Biological sciences articles within Nature Materials

Featured

  • Article |

    Lamin mutations responsible for muscular dystrophy are shown to reduce nuclear envelope stability, resulting in mechanically induced nuclear envelope rupture, DNA damage and activation of DNA damage response pathways that lead to muscle cell death. Preventing nuclear envelope damage by reducing cytoskeletal forces on the nucleus improves muscle fibre health and function.

    • Ashley J. Earle
    • , Tyler J. Kirby
    •  & Jan Lammerding

  • Article |

    Biocompatible and degradable silk materials with programmable mechanical properties can be directly obtained from regenerated amorphous silk using thermal moulding.

    • Chengchen Guo
    • , Chunmei Li
    •  & David L. Kaplan

  • Article |

    Anticancer drugs such as Taxol can affect microtubule dynamics and organization in cells. Direct visualization of the action of such drugs has shown that they can trigger local and cooperative changes in microtubule lattice and induce formation of stable microtubule regions that promote rescues.

    • Ankit Rai
    • , Tianyang Liu
    •  & Anna Akhmanova

  • News & Views |

    Nanofibre mimetic substrates reveal the presence of integrin nanoclusters bridged by unliganded receptors during early cell–matrix adhesion.

    • E. Ada Cavalcanti-Adam

  • Article |

    A range of cancer cell types are shown to lack rigidity-sensing due to alteration in specific cytoskeletal sensor proteins and this sensing ability can be reversed from a transformed to a rigidity-dependent growth state by the sensor proteins, resulting in restoration of contractility and adhesion.

    • Bo Yang
    • , Haguy Wolfenson
    •  & Michael P. Sheetz

  • News & Views |

    A molecular pathway has been identified in the regulation of unjamming to overcome cancer cell migration and proliferation arrest leading to collective cell invasion.

    • René Marc Mège

  • Article |

    An anticancer agent, olsalazine, conjugated to a cell-penetrating peptide has been synthesized and shows the ability to self-assemble intracellularly by the tumour-associated enzyme furin, with the potential for tumour therapy and chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging in vivo.

    • Yue Yuan
    • , Jia Zhang
    •  & Jeff W. M. Bulte

  • News & Views |

    Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells have been engineered using gold nanoformulations conjugated with CRISPR capable of targeting two distinct genomic loci of therapeutic interest, with potential engraftment in humanized mouse models.

    • Aravind Asokan

  • Article |

    Integrin-mediated adhesions required for cell spreading and growth have now been shown, using super-resolution microscopy, to form on fibrous matrices through the dense assembly of integrins in nanoclusters that contain both ligand-bound and unliganded integrins.

    • Rishita Changede
    • , Haogang Cai
    •  & Michael P. Sheetz

  • Article |

    Epithelial tissues behave as pre-tensed viscoelastic sheets that can buffer against compression and rapidly recover from buckling. Epithelial mechanical properties define a tissue-intrinsic buckling threshold that dictates the compressive strain above which tissue folds become permanent.

    • Tom P. J. Wyatt
    • , Jonathan Fouchard
    •  & Guillaume T. Charras

  • News & Views |

    Materials that permit spatiotemporal control of biomolecule presentation have long been a challenge in the field. A method has now been developed to reversibly pattern cell-laden hydrogels with site-specifically immobilized proteins using sortase-mediated transpeptidation without compromising bioactivity.

    • Jonathan H. Galarraga
    •  & Jason A. Burdick

  • News & Views |

    With their ability to give rise to many different cell types, stem cells have long been a target of scientists who seek to achieve control over their differentiation. New evidence suggests that stem cells influence their own fates through protein deposition and physical remodelling of their microenvironment.

    • Eric L. Qiao
    • , Sanjay Kumar
    •  & David V. Schaffer

  • News & Views |

    Crystallized anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to inhibit fibrosis on the surface of a number of devices over a long-term period following implantation in rodents and non-human primates.

    • Ruud A. Bank

  • Article |

    A RAB5A-mediated, epidermal growth factor-dependent activation of endosomal ERK1/2 is identified as a key molecular route for a solid-to-liquid-like phase transition, sufficient to overcome kinetic and proliferation arrest in normal mammary epithelial assemblies and to promote collective invasion in breast carcinoma.

    • Andrea Palamidessi
    • , Chiara Malinverno
    •  & Giorgio Scita

  • News & Views |

    An intermediate affinity state of integrin αIIBβ3 has been identified to be a key player in platelet mechanosignalling.

    • X. Frank Zhang
    •  & Xuanhong Cheng

  • News & Views |

    Over-expression of a transcriptional factor, Alx3, has been shown to revitalize the regenerative capacity of adult progenitor cells to promote enhanced stromal vascularization and formation of parenchymal dental pulp tissue in vivo.

    • Sarah E. Millar

  • Editorial |

    Machine learning is swiftly infiltrating many areas within the healthcare industry, from diagnosis and prognosis to drug development and epidemiology, with significant potential to transform the medical landscape.

  • Article |

    The structural foundation of self-assembled peptide materials is typically the β-sheet. Here the authors describe peptides made of three natural amino acids that self-assemble into helical-like superstructures with enhanced mechanical rigidity.

    • Santu Bera
    • , Sudipta Mondal
    •  & Ehud Gazit

  • News & Views |

    A two-step method has been developed for the accelerated and efficient generation of human kidney organoids using in vitro and in ovo culture in a three-dimensional environment.

    • Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes

  • News & Views |

    Microparticle debris from prosthetic implants has been shown to induce a type 2 inflammatory response through a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase-dependent signalling pathway.

    • Dimitri A. de Kouchkovsky
    • , Sourav Ghosh
    •  & Carla V. Rothlin

  • News & Views |

    A vaccine platform developed from a synthetic polymeric glyco-adjuvant and reversibly conjugated to an antigen was shown to target dendritic cells leading to cellular and humoral immune response against malaria.

    • Yvette van Kooyk

  • Comment |

    This Comment describes some of the common pitfalls encountered in deriving and validating predictive statistical models from high-dimensional data. It offers a fresh perspective on some key statistical issues, providing some guidelines to avoid pitfalls, and to help unfamiliar readers better assess the reliability and significance of their results.

    • Andrew E. Teschendorff

  • Article |

    Tuning ionic permeation across nanoscale pores is important for areas ranging from nanofluidic computing to drug delivery. Complex formation between crown ethers and dissolved metal ions is used to demonstrate graphene-based ion channels with high mechanosensitivity.

    • A. Fang
    • , K. Kroenlein
    •  & A. Smolyanitsky

  • News & Views |

    Macrophage confinement reduces the ‘late’ inflammatory gene response to lipopolysaccharide through myocardin-related transcription factor, an actin-binding transcription factor.

    • Wendy F. Liu

  • News & Views |

    An elastomer sheet with programmed inner channel architecture swiftly shapes into a desired three-dimensional geometry upon the application of pressure.

    • Efi Efrati

  • News & Views |

    An amphipathic peptide has been engineered and is capable of penetrating the blood–brain barrier as well as possessing a potent antiviral activity against Zika and other mosquito-borne viruses.

    • Jing Zou
    •  & Pei-Yong Shi

  • News & Views |

    An orally administered bifunctional gastrointestinal coating has been developed and shown to limit nutrient absorption through the bowel mucosa ultimately lowering blood glucose and also acting as a platform for delivery of drugs to the gastrointestinal tract.

    • Gregor Fuhrmann

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