Featured
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Outlook |
The battle to tame autoimmunity
A more tolerant immune system could alleviate, or even prevent, autoimmune disorders such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, as well as the rejection of transplanted organs.
- Katherine Bourzac
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Research Highlight |
CRISPR’s powers unleashed for disease detection
Two techniques use the popular gene editor for good — and one can be used far from the laboratory.
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News |
European court suggests relaxed gene-editing rules
Judicial opinion says restrictive regulations may not apply to plants and animals bred using CRISPR technique.
- Alison Abbott
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News & Views |
Kiss-and-tell way to track cell contacts
Transient cellular contacts are essential for the generation of an immune response, but these are difficult to measure in vivo. A labelling technique now offers a way to record such interactions between cells.
- Aaron P. Esser-Kahn
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Letter |
Acoustic reporter genes for noninvasive imaging of microorganisms in mammalian hosts
Heterologous expression of engineered gas vesicles allows noninvasive, deep-tissue ultrasound visualization of engineered bacteria in vivo in mouse tumour models and in the gastrointestinal tract.
- Raymond W. Bourdeau
- , Audrey Lee-Gosselin
- & Mikhail G. Shapiro
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News & Views |
Ultrasound approach tracks gut microbes
Monitoring microbes that live deep inside the gut is a challenge. Engineering bacteria to express structures that can be tracked by ultrasound offers a way to locate such cells in vivo, and might have clinical implications.
- Ricard Solé
- & Nuria Conde-Pueyo
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Editorial |
Biohackers can boost trust in biology
DIY scientists in Germany can bring techniques out of the lab and help the country learn to love the field.
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Outlook |
Calling cancer’s bluff with neoantigen vaccines
State-of-the art tumour-genome sequencing and analysis is enabling researchers to provide uniquely personalized immunotherapy.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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News & Views |
An ode to gene edits that prevent deafness
Gene editing can prevent inherited deafness in mice by disabling a mutant version of a gene that causes hearing loss. Is this a turning point on the path towards treating some types of human deafness?
- Fyodor Urnov
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News |
Gene editing staves off deafness in mice
Technique to knock out mutant gene relies on fatty molecules to deliver CRISPR components to inner-ear cells.
- Heidi Ledford
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Letter |
Treatment of autosomal dominant hearing loss by in vivo delivery of genome editing agents
CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing is used to correct a dominant-negative mutation in a mouse model of inherited deafness, resulting in improvements in cochlear function and hearing.
- Xue Gao
- , Yong Tao
- & David R. Liu
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Electric-eel batteries, magma viscocity, and protein shells
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Letter |
An electric-eel-inspired soft power source from stacked hydrogels
Miniature hydrogel compartments in scalable stacked and folded geometries were used to prepare a contact-activated artificial electric organ.
- Thomas B. H. Schroeder
- , Anirvan Guha
- & Michael Mayer
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Nature Video |
Electric eel batteries
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News |
Electric eel-inspired devices could power artificial human organs
Power source is flexible, transparent and runs on salt water.
- Emma Young
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Letter |
Evolution of a designed protein assembly encapsulating its own RNA genome
Computationally designed icosahedral protein-based assemblies can protect their genetic material and evolve in biochemical environments, suggesting a route to the custom design of synthetic nanomaterials for non-viral drug delivery.
- Gabriel L. Butterfield
- , Marc J. Lajoie
- & David Baker
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Letter |
Gigadalton-scale shape-programmable DNA assemblies
By using DNA sequence information to encode the shapes of DNA origami building blocks, shape-programmable assemblies can be created, with sizes and complexities similar to those of viruses.
- Klaus F. Wagenbauer
- , Christian Sigl
- & Hendrik Dietz
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Letter |
Biotechnological mass production of DNA origami
All necessary strands for DNA origami can be created in a single scalable process by using bacteriophages to generate single-stranded precursor DNA containing the target sequences interleaved with self-excising DNA enzymes.
- Florian Praetorius
- , Benjamin Kick
- & Hendrik Dietz
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News |
AI-controlled brain implants for mood disorders tested in people
Researchers funded by the US military are developing appliances to record neural activity and automatically stimulate the brain to treat mental illness.
- Sara Reardon
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Research Highlight |
Origami inspires artificial muscles
Muscle mimics stronger than the real thing could be used in surgery and space stations.
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Letter |
A non-canonical Notch complex regulates adherens junctions and vascular barrier function
The transmembrane domain of NOTCH1 plays a key role in the assembly of adherens junctions and the non-transcriptional regulation of vascular permeability that links transcriptional programs with adhesive and cytoskeletal remodelling.
- William J. Polacheck
- , Matthew L. Kutys
- & Christopher S. Chen
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News |
Genetically modified apple reaches US stores, but will consumers bite?
