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A retrotransposon for site-specific gene transfer Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Fred Dyda, Alison B. Hickman
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World’s first TIL therapy approved Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Iovance Biotherapeutics has received a long-awaited go-ahead from the US Food and Drug Administration for its tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) cancer therapy. The approval for Amtagvi (lifileucel) for treating patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma is a milestone: it marks the first immune cell therapy approved for solid tumors, and it is also the first made from TILs. Amtagvi is a living
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Verbose robots, and why some people love Bach: Books in Brief Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.
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A year in the life: what I learnt from using a time-tracking spreadsheet Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
A low-tech solution helped Megan Rogers to increase her productivity and maintain a good work–life balance.
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Building a heart atlas: researchers map organ in stunning detail Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
Cutting edge imaging techniques reveal how cells organise as the heart develops.
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Mobile delivery of COVID-19 vaccines improved uptake in rural Sierra Leone Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Alison Buttenheim, Harsha Thirumurthy
Vaccination rates in rural areas improve when vaccines are delivered.
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Supercharging T cell therapy with cancer mutations Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Iris Marchal
T cell therapies are still hindered by poor T cell persistence and function, making them largely ineffective against solid tumors. Human cancerous T cells acquire mutations that increase their fitness and evade immune challenges in similar situations to those faced by therapeutic T cells. Writing in Nature, Garcia and colleagues exploit the fitness-enhancing abilities of these cancer mutations by incorporating
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US bill targets Chinese biotechs Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
The United States is seeking to prevent four Chinese biotech companies from doing business in the country, citing them as “companies of concern” that threaten national security. The Biosecure Act, introduced in both the Senate (S.3558) in December and House of Representatives (H.R.7085) in January, would prohibit the federal government from contracting with certain biotech providers connected to foreign
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Wearable technology and devices Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Recent patents relating to wearable technology and devices for patient monitoring and treatment of health conditions.
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A synthetic antibiotic overcomes antimicrobial resistance Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Iris Marchal
Many small-molecule antibiotics function by disrupting bacterial ribosomes, but bacteria develop resistance by modifying ribosomes to reduce the binding affinity of these molecules. Writing in Science, Wu et al. present a solution to this challenge by engineering a synthetic antibiotic that remains locked in an optimal conformation that boosts ribosomal binding. The authors designed the molecule cresomycin
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In vivo CRISPR agent cuts HAE attacks 95% Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
A CRISPR–Cas9-based gene editing therapy from Intellia Therapeutics reduced monthly swelling attacks by 95% in people with hereditary angioedema (HAE). The results from a small phase 1 trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February. HAE is a rare genetic disorder characterized by recurrent bouts of subcutaneous and submucosal swelling that can be life threatening. Kallikrein
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Predicting the structure of large protein complexes Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Iris Marchal
Deep learning models like RoseTTAFold and AlphaFold2 allow highly accurate protein structure prediction, but large protein assemblies remain hard to predict because of their size and complex subunit interactions. In a study published in Nature Methods, Shor and Scheidman-Duhovny introduce CombFold, a combinatorial and hierarchical assembly algorithm that predicts structures of large protein complexes
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Cell-based coffee future-proofs world’s favorite brew Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Lior Raviv, Pluri’s chief technical officer, says: “We hypothesized we could take the cells from the plant and put them in a bioreactor [to grow coffee].” Through their work in cell therapy and cultivated meat, the Pluri team knew that not all cells like the same growing conditions. Taking plant cell samples, they made cell lines and, instead of growing them swirling around in suspension culture, they
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Biotech news from around the world Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Saudi Arabia announces a plan to become a biotech leader in the Middle East and North Africa region by 2030 and an international biotech hub by 2040. Its National Biotechnology Strategy aims to grow the country’s capabilities in vaccines, biomanufacturing, genomics and plant optimization to increase job creation and drive economic growth and diversification. The Ministry of Health and Welfare invests
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People Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Recent moves of note in and around the biotech and pharma industries.
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2H23 biotech job picture Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Michael Francisco
A semiannual snapshot of job expansions, reductions and availability in the biotech and pharma sectors.
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Lighting the match: how a student-led career mentorship program can blaze the way for non-academic careers Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Anna Bagnell, Alana MacDonald, Peter Espenshade, Mark Schenerman
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Biologic patent challenges under the America Invents Act Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Victor L. Van de Wiele, Aaron S. Kesselheim, S. Sean Tu
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Innovators want pills to treat sickle cell disease. Can they match gene therapy? Nat. Biotechnol. (IF 46.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Although CRISPR-based gene therapy for sickle cell disease offers transformative outcomes, drugmakers are striving to develop treatments that are easy to manufacture and can reach much larger numbers of patients.
