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| Open AccessMagneto-acoustic protein nanostructures for non-invasive imaging of tissue mechanics in vivo
Magneto-gas vesicles, protein nanostructures with enhanced ultrasound signal and sensitivity, enable the non-invasive, long-term and quantitative monitoring of the mechanics of three-dimensional tissues and animals.
- Whee-Soo Kim
- , Sungjin Min
- & Jinwoo Cheon
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Article |
Fibre-infused gel scaffolds guide cardiomyocyte alignment in 3D-printed ventricles
A gelatin–alginate hydrogel ink incorporating short gelatin fibres guides the self-organization of human cardiomyocytes into contractile tissues that can be 3D-printed into structures mimicking human organs.
- Suji Choi
- , Keel Yong Lee
- & Kevin Kit Parker
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News & Views |
A synthetic tumour microenvironment
A bioengineered model incorporating a synthetic extracellular matrix recapitulates the lymphoid tumour microenvironment, making it a valuable tool for drug testing and designing personalized therapies.
- Akhilesh K. Gaharwar
- & Irtisha Singh
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News & Views |
Multi-channel control of fruit fly behaviour
Fruit flies injected with magnetic nanoparticles and genetically modified to sensitize neural circuits to the rate of change in temperature have enabled subsecond behavioural responses to magnetic stimuli and multi-channel magnetic control.
- Michael G. Christiansen
- & Simone Schuerle
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Article |
Subsecond multichannel magnetic control of select neural circuits in freely moving flies
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
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Article |
Tapered fibertrodes for optoelectrical neural interfacing in small brain volumes with reduced artefacts
Here the authors fabricate a fibre-coupled electrode ‘fibertrode’ that integrates light emission sites and platinum microelectrodes on tapered optical fibre neural implants, for combined stimulation and recording of neural activity over small brain volumes in vivo with reduced photoelectric artefacts.
- Barbara Spagnolo
- , Antonio Balena
- & Ferruccio Pisanello
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News & Views |
Handy nanoquakes
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
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Article |
Harmonic acoustics for dynamic and selective particle manipulation
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
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Article |
Synthetic dynamic hydrogels promote degradation-independent in vitro organogenesis
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
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Article |
A hybrid erbium(III)–bacteriochlorin near-infrared probe for multiplexed biomedical imaging
An erbium(III)–bacteriochlorin probe with large Stokes shift and efficient near-infrared to near-infrared energy conversion enables multiplexed imaging of deep tissues in living animals.
- Ting Wang
- , Shangfeng Wang
- & Fan Zhang
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Review Article |
Diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 infections
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
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Perspective |
Genetically encodable materials for non-invasive biological imaging
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
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News & Views |
Bioprinting better kidney organoids
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
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Editorial |
The promise of organoids and embryoids
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.
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News & Views |
Defined matrices bring IBD to 3D
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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Editorial |
A Nobel Prize for genetic scissors
After years of speculation over who would be recognized for the pioneering work on the gene editing tool CRISPR–Cas9, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has finally been awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna.
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News & Views |
Guiding tissue-scale self-organization
A bioprinting approach that utilizes organoid-forming stem cells as a living ink within hydrogels guides tissue-scale self-organization to generate more realistic gastrointestinal and vascular tissue constructs.
- Zev J. Gartner
- & Jennifer L. Hu
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Article |
Tumour-associated macrophages drive stromal cell-dependent collagen crosslinking and stiffening to promote breast cancer aggression
It is now shown that tumour-associated macrophages recruited early during tumour evolution stimulate stromal fibroblasts to express collagen crosslinking enzymes and that the stromal expression, particularly of lysyl hydroxylase 2, can predict survival in a patient cohort.
- Ori Maller
- , Allison P. Drain
- & Valerie M. Weaver
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Review Article |
Somatic cell-derived organoids as prototypes of human epithelial tissues and diseases
This Review highlights approaches used to generate somatic cell-derived organoids for modelling epithelial tissue to understand disease progression and how they are employed in preclinical drug screening.
- Masayuki Fujii
- & Toshiro Sato
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Article |
Monolithic digital patterning of polydimethylsiloxane with successive laser pyrolysis
A laser-based patterning method enables the fast fabrication of high-quality two- and three-dimensional features in polydimethylsiloxane for microfluidics and biomedical applications.
- Jaeho Shin
- , Jihoon Ko
- & Seung Hwan Ko
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Article |
Tracking intracellular forces and mechanical property changes in mouse one-cell embryo development
Mechanical properties and forces sculpt the behaviour of cells in living organisms. Silicon-based nanochips implanted into mouse one-cell embryos have been used to reveal mechanical changes during the early onset of embryonic development.