Success for the ‘Arctic apple’ could herald a new wave of lab-grown foods.
- Amy Maxmen
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News |
US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease
US Environmental Protection Agency will allow release of insects in 20 states and Washington DC.
- Emily Waltz
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Outlook |
Diagnostics: Missing the point
Conventional detection of advanced fatty liver disease relies on biopsy. Less onerous methods may help to save lives.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Article |
Programmable base editing of A•T to G•C in genomic DNA without DNA cleavage
A new DNA ‘base editor’ can change targeted A•T base pairs to G•C, allowing disease-associated mutations to be corrected and disease-suppressing mutations to be introduced into cells.
- Nicole M. Gaudelli
- , Alexis C. Komor
- & David R. Liu
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News |
China announces plans to fast-track drug approval
Policies are expected to speed up access to medicines and boost the country’s pharmaceutical industry.
- David Cyranoski
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News Feature |
To stay young, kill zombie cells
Killing off cells that refuse to die on their own has proved a powerful anti-ageing strategy in mice. Now it's about to be tested in humans.
- Megan Scudellari
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Comment |
The future of DNA sequencing
Eric D. Green, Edward M. Rubin and Maynard V. Olson speculate on the next forty years of the applications, from policing to data storage.
- Eric D. Green
- , Edward M. Rubin
- & Maynard V. Olson
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News |
Chinese scientists fix genetic disorder in cloned human embryos
A method for precisely editing genes in human embryos hints at a cure for a blood disease.
- David Cyranoski
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Letter |
RNA targeting with CRISPR–Cas13
The class 2 type VI RNA-guided RNA-targeting CRISPR–Cas effector Cas13 can be engineered for RNA knockdown and binding, expanding the CRISPR toolset with a flexible platform for studying RNA in mammalian cells and therapeutic development.
- Omar O. Abudayyeh
- , Jonathan S. Gootenberg
- & Feng Zhang
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Outlook |
Bioengineering: Doing without donors
Stem cells and artificial substitutes could ease the dependence on blood donations.
- Elie Dolgin
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Outlook |
Diagnosis: Frontiers in blood testing
Technological advances are creating an explosion in possibilities for the blood-based diagnosis of brain injuries, infections and cancers.
- Emily Sohn
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Letter |
Enhanced proofreading governs CRISPR–Cas9 targeting accuracy
A new engineered version of SpCas9, called HypaCas9, displays enhanced accuracy of editing without significant loss of efficiency at the desired target.
- Janice S. Chen
- , Yavuz S. Dagdas
- & Jennifer A. Doudna
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Letter |
Molecular machines open cell membranes
Rotary molecular machines, activated by ultraviolet light, are able to perturb and drill into cell membranes in a controllable manner, and more efficiently than those exhibiting flip-flopping or random motion.
- Víctor García-López
- , Fang Chen
- & James M. Tour
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Letter |
Human iPS cell-derived dopaminergic neurons function in a primate Parkinson’s disease model
In a preclinical study, dopaminergic neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells were implanted into a primate model of Parkinson’s disease, where they were found to exhibit long-term survival, function as mid-brain dopaminergic neurons, and increase spontaneous movements.
- Tetsuhiro Kikuchi
- , Asuka Morizane
- & Jun Takahashi
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News |
First genetically engineered salmon sold in Canada
US firm AquaBounty Technologies says that its transgenic fish has hit the market after a 25-year wait.
- Emily Waltz
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Article |
Identification of essential genes for cancer immunotherapy
The authors describe a two-cell-type CRISPR screen to identify tumour-intrinsic genes that regulate the sensitivity of cancer cells to effector T cell function.
- Shashank J. Patel
- , Neville E. Sanjana
- & Nicholas P. Restifo
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Correspondence |
GM-food regulations: US agencies respond
- Jason Dietz
- , Laura Epstein
- & Sidney W. Abel
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World View |
Capitalize on African biodiversity
Under-exploited plants offer untold medical and economic promise that should be pursued, urges Ameenah Gurib-Fakim.
- Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
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Research Highlight |
Slug-inspired glue stays sticky when wet
Adhesive could have applications in wound care.
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News |
Engineered cell therapy for cancer gets thumbs up from FDA advisers
Treatment shows promise in young people with leukaemia, but safety risks abound.
- Heidi Ledford
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Letter |
CRISPR–Cas encoding of a digital movie into the genomes of a population of living bacteria
The authors encode pixel values of a short motion picture into the DNA of a population of Escherichia coli.
- Seth L. Shipman
- , Jeff Nivala
- & George M. Church
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News |
Google spin-off deploys wearable electronics for huge health study
Large projects explore how to integrate data from smart devices with other health metrics.
- Amy Maxmen
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