Volume 17 Issue 12, December 2022

Let’s motor through the fog of molecular machine terminology, not only by defining our own words clearly, but by embracing the coexistence of multiple meanings in a rational and structured manner.

Efficiency of Raman measurements is increased by nearly four orders of magnitude with the help of sub-wavelength plasmonic gap waveguides.

A doughnut-shaped microstructure with single-handed helical feature has been created via the combination of bottom-up self-assembly and top-down solution depositing processes.

A strategy that uses nanoconjugates to label solid cancer cells with the hematopoietic cell-specific molecule SLAMF7, broadens the scope of cancer types susceptible to immune-based anti-cancer therapies and could provide a new approach to treat solid cancers.

Carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere by increasing the phytoplankton population in the oceans using nutrients. Life cycle assessment, cost analyses and data from previous studies reveal that engineered nanoparticles could increase the efficiency of this process and that it can be made affordable, viable, and safe for marine ecosystems.

Quantum dots can convert terahertz photons into visible light. This mechanism is used to develop a semiconductor-based room-temperature terahertz camera that can simultaneously record the field strength and polarization states of a terahertz beam. The proposed detector has fast speeds and can be manufactured at the wafer-scale.

Treatment with polycations was shown to selectively target abdominal fat in mice owing to the negatively charged extracellular matrix in adipose tissue. The polycations can inhibit the storage of lipids in fat cells, causing them to shrink and leading to improved metabolic health in obese mice.

Raman scattering within plasmonic waveguides is found to be directed into a single mode with near-unity efficiency, offering a route to broadband SERS enhancements over extended sensing volumes.

Isothermal dissolution–diffusion–precipitation of carbon drives continuous epitaxial growth of single-crystal multilayer graphene.

Engineering of the interfacial properties between a semiconducting thin film and a stretchable substrate using tough interfacial bonding enables a notable delay in microcrack formation.

Interfacing graphene with an antiferromagnetic insulator CrOCl enables the observation of strong interfacial coupling in the quantum Hall regime.

The interfacial shear modulus controls the sliding friction of supported two-dimensional materials. Now, experiments demonstrate a reciprocal relationship between friction force per unit contact area and the interfacial shear modulus.

A terahertz camera based on an upconversion mechanism to the visible range can image both THz polarization state and field strength.

Homochiral helical toroids with micrometre-scale lengths are successfully fabricated by a combined solution–interface-directed hierarchical self-assembly strategy.

An optical signal transduction pathway through feedback-controlled homeostatic temperature oscillations and mechanoresponse enables dynamic functionalities in a hydrogel.

Accumulation of visceral fat, linked to adipocyte expansion and overgrowth, is the most detrimental aspect of obesity, and a major cause of obesity comorbidities. We develop a cationic nanomedicine based on polyamidoamine dendrimers that specifically targets visceral fat and shrinks adipocytes, inhibiting diet-induced obesity and improving metabolic health in murine models.

Activation of the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) can induce immunity in various cancer therapies, but delivery of STING agonists to tumours is challenging. Now a metal-based polymeric nanoparticle delivers STING agonists to tumours upon disruption of endothelial cells in tumour vasculature and targets tumour-associated macrophages, eliciting anti-tumour immune response in hard-to-treat cancer models.

Solid tumours are less responsive to immunotherapies than haematological tumours due to specific biological differences. In this paper the authors propose a strategy to decorate the cell membrane of solid tumours with a protein typically present on haematological tumour cells that promotes phagocytosis of cancer cells, and show that this results in an increased immunotherapy efficacy in animal models of solid tumours.

This Analysis considers the potential benefits and challenges of applying engineered nanoparticles for artificial-ocean-fertilization-driven carbon sequestration