- Marta Duch
- , Núria Torras
- & Anthony C. F. Perry
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Article |
Cortical cell stiffness is independent of substrate mechanics
Atomic force microscopy indentation measurements of cells cultured on soft substrates may result in an underestimation of cell stiffness. A model has now been developed that takes this soft substrate effect into account, revealing that cortical cell stiffness is largely independent of substrate mechanics.
- Johannes Rheinlaender
- , Andrea Dimitracopoulos
- & Kristian Franze
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News & Views |
Pushing the limit on laminopathies
Mutations in lamins in skeletal muscle cells have been shown to reduce nuclear stability, increase nuclear envelope rupture, and induce DNA damage and cell death. New research shows that limiting mechanical loads can rescue myofibre function and viability.
- Joel C. Eissenberg
- & Susana Gonzalo
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Article |
Protease-activated receptor signalling initiates α5β1-integrin-mediated adhesion in non-haematopoietic cells
As in haematopoietic cells and platelets, agonist binding to protease-activated receptors PAR1 and PAR2 in non-haematopoietic cells also triggers signalling pathways that lead to α5β1-integrin-mediated cell adhesion.
- Patrizia M. Spoerri
- , Nico Strohmeyer
- & Daniel J. Müller
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Article |
Syndecan-4 tunes cell mechanics by activating the kindlin-integrin-RhoA pathway
A mechanism of cell response to localized tension shows that syndecan-4 synergizes with EGFR to elicit a mechanosignalling cascade that leads to adaptive cell stiffening through PI3K/kindlin-2 mediated integrin activation.
- Antonios Chronopoulos
- , Stephen D. Thorpe
- & Armando E. del Río Hernández
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Article |
Mutant lamins cause nuclear envelope rupture and DNA damage in skeletal muscle cells
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
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Article |
Taxanes convert regions of perturbed microtubule growth into rescue sites
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
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Letter |
Cellular nanoscale stiffness patterns governed by intracellular forces
High-spatial-resolution mechanical imaging reveals that intracellular forces generate cellular nanoscale stiffness patterns.
- Nicola Mandriota
- , Claudia Friedsam
- & Ozgur Sahin
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Article |
A mechano-signalling network linking microtubules, myosin IIA filaments and integrin-based adhesions
Crosstalk between microtubules and the actin cytoskeleton of cells is important in elucidating integrin-mediated adhesion and mechanotransduction. It is now shown that microtubule-mediated control of focal adhesions and podosomes occurs via KANK family proteins.
- Nisha Bte Mohd Rafiq
- , Yukako Nishimura
- & Alexander D. Bershadsky
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Article |
High-resolution mapping of infraslow cortical brain activity enabled by graphene microtransistors
Arrays of graphene microtransistors are used to record infraslow cortical brain activity. The reduced signal drift and the array compatibility with optical imaging techniques make these devices useful for monitoring of brain physiology.
- Eduard Masvidal-Codina
- , Xavi Illa
- & Anton Guimerà-Brunet
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Article |
Shape-based separation of synthetic microparticles
A fluorescence-activated cell sorter is used to purify microparticles from colloidal mixtures.
- Peter L. Mage
- , Andrew T. Csordas
- & H. Tom Soh
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Comment |
Avoiding common pitfalls in machine learning omic data science
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
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News & Views |
A tale about square dancers and maze runners
Single-particle tracking of nanoparticles dispersed in the cytoplasm of living cells shows that non-specific interactions with the intracellular environment are the major contributors for the anomalous diffusion characteristics of intracellular motion.
- Matthias Weiss
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Article |
Non-specific interactions govern cytosolic diffusion of nanosized objects in mammalian cells
Nanoparticle diffusion in the cytoplasm of living cells strongly deviates from random motion. Single-particle tracking analysis show that this is due to non-specific interactions with intracellular components.
- Fred Etoc
- , Elie Balloul
- & Mathieu Coppey
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News & Views |
Gas vesicles as collapsible MRI contrast agents
Microbial gas vesicles have been developed for use as MRI contrast agents whose contrast can be inactivated by applying ultrasound waves to collapse the vesicles.
- Jeff W. M. Bulte
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Article |
Acoustically modulated magnetic resonance imaging of gas-filled protein nanostructures
Gas-filled vesicles derived from photosynthetic microbes are shown to elicit magnetic resonance imaging contrast in vitro and in vivo with the potential for acoustically modulated multiplexing and molecular sensing.
