Featured
-
-
Article
| Open AccessStructural basis of NINJ1-mediated plasma membrane rupture in cell death
Structural, biochemical and mutagenesis studies indicate that, in dying cells, the membrane protein NINJ1 assembles into filaments, disrupting the cell membrane.
- Morris Degen
- , José Carlos Santos
- & Sebastian Hiller
-
News |
Deadly mushroom poison might now have an antidote — with help from CRISPR
Gene-editing technique might have finally cracked the mystery of how death cap mushrooms kill.
- Saima Sidik
-
Technology Feature |
Brain imaging: fMRI advances make scans sharper and faster
Researchers are finding ways to improve one of neuroscientists’ favourite tools: functional magnetic resonance imaging.
- Diana Kwon
-
News |
Lab-grown monkey embryos reveal in 3D how organs begin
At 25 days old, specimens could be the oldest primate embryos ever grown outside the womb.
- Gemma Conroy
-
Research Briefing |
Detectors that encode angles of incoming light as colour
Most light-field sensors — devices that detect the angles of incoming light rays to reconstruct 3D scenes — can detect light only in the ultraviolet and visible wavelength ranges. A newly developed light-field sensor comprising perovskite nanocrystals encodes the angles of incoming visible-light beams and X-rays as different colours.
-
Nature Podcast |
‘Pangenome’ aims to capture the breadth of human diversity
Mapping a more diverse human genome, and the latest from the Nature Briefing.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
-
News |
New cellular ‘organelle’ discovered inside fruit-fly intestines
Fruit-fly cells use previously unknown complex cellular structures to store phosphate, a molecule essential to life
- Gemma Conroy
-
News |
Huge cache of mammal genomes offers fresh insights on human evolution
The Zoonomia Project is helping to pinpoint genes responsible for animal-brain size and for human disease.
- Max Kozlov
-
Editorial |
The gene-therapy revolution risks stalling if we don’t talk about drug pricing
Regulation and new intellectual property laws are needed to reduce the cost of gene-editing treatments and fulfil their promise to improve human health.
-
News |
Comb jellies’ unique fused neurons challenge evolution ideas
Fused neurons suggest ctenophores’ nervous system evolved independently of that in other animals.
- Mariana Lenharo
-
Technology Feature |
Every base everywhere all at once: pangenomics comes of age
Multi-genome assemblies called pangenomes can capture genetic diversity in a species, but researchers are still working out how best to build and explore them.
- Michael Eisenstein
-
News |
‘Democracy in microscopy’: cheap light microscope delivers super-resolution images
Technique pushes the instruments to beat the resolving power of multi-million-dollar machines.
- Ewen Callaway
-
Nature Video |
‘Touch-taste’: how the octopus repurposed its nervous system to hunt
Researchers identify the structural basis for octopuses chemo-tactile sense.
- Dan Fox
-
Article
| Open AccessAstrocyte–neuron subproteomes and obsessive–compulsive disorder mechanisms
Analyses of the proteomes of astrocytes and neurons in a cell-specific and subcompartment-specific manner reveal distinct roles for these cell types that are relevant to obsessive–compulsive disorder and perhaps other brain disorders.
- Joselyn S. Soto
- , Yasaman Jami-Alahmadi
- & Baljit S. Khakh
-
Obituary |
Paul Berg (1926–2023)
Biochemist who invented recombinant DNA technology.
- Errol Friedberg
-
News & Views |
Eggs made from male mouse stem cells using error-prone culture
A screen of mouse stem cells that exploits their propensity to gain or lose chromosomes in cell culture has been used to convert male XY to female XX cells. Subsequent differentiation generates functional eggs and live offspring.
- Jonathan Bayerl
- & Diana J. Laird
-
Research Briefing |
Diversity of mitochondrial networks in lung cancer imaged
The structure and function of mitochondrial networks were analysed using a combination of approaches to generate detailed maps of these cellular organelles. This analysis revealed that the mitochondria in different subtypes of lung cancer show distinct functional and structural signatures.
-
Article
| Open AccessSpatial epigenome–transcriptome co-profiling of mammalian tissues
The authors present two technologies for spatially resolved, genome-wide, joint profiling of the epigenome and transcriptome by cosequencing chromatin accessibility and gene expression, or histone modifications and gene expression on the same tissue section at near-single-cell resolution.