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Bird-flu threat disrupts Antarctic penguin studies Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Projects have been cancelled in an effort to curb the virus’s spread.
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Inside China’s giant underground neutrino lab Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Due to come online this year, the JUNO facility will help to determine which type of neutrino has the highest mass — one of the biggest mysteries in physics.
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People, passion, publishable: an early-career researcher’s checklist for prioritizing projects Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Stuck between several lines of research? Here’s how we decide which ones to pursue, say Elizabeth Tenney, Jacqueline Chen and McKenzie Preston.
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First US drug approved for a liver disease surging around the world Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
A therapy called resmetirom improves hallmarks of an obesity-linked condition that can lead to liver failure.
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A fundamental constant in physics gets an update Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Scientists controlled a hydrogen atom with electric fields to derive a highly precise estimate of the Rydberg constant.
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Ditching ‘Anthropocene’: why ecologists say the term still matters Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Beyond stratigraphic definitions, the name has broader significance for understanding humans’ place on Earth.
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Neural and behavioural state switching during hippocampal dentate spikes Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jordan S. Farrell, Ernie Hwaun, Barna Dudok, Ivan Soltesz
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AIRE relies on Z-DNA to flag gene targets for thymic T cell tolerization Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Yuan Fang, Kushagra Bansal, Sara Mostafavi, Christophe Benoist, Diane Mathis
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Blueprinting extendable nanomaterials with standardized protein blocks Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Timothy F. Huddy, Yang Hsia, Ryan D. Kibler, Jinwei Xu, Neville Bethel, Deepesh Nagarajan, Rachel Redler, Philip J. Y. Leung, Connor Weidle, Alexis Courbet, Erin C. Yang, Asim K. Bera, Nicolas Coudray, S. John Calise, Fatima A. Davila-Hernandez, Hannah L. Han, Kenneth D. Carr, Zhe Li, Ryan McHugh, Gabriella Reggiano, Alex Kang, Banumathi Sankaran, Miles S. Dickinson, Brian Coventry, T. J. Brunette
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Drought triggers and sustains overnight fires in North America Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Kaiwei Luo, Xianli Wang, Mark de Jong, Mike Flannigan
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Fork coupling directs DNA replication elongation and termination Science (IF 56.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Yang Liu, Zhengrong Zhangding, Xuhao Liu, Tingting Gan, Chen Ai, Jinchun Wu, Haoxin Liang, Mohan Chen, Yuefeng Guo, Rusen Lu, Yongpeng Jiang, Xiong Ji, Ning Gao, Daochun Kong, Qing Li, Jiazhi Hu
DNA replication is initiated at multiple loci to ensure timely duplication of eukaryotic genomes. Sister replication forks progress bidirectionally, and replication terminates when two convergent forks encounter one another. To investigate the coordination of replication forks, we developed a replication-associated in situ HiC method to capture chromatin interactions involving nascent DNA. We identify
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Penning micro-trap for quantum computing Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Shreyans Jain, Tobias Sägesser, Pavel Hrmo, Celeste Torkzaban, Martin Stadler, Robin Oswald, Chris Axline, Amado Bautista-Salvador, Christian Ospelkaus, Daniel Kienzler, Jonathan Home
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Chatbot AI makes racist judgements on the basis of dialect Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
Some large language models harbour hidden biases that cannot be removed using standard methods.
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Did ‘alien’ debris hit Earth? Startling claim sparks row at scientific meeting Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says that an interstellar meteor showered Earth with particles. At a planetary-science conference this week, researchers begged to differ.
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Daily briefing: In most mammal species, males and females are the same size — or females are bigger Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
Charles Darwin’s claim about male mammals usually being bigger than females is proved wrong. Plus, OpenAI’s Sora can create amazing video from text prompts, and what’s wrong with how we treat the menopause.