- George J. Lu
- , Arash Farhadi
- & Mikhail G. Shapiro
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Letter |
Cell-geometry-dependent changes in plasma membrane order direct stem cell signalling and fate
The mechanism by which cell geometry regulates cell signalling is reported to be modulated by lipid rafts within the plasma membrane, which are now shown to be responsible for geometry-dependent mesenchymal stem cell differentiation.
- Thomas C. von Erlach
- , Sergio Bertazzo
- & Molly M. Stevens
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News & Views |
Instant integrin mechanosensing
Single-cell force spectroscopy reveals rapid, biphasic integrin activation and reinforcement of cell–matrix bonds during the initial steps of fibroblast adhesion.
- Ning Wang
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News & Views |
Method in the madness of fibrosis
Blocking the growth of new blood vessels has been shown to alter fibrosis in livers in a disease stage-specific manner. In vitro models of fibrosis were developed to understand this process, highlighting the role of environmental mechanics.
- Geoffrey C. Gurtner
- & Jagannath Padmanabhan
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Article |
Mechanotransduction-modulated fibrotic microniches reveal the contribution of angiogenesis in liver fibrosis
Angiogenesis has been implicated in fibrotic diseases of the liver. Here, the authors developed microniches that mimic angiogenesis during different stages of liver fibrosis, and demonstrate the role of mechanotransduction in fibrogenesis.
- Longwei Liu
- , Zhifeng You
- & Yanan Du
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Article |
Fibronectin-bound α5β1 integrins sense load and signal to reinforce adhesion in less than a second
Integrins play an important role in the adhesion of cells to their matrix. Here, the authors investigate how fibroblasts respond to mechanical loads, at the onset of cell adhesion to fibronectin, in distinct phases that are modulated by integrins.
- Nico Strohmeyer
- , Mitasha Bharadwaj
- & Daniel J. Müller
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News & Views |
Treasure trove for cancer medicine
Fragments of DNA that are derived from dead tumour cells and shed into a patient's blood have been utilized as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of liver cancer.
- Miljana Tanić
- & Stephan Beck
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Article |
Sequential bottom-up assembly of mechanically stabilized synthetic cells by microfluidics
A microfluidics method to generate giant, copolymer-stabilized liposomes is presented. These vesicles are functionalized with distinct proteins to recapitulate cellular processes.
- Marian Weiss
- , Johannes Patrick Frohnmayer
- & Joachim P. Spatz
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Article |
Circulating tumour DNA methylation markers for diagnosis and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma
Circulating tumour DNA is used as a biomarker for cancer diagnosis. Here, the authors identified a DNA methylation biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma and developed diagnostic and prognostic models to predict specificity and survival of patients.
- Rui-hua Xu
- , Wei Wei
- & Kang Zhang
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News & Views |
Nanostructure evolution
DNA origami nanostructures were utilized to replicate a seed pattern that resulted in the growth of populations of nanostructures. Exponential growth could be controlled by environmental conditions depending on the preferential requirements of each population.
- Friedrich C. Simmel
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Letter |
Instrumented cardiac microphysiological devices via multimaterial three-dimensional printing
Heart-on-a-chip devices with integrated strain gauges for direct readout of tissue contractile strength allow for multiplexed drug-dose experiments and studies of functional maturation of cardiac tissue.
- Johan U. Lind
- , Travis A. Busbee
- & Kevin K. Parker
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Letter |
Single-platelet nanomechanics measured by high-throughput cytometry
A high-throughput hydrogel-based platelet-contraction cytometer is able to quantify single-platelet contraction forces and may function as a clinical diagnostic biophysical biomarker.
- David R. Myers
- , Yongzhi Qiu
- & Wilbur A. Lam
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Review Article |
Pursuing prosthetic electronic skin
This Review discusses the materials and electronic requirements for flexible sensors and electronic systems to mimic the mechanical and sensing properties of natural skin, with the goal of providing artificial prostheses with sensing capabilities.
- Alex Chortos
- , Jia Liu
- & Zhenan Bao
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Article |
Heterogeneous silicon mesostructures for lipid-supported bioelectric interfaces
A biocompatible and biodegradable mesostructured form of silicon is used to make lipid-bilayer-supported bioelectric interfaces that can optically modulate the electrophysiology of single dorsal root ganglia neurons.
- Yuanwen Jiang
- , João L. Carvalho-de-Souza
- & Bozhi Tian
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