- Di Zhang
- , Yanxiang Deng
- & Rong Fan
-
Article
| Open AccessFast and sensitive GCaMP calcium indicators for imaging neural populations
Using large-scale screening and structure-guided mutagenesis, fast and sensitive GCaMP sensors are developed and optimized with improved kinetics without compromising sensitivity or brightness.
- Yan Zhang
- , Márton Rózsa
- & Loren L. Looger
-
News |
Why CRISPR babies are still too risky — embryo studies highlight challenges
While society grapples with the social and ethical implications of heritable genome editing, technical obstacles still abound.
- Heidi Ledford
-
News |
Was famed poet Pablo Neruda poisoned? Scientists warn case not closed
Forensic investigation uncovers evidence that a lethal bacterium could have been in his body when he died.
- Michele Catanzaro
-
Nature Podcast |
A twisting microscope that could unlock the secrets of 2D materials
How the Quantum Twisting Microscope could give a better ‘picture’ of atom thin layers, and science in Ukraine a year into Russia’s invasion.
- Shamini Bundell
- & Benjamin Thompson
-
Article
| Open AccessDe novo design of luciferases using deep learning
A deep-learning-based strategy is used to design artificial luciferases that catalyse the oxidative chemiluminescence of diphenylterazine with high substrate specificity and catalytic efficiency.
- Andy Hsien-Wei Yeh
- , Christoffer Norn
- & David Baker
-
News & Views |
From the archive: machine intelligence, and the father of X-rays
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Technology Feature |
Innovative technologies crowd the short-read sequencing market
With a dizzying range of strategies available, laboratories must weigh up their options to find the best fit for their projects
- Michael Eisenstein
-
Nature Podcast |
How ‘metadevices’ could make electronics faster
Getting electronics into super-fast terahertz speeds, and how cognitive changes could alter social media’s effects on young people.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
-
News |
Disgraced CRISPR-baby scientist’s ‘publicity stunt’ frustrates researchers
He Jiankui refused to answer researchers’ questions about his controversial 2018 experiments at weekend event.
- Smriti Mallapaty
-
News Explainer |
What it would take to bring back the dodo
An audacious plan to ‘de-extinct’ dodos depends on huge leaps in biotechnology and resurrecting a lost habitat.
- Ewen Callaway
-
Technology Feature |
Smart microscopes spot fleeting biology
Automated microscopes that adapt to each sample’s quirks can capture elusive biological phenomena at high resolution.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
-
News |
CRISPR voles can’t detect ‘love hormone’ oxytocin — but still mate for life
Prairie voles lacking oxytocin receptors bonded with mates and cared for pups.
- Heidi Ledford
-
Research Briefing |
A wearable ultrasound patch for continuous heart imaging
A new ultrasound patch can image the heart while being worn, even when the wearer is moving during strenuous exercise. A customized model that uses a technique of artificial intelligence called deep learning then processes the images to extract important measures of cardiac performance.
-
Technology Feature |
Seven technologies to watch in 2023
Nature’s pick of tools and techniques that are poised to have an outsized impact on science in the coming year.
- Michael Eisenstein
-
Article |
Molecular fate-mapping of serum antibody responses to repeat immunization
Serum antibody responses to sequential homologous booster vaccines derive overwhelmingly from primary cohort B cells at the expense of de novo responses; this ‘primary addiction’ can be overcome by boosting with variant antigens.
- Ariën Schiepers
- , Marije F. L. van ’t Wout
- & Gabriel D. Victora
-
News |
Dads older than mums since dawn of humanity, study suggests
Scientists used modern human DNA to estimate when new generations were born over 250,000 years — and the age of parents at conception.
- Freda Kreier
-
Article
| Open AccessAn atlas of substrate specificities for the human serine/threonine kinome
Analysis of the kinase activity of 300 protein Ser/Thr kinases reveals that the substrate specificity of the kinome is substantially more diverse than expected and is driven extensively by negative selectivity
- Jared L. Johnson
- , Tomer M. Yaron
- & Lewis C. Cantley
-
Research Briefing |
Structural landscape inside cells mapped in detail
More than 200,000 human stem cells were imaged at high resolution and in 3D to make a reference data set that was used to create a generalizable computational framework. This enables cell shapes and the locations of internal structures to be measured and compared using rigorous statistical methods.
