Biological sciences articles within Nature Materials

Featured

  • Article |

    Here the authors describe a method for remote magnetothermal stimulation of neurons that achieves subsecond behavioural responses in Drosophila fruit flies by combining magnetic nanoparticles with TRPA1-A, a rate-sensitive thermoreceptor. Tuning the properties of magnetic nanoparticles to respond to different magnetic field strengths and frequencies enables multichannel thermal magnetogenetic stimulation.

    • Charles Sebesta
    • , Daniel Torres Hinojosa
    •  & Jacob T. Robinson

  • Editorial |

    Materials scientists have played a key role in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic from the development of vaccines and diagnostic tools to the rapid prototyping of ventilators.

  • Article |

    Fabrication of semiconductor heterojunctions typically involves a complex process and often leads to bioincompatibility. Here, the authors propose a porous heterojunction in p-type silicon via simple stain etching at ambient conditions, and apply it in optically induced biomodulation.

    • Aleksander Prominski
    • , Jiuyun Shi
    •  & Menahem Y. Rotenberg

  • News & Views |

    Lipid nanodiscs carrying a potent STING agonist penetrate deep into solid tumours compared with gold-standard liposomes and enable long-term antitumour immunotherapy.

    • Ningqiang Gong
    •  & Michael J. Mitchell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors investigate lipid nanodiscs as drug carriers for antitumour immunotherapy. They demonstrate that flexible lipid nanodiscs functionalized with STING-activating cyclic dinucleotides exhibit superior tumour penetration and tumour cell uptake compared with spherical liposomes, resulting in improved antitumour T-cell priming and tumour regression.

    • Eric L. Dane
    • , Alexis Belessiotis-Richards
    •  & Darrell J. Irvine

  • News & Views |

    Electrically programmable Fourier-synthesized acoustic tweezers enable facile manipulation of micrometre-sized objects, colloids and living cells in a lab-on-chip device that combines high throughput with minimal invasive yet highly tunable force fields.

    • Hubert J. Krenner
    •  & Christoph Westerhausen

  • Editorial |

    The dissemination of synthetic biology into materials science is creating an evolving class of functional, engineered living materials that can grow, sense and adapt similar to biological organisms.

  • News & Views |

    A prototypical biocomposite block comprising a blend of bacteria, fungi and feedstock can be assembled into human-sized, living structures with self-healing and environmental sensing capabilities.

    • Kwok Soon Wun
    • , In Young Hwang
    •  & Matthew Wook Chang

  • Perspective |

    This Perspective reviews the complementary developments in synthetic biology and biomaterials and discusses how convergence of these two fields creates a promising design strategy for the fabrication of tailored living materials for medicine and biotechnology.

    • Allen P. Liu
    • , Eric A. Appel
    •  & Ovijit Chaudhuri

  • Article |

    Precise manipulation of colloids and cells is desired for material and life sciences. However, such control remains challenging without material modifications. Here, the authors achieve reversible single-particle manipulation with subwavelength resolution and high throughput using harmonic acoustics.

    • Shujie Yang
    • , Zhenhua Tian
    •  & Tony Jun Huang

  • Article |

    Wiring photosynthetic biomachineries to electrodes is promising for sustainable bio-electricity and fuel generation, but designing such interfaces is challenging. Aerosol jet printing is now used to generate hierarchical pillar array electrodes using indium tin oxide nanoparticles for high-performance semi-artificial photosynthesis.

    • Xiaolong Chen
    • , Joshua M. Lawrence
    •  & Jenny Z. Zhang

  • News & Views |

    A synthetic matrix recapitulates fundamental biological interactions of pancreatic cancer to facilitate the culture of mouse and human pancreatic organoids.

    • Sohini Khan
    •  & Hervé Tiriac

  • Article |

    The influence of stress relaxation of the extracellular matrix on the formation of intestinal organoids was investigated. It was shown that a stress-relaxing synthetic matrix promotes crypt budding through increased symmetry breaking and niche cell formation.

    • Antonius Chrisnandy
    • , Delphine Blondel
    •  & Matthias P. Lutolf

  • News & Views |

    Integrin-mediated substrate-rigidity sensing triggers microtubule acetylation, modulating mechanosensitive cellular responses and focal adhesion dynamics, subsequently promoting actomyosin organization and collective cell migration.

    • Kseniia Porshneva
    •  & Guillaume Montagnac

  • Article |

    Substrate-rigidity-dependent microtubule acetylation is now shown to be triggered by mechanosensing at focal adhesions, and in turn controls the mechanosensitivity of Yes-associated protein (YAP) translocation, focal adhesion distribution, actomyosin contractility and cell migration.

    • Shailaja Seetharaman
    • , Benoit Vianay
    •  & Sandrine Etienne-Manneville

  • News & Views |

    A nanosensor probe that combines a tumour-targeting peptide, a diagnostic reporter and an imaging contrast agent enables early diagnosis, precision imaging, disease stratification and downstream therapeutic response monitoring of metastatic cancer.

    • Matthew Bogyo

  • Article |

    The role of actin/tropomyosin filaments in the assembly of cell–substrate adhesions has been investigated and it is now shown by cryo-electron tomography that they are essential for adhesion assembly and also regulate mechanosensing, matrix remodelling and transformation of cells towards a cancer phenotype.

