique challenges stemming from the complexity of the tumour responses to immunotherapy. This Perspective describes some of the factors contributing to this complexity and offers thoughts on how nanomedicine researchers can include them in their experimental design.

Membranes with subnanometre pores have the potential to provide solute-to-solute selectivity. This Perspective explores challenges and provides guidelines for designing next-generation single-species selective membranes

The use of nanomedicine in cancer requires the adoption of specific strategies to optimize its potential. This perspective proposes four strategies including the identification of patients for clinical trials, investments in modular nanocarrier design, the integration in multimodal combination therapy regimes and the inclusion in immunotherapy studies

The development of nano-enabled agriculture will require proper safety regulations. This Perspective outlines the need for a combined approach to regulate health and environmental risks under the same framework.

Nanotechnology offers a range of opportunities for sustainable agriculture. Successful developments will need a systems approach to designing proposed nanotechnologies.

Legal inconsistencies and analytical limitations raise doubts about the possible enforcement of nanomaterial regulations.

This Perspective discussed the best practices for reporting lab-scale performance metrics in battery papers.

This Perspective discusses design strategies for engineering quantum behavior in electron quantum metamaterials based on van der Waals heterostructures

This Perspective analyses the infusion reactions triggered by nanomedicine administration and proposes a strategy to improve their mechanistic understanding and to reduce their negative outcomes.

This Perspective discusses experimental efforts and conceptual frameworks of chemical fuel-driven self-assembly.

A proposed list of characterization items aims at improving reproducibility and consistency in experiments reporting the use of nanoengineered materials in biological applications.