-
Article |
Identification of astrocyte regulators by nucleic acid cytometry
The pathogenic function of XBP1-expressing astrocytes in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis have been studied using FIND-seq, a new method combining microfluidics cytometry, PCR-based detection of nucleic acids and cell sorting for in-depth single-cell transcriptomics analyses of rare cells.
- Iain C. Clark
- , Michael A. Wheeler
- & Adam R. Abate
-
Nature Index |
Organoids open fresh paths to biomedical advances
Miniaturized versions of human tissue offer greater complexity than the Petri dish and could be an alternative to animal testing.
- Michael Eisenstein
-
Technology Feature |
Which single-cell analysis tool is best? Scientists offer advice
In the fast-paced field of single-cell biology, studies that compare methods can help scientists to pick the right technique for their research.
- Amber Dance
-
Nature Video |
Record-breaking ancient DNA found in frozen soil
Two-million-year-old DNA from extinct mammals has been sequenced, revealing a lost world in Greenland .
- Shamini Bundell
-
Career Guide |
Men dominate conference Q&A sessions — including online ones
‘Question and manswer’ sessions are the norm at both in-person and virtual events, even when there’s a good gender balance.
- Anne Gulland
-
Research Highlight |
High-speed imaging captures viruses as they creep up to cells
Microscopic methods show engineered viral particles zooming around cell surfaces.
-
News |
CRISPR cancer trial success paves the way for personalized treatments
‘Most complicated therapy ever’ tailors bespoke, genome-edited immune cells to attack tumours.
- Heidi Ledford
-
Article |
Locomotion activates PKA through dopamine and adenosine in striatal neurons
Dopamine and adenosine act together in the striatum to regulate protein kinase A activity, which in turn coordinates animal locomotion.
- Lei Ma
- , Julian Day-Cooney
- & Haining Zhong
-
Technology Feature |
Thumb-sized microscope captures images deep inside the brains of active animals
After years of development, researchers have managed to shrink two-photon microscopy into a device that can be mounted on rodents’ heads without impeding behaviour.
- Esther Landhuis
-
News |
Faster MRI scan captures brain activity in mice
Improved technique could provide fine-scale insights into how brain regions communicate.
- McKenzie Prillaman
-
Article
| Open AccessInferring and perturbing cell fate regulomes in human brain organoids
A multi-omic atlas of brain organoid development facilitates the inference of an underlying gene regulatory network using the newly developed Pando framework and shows—in conjunction with perturbation experiments—that GLI3 controls forebrain fate establishment through interaction with HES4/5 regulomes.
- Jonas Simon Fleck
- , Sophie Martina Johanna Jansen
- & Barbara Treutlein
-
Perspective |
A nomenclature consensus for nervous system organoids and assembloids
The nomenclature for human multicellular models of nervous system development and disease, including organoids, assembloids and transplants, is discussed and a consensus framework is presented.
- Sergiu P. Pașca
- , Paola Arlotta
- & Flora M. Vaccarino
-
Outlook |
Your brain on psychedelics
Mind-altering drugs are shaking up medicine — but how they actually work remains a mystery. A flurry of imaging studies could clarify the picture.
- Liam Drew
Browse broader subjects
Browse narrower subjects
- Analytical biochemistry
- Behavioural methods
- Bioinformatics
- Biological models
- Biophysical methods
- Cytological techniques
- Electrophysiology
- Epigenetics analysis
- Experimental organisms
- Gene delivery
- Gene expression analysis
- Genetic engineering
- Genetic techniques
- Genomic analysis
- High-throughput screening
- Imaging
- Immunological techniques
- Isolation, separation and purification
- Lab-on-a-chip
- Mass spectrometry
- Metabolomics
- Microbiology techniques
- Microscopy
- Molecular engineering
- Nanobiotechnology
- Optogenetics
- Proteomic analysis
- Sensors and probes
- Sequencing
- Software
- Optical spectroscopy
- Structure determination