    • Maria Lastra Cagigas
    • , Nicole S. Bryce
    •  & Edna C. Hardeman

  • Editorial |

    DNA is much more than the genetic information it carries. It is a versatile material for creating systems with tailor-made functionalities that are having an important impact in emerging technologies.

  • News & Views |

    Elaborately designed DNA icosahedral shells cage intact virions to effectively protect host cells from viral infections.

    • Neha Chauhan
    •  & Xing Wang

  • Review Article |

    This Review summarizes limitations in the current techniques used for patient-derived cancer organoid culture and highlights recent advancements and future opportunities for their standardization.

    • Bauer L. LeSavage
    • , Riley A. Suhar
    •  & Sarah C. Heilshorn

  • Article |

    A functional interfacial material has been developed for soft integration of bioelectronic devices with biological tissues. This has been applied in battery-free optoelectronic systems for deep-brain optogenetics and subdermal phototherapy as well as wireless millimetre-scale pacemakers and flexible multielectrode epicardial arrays.

    • Quansan Yang
    • , Tong Wei
    •  & John A. Rogers

  • News & Views |

    Light-activated protein actuators composed of bioengineered motors and molecular scaffolds achieve millimetre-scale mechanical work, which holds promise for microrobotics applications.

    • Henry Hess

  • News & Views |

    An implantable stent inspired by kirigami has been developed and integrated with a fluidically driven soft actuator to deliver drugs to tubular organs in the body such as the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts.

    • Alexandra Teleki
    •  & Per Artursson

  • Article |

    Multimodal nanosensors have been developed to target and respond to hallmarks in the tumour microenvironment and provide both a non-invasive urinary monitoring tool and an on-demand positron emission tomography imaging agent to localize tumour metastasis and assess response to therapy.

    • Liangliang Hao
    • , Nazanin Rohani
    •  & Sangeeta N. Bhatia

  • Perspective |

    This Perspective discusses biological barriers that have limited clinical translation of cancer nanomedicines and elaborates on new directions for the field that capitalize on a deeper understanding of the nano–bio interface.

    • Irene de Lázaro
    •  & David J. Mooney

  • News & Views |

    The combination of multicomponent magnetic nanoparticles and a mechanosensitive ion channel has been shown to achieve fast magnetomechanical stimulation of neurons within the brain.

    • Rahul Mushi
    •  & Arnd Pralle

  • Article |

    Programmable triangular DNA blocks self-assemble into distinct icosahedral shells with specific geometry and apertures that can encapsulate viruses and decrease viral infection.

    • Christian Sigl
    • , Elena M. Willner
    •  & Hendrik Dietz

  • Article |

    Silica beads encapsulating DNA information and functionalized with DNA labels create an alternative DNA data storage system, where direct random access and data retrieval are enabled by complementary fluorescent strands that identify beads for separation in fluorescence-activated sorting.

    • James L. Banal
    • , Tyson R. Shepherd
    •  & Mark Bathe

  • News & Views |

    The stiffness of the basement membrane is a determinant of the process of metastasis and patient survival. Netrin-4 is now shown to be a key regulator of the basement membrane stiffness.

    • Patrick Mehlen
    •  & Laurent Fattet

  • News & Views |

    Ionizable phospholipids have been developed to enhance the delivery of mRNA and sgRNA for gene editing by selective organ targeting and endosomal membrane destabilization.

    • Satish G. Jadhav
    •  & Steven F. Dowdy

  • Article |

    An approach integrating molecular dynamics-based computer-aided engineering with computer-aided design allows for the rapid construction of large three-dimensional DNA assemblies and control over their geometry, mechanics and dynamics.

    • Chao-Min Huang
    • , Anjelica Kucinic
    •  & Carlos E. Castro

  • News & Views |

    A microporous annealed particle biomaterial has been developed to induce an immune response that can enhance wound healing and tissue repair.

    • Jessica L. Stelzel
    •  & Joshua C. Doloff

  • News & Views |

    Stress fibres form a fully integrated meshwork with the submembranous contractile actin cortex that generates and propagates traction forces across the entire cell.

    • Guillaume Charras

  • News & Views |

    An elaborate DNA origami tubular nanodevice encapsulating antigens and adjuvants protects mice from cancer through tumour-specific immunomodulation.

    • Hongjun Li
    •  & Zhen Gu

  • Review Article |

    This Review highlights the progress that has been made in the development of diagnostic tools for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in the fight against COVID-19.

    • Bhavesh D. Kevadiya
    • , Jatin Machhi
    •  & Howard E. Gendelman

  • Perspective |

    This perspective describes recent developments in genetically encoded protein contrast agents for non-invasive biological imaging, namely ultrasound, magnetic resonance and optoacoustic imaging modalities.

    • Arash Farhadi
    • , Felix Sigmund
    •  & Mikhail G. Shapiro

  • News & Views |

    Automated extrusion-based bioprinting has been shown to enable human kidney organoid generation with improved throughput, quality control and scale, representing an important step towards macro-scale kidney tissue engineering.

    • Benjamin D. Humphreys

  • Editorial |

    Over the last few years, there has been a shift towards the use of three-dimensional multicellular structures that more closely recapitulate native tissues and organs as tools to understand development, physiology and pathology.

  • News & Views |

    An immune cell population enriched in inflamed gut tissue is shown to play a role in driving CD44+ intestinal organoid proliferation, while also regulating extracellular matrix deposition and remodelling in a synthetic hydrogel platform.

    • Bauer L. LeSavage
    •  & Sarah C. Heilshorn

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