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Continuous evolution of compact protein degradation tags regulated by selective molecular glues Science (IF 56.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Jaron A. M. Mercer, Stephan J. DeCarlo, Shourya S. Roy Burman, Vedagopuram Sreekanth, Andrew T. Nelson, Moritz Hunkeler, Peter J. Chen, Katherine A. Donovan, Praveen Kokkonda, Praveen K. Tiwari, Veronika M. Shoba, Arghya Deb, Amit Choudhary, Eric S. Fischer, David R. Liu
Conditional protein degradation tags (degrons) are usually >100 amino acids long or are triggered by small molecules with substantial off-target effects, thwarting their use as specific modulators of endogenous protein levels. We developed a phage-assisted continuous evolution platform for molecular glue complexes (MG-PACE) and evolved a 36–amino acid zinc finger (ZF) degron (SD40) that binds the ubiquitin
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Generalized fear after acute stress is caused by change in neuronal cotransmitter identity Science (IF 56.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Hui-quan Li, Wuji Jiang, Li Ling, Marta Pratelli, Cong Chen, Vaidehi Gupta, Swetha K. Godavarthi, Nicholas C. Spitzer
Overgeneralization of fear to harmless situations is a core feature of anxiety disorders resulting from acute stress, yet the mechanisms by which fear becomes generalized are poorly understood. In this study, we show that generalized fear in mice results from a transmitter switch from glutamate to γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in serotonergic neurons of the lateral wings of the dorsal raphe. Similar change
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Genome assemblies of 11 bamboo species highlight diversification induced by dynamic subgenome dominance Nat. Genet. (IF 30.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Peng-Fei Ma, Yun-Long Liu, Cen Guo, Guihua Jin, Zhen-Hua Guo, Ling Mao, Yi-Zhou Yang, Liang-Zhong Niu, Yu-Jiao Wang, Lynn G. Clark, Elizabeth A. Kellogg, Zu-Chang Xu, Xia-Ying Ye, Jing-Xia Liu, Meng-Yuan Zhou, Yan Luo, Yang Yang, Douglas E. Soltis, Jeffrey L. Bennetzen, Pamela S. Soltis, De-Zhu Li
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MYC activates transcriptional enhancers to drive cancer progression Nat. Genet. (IF 30.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
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The DTC microbiome testing industry needs more regulation Science (IF 56.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Diane E. Hoffmann, Erik C. von Rosenvinge, Mary-Claire Roghmann, Francis B. Palumbo, Daniel McDonald, Jacques Ravel
A growing body of research has suggested the potential for improving human health by better understanding the human microbiome. This research has led to the emergence of a global industry selling direct-to-consumer (DTC) microbiome testing services. Regulation of this industry has been generally ignored despite its having made a mark on the lifestyle health and wellness market. Yet companies’ claims
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Divas, captains, ghosts, ants and bumble-bees: collaborator attitudes explained Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-15
Olga Lehmann made sense of challenges she faced in teamwork by analysing how she and her colleagues behaved and what she could have done differently.
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A Black mathematical history Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Documentary reveals how Black US scholars shaped today’s mathematics community and provides hope for the future.
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More than 4,000 plastic chemicals are hazardous, report finds Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Year-long effort compiles comprehensive database of chemicals in plastics.
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The neuroscientist formerly known as Prince’s audio engineer Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Susan Rogers worked with the legendary singer-songwriter before earning a PhD in her 50s on auditory memory and how we listen to music throughout life.
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Do black holes explode? The 50-year-old puzzle that challenges quantum physics Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Stephen Hawking’s paradoxical finding that black holes don’t live forever has profound, unresolved implications for the quest for unifying theories of reality.
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Fungal diseases are spreading undetected Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
Low- and middle-income countries are grappling with widespread shortages of diagnostic tests for infections that kill millions.
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Daily briefing: How Hawking’s paradox still puzzles physicists Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-14
On the sixth anniversary of Stephen Hawking’s death, we revisit his landmark paper. Plus, a stunning 3D atlas of the heart and the mysterious rise of cancer in young people.
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These cyborg jellyfish could monitor the changing seas Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13
A hat-like prosthesis helps the invertebrates to swim more efficiently and can be used to carry ocean sensors.
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Couple-close construction of polycyclic rings from diradicals Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Alice Long, Christian J. Oswood, Christopher B. Kelly, Marian C. Bryan, David W. C. MacMillan
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US oil and gas system emissions from nearly one million aerial site measurements Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Evan D. Sherwin, Jeffrey S. Rutherford, Zhan Zhang, Yuanlei Chen, Erin B. Wetherley, Petr V. Yakovlev, Elena S. F. Berman, Brian B. Jones, Daniel H. Cusworth, Andrew K. Thorpe, Alana K. Ayasse, Riley M. Duren, Adam R. Brandt
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Spatially organized cellular communities form the developing human heart Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Elie N. Farah, Robert K. Hu, Colin Kern, Qingquan Zhang, Ting-Yu Lu, Qixuan Ma, Shaina Tran, Bo Zhang, Daniel Carlin, Alexander Monell, Andrew P. Blair, Zilu Wang, Jacqueline Eschbach, Bin Li, Eugin Destici, Bing Ren, Sylvia M. Evans, Shaochen Chen, Quan Zhu, Neil C. Chi
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High-speed and large-scale intrinsically stretchable integrated circuits Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Donglai Zhong, Can Wu, Yuanwen Jiang, Yujia Yuan, Min-gu Kim, Yuya Nishio, Chien-Chung Shih, Weichen Wang, Jian-Cheng Lai, Xiaozhou Ji, Theodore Z. Gao, Yi-Xuan Wang, Chengyi Xu, Yu Zheng, Zhiao Yu, Huaxin Gong, Naoji Matsuhisa, Chuanzhen Zhao, Yusheng Lei, Deyu Liu, Song Zhang, Yuto Ochiai, Shuhan Liu, Shiyuan Wei, Jeffrey B.-H. Tok, Zhenan Bao
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Substrate-induced condensation activates plant TIR domain proteins Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Wen Song, Li Liu, Dongli Yu, Hanna Bernardy, Jan Jirschitzka, Shijia Huang, Aolin Jia, Wictoria Jemielniak, Julia Acker, Henriette Laessle, Junli Wang, Qiaochu Shen, Weijie Chen, Pilong Li, Jane E. Parker, Zhifu Han, Paul Schulze-Lefert, Jijie Chai
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Dopamine receptor D2 confers colonization resistance via microbial metabolites Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Samantha A. Scott, Jingjing Fu, Pamela V. Chang
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Time-resolved cryo-EM of G-protein activation by a GPCR Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Makaía M. Papasergi-Scott, Guillermo Pérez-Hernández, Hossein Batebi, Yang Gao, Gözde Eskici, Alpay B. Seven, Ouliana Panova, Daniel Hilger, Marina Casiraghi, Feng He, Luis Maul, Peter Gmeiner, Brian K. Kobilka, Peter W. Hildebrand, Georgios Skiniotis
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Mitochondrial complex I activity in microglia sustains neuroinflammation Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 L. Peruzzotti-Jametti, C. M. Willis, G. Krzak, R. Hamel, L. Pirvan, R.-B. Ionescu, J. A. Reisz, H. A. Prag, M. E. Garcia-Segura, V. Wu, Y. Xiang, B. Barlas, A. M. Casey, A. M. R. van den Bosch, A. M. Nicaise, L. Roth, G. R. Bates, H. Huang, P. Prasad, A. E. Vincent, C. Frezza, C. Viscomi, G. Balmus, Z. Takats, J. C. Marioni, A. D’Alessandro, M. P. Murphy, I. Mohorianu, S. Pluchino
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Last-mile delivery increases vaccine uptake in Sierra Leone Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Niccolò F. Meriggi, Maarten Voors, Madison Levine, Vasudha Ramakrishna, Desmond Maada Kangbai, Michael Rozelle, Ella Tyler, Sellu Kallon, Junisa Nabieu, Sarah Cundy, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
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Roll-to-roll, high-resolution 3D printing of shape-specific particles Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jason M. Kronenfeld, Lukas Rother, Max A. Saccone, Maria T. Dulay, Joseph M. DeSimone
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Rapid unleashing of macrophage efferocytic capacity via transcriptional pause release Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Turan Tufan, Gamze Comertpay, Ambra Villani, Geoffrey M. Nelson, Marina Terekhova, Shannon Kelley, Pavel Zakharov, Rochelle M. Ellison, Oleg Shpynov, Michael Raymond, Jerry Sun, Yitan Chen, Enno Bockelmann, Marta Stremska, Lance W. Peterson, Laura Boeckaerts, Seth R. Goldman, J. Iker Etchegaray, Maxim N. Artyomov, Francesca Peri, Kodi S. Ravichandran
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Evolutionary trajectories of small cell lung cancer under therapy Nature (IF 64.8) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Julie George, Lukas Maas, Nima Abedpour, Maria Cartolano, Laura Kaiser, Rieke N. Fischer, Andreas H. Scheel, Jan-Philipp Weber, Martin Hellmich, Graziella Bosco, Caroline Volz, Christian Mueller, Ilona Dahmen, Felix John, Cleidson Padua Alves, Lisa Werr, Jens Peter Panse, Martin Kirschner, Walburga Engel-Riedel, Jessica Jürgens, Erich Stoelben, Michael Brockmann, Stefan Grau, Martin Sebastian, Jan