Plasmonic photothermal polymerase chain reaction (PPT-PCR) is a nucleic acid amplification technique that utilizes the localized surface plasmon resonance effect of plasmonic nanomaterials under the irradiation of light with specific wavelengths to achieve rapid thermal cycling. PPT-PCR is considered as a next-generation PCR technique due to the potential to be applied to the development of point-of-care diagnostics and the fast, sensitive and accurate detection performance. In this study, we present PHANTOM, a proof-of-concept system that functionally integrates plasmonic photothermal PCR, magnetic nanoparticle removal, and swCNT-FET-based label-free electrical readout for rapid molecular diagnostics. The swCNT-FET sensor exhibits high sensitivity, capable of detecting low concentrations of target nucleic acids within minutes after PPT-PCR amplification. Besides, to improve the specificity of the assay, we introduce a hairpin structured primer to generate amplicons with an external single-strand tail that can hybridize with probes modified on the swCNT-FET sensor. With this design, an estimated limit of detection of 1.5 aM (experimentally validated down to 10 aM) was achieved within 20 min.

Practical applications of MXene-based hydrogels have been limited owing to their poor oxidation stability and mechanical performance. To overcome these issues, numerous efforts have been devoted to the surface modification of MXenes, but the optimal type of surface modifier has not been systematically explored. Herein, MXene is modified with diverse polymeric modifiers, including polyphenols (PPs) and linear synthetic polymers (LSPs), and the resulting properties are investigated in relation to their molecular structures. LSPs outperform PPs in improving oxidation resistance and mechanical performance of hydrogels, among which poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) provides the highest overall performance. Subsequently, the PAA-modified MXene hydrogel (PMH) is converted into organohydrogels (PMOH) to enhance mechanical performance and environmental durability. The PMOH exhibits substantially improved mechanical performance, including a tensile strain of 1487.5%, a tensile strength of 750 kPa, and a toughness of 5.27 MJ m(-3) with a tissue-like modulus of 71.9 kPa. The PMOH also shows enhanced conductivity compared with the bare organohydrogel (0.105 to 0.133 S m(-1)), robust adhesion to the skin (55.3 kPa), and outstanding resistance to freezing, dehydration, and oxidation. Owing to these properties, the PMOH is employed as a wearable strain and electrophysiological sensor. This study provides rational insights into the development of durable and high-performance MXene hydrogels for biomedical applications.

Lithium-oxygen batteries (LOBs) offer exceptionally high energy density but are limited by poor reversibility and large charging overpotentials owing to sluggish lithium oxide decomposition. We propose a rational Fe-4d dualatom catalyst (DAC) strategy to regulate oxygen evolution and stabilize NO2- redox mediation. Fe-Zr/Nb/Mo pairs are atomically dispersed onto defect-rich nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) and evaluated as oxygen-electrode catalysts. Among these, Nb-Fe-NCNT exhibits a superior performance, enabling excellent cycling for over 290 cycles with significantly reduced polarization. Electrochemical analysis reveals that Nb-Fe enhances charge-transfer kinetics and sustains low-voltage redox-mediated oxygen evolution while suppressing high-voltage direct Li2O2 oxidation. Ex situ characterization confirms highly reversible Li2O2 formation and decomposition. Density functional theory shows favorable reaction energetics and enhanced electron redistribution, which strengthens mediator interaction. These results demonstrate that metal-dependent electronic synergy in Fe-4d DACs governs oxygen-evolution pathways and provide practical design guidelines for durable, nonprecious catalysts for high-performance LOBs.

Ni-based catalysts have been widely studied as promising alternatives to Pt group metal catalysts in anion exchange membrane water electrolysis. However, their insufficient durability at the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) poses a significant limitation. In this study, we evaluated the performance and durability of Ni₃Mo, PtNi/C, and Pt/C catalysts in MEAs under various intermittent protocols that mimic electricity production from renewable energy sources. In the intermittent protocols, sets of open circuit voltage (OCV) and constant current densities of 0.1 A cm−2 and/or 1 A cm−2 with different duration times were repeated for overall test time of 165 h. The Ni3Mo catalyst demonstrated severe degradation in cell performance for the long OCV duration of 1 h, while shorter exposure of 1 or 30 min presented little degradation, although the metal dissolution still occurred significantly. The cell degradation mainly resulted from phase transformation of the metallic Ni3Mo to Ni(OH)2. The Pt/C catalyst showed substantial degradation in the cell performance when the current density was frequently changed with short duration (1 min) at OCV, resulting from the Pt aggregation. The PtNi/C presented the most stable cell performance under various intermittent protocols, due to the formation of surface Ni hydroxide species that inhibit aggregation. The changes in the overpotentials at cathode, membrane, and anode were further investigated using 3-electrode MEA system. The PtNi/C catalysts were synthesized with various compositions of Pt:Ni ratios, and also the Pt1Ni1/C catalysts were synthesized with various sizes, but the effect of composition and sizes were insignificant for the cell performance.

Natural de novo shoot organogenesis (DNSO) is the spontaneous regeneration of shoots from wound sites outside the shoot apical region through endogenous developmental programs. This regenerative capacity enables plants to recover from severe tissue damage by re-establishing the shoot-root axis. Here, we review current knowledge about the molecular mechanisms of natural DNSO, focusing on transcriptomic and physiological studies in model plants. Accumulating evidence suggests that natural DNSO proceeds through three sequential phases: (i) early wound responses, characterized by the activation of the WIND1-ESR1 module and the establishment of apical-basal auxin asymmetry; (ii) cellular proliferation driven by metabolic and cell-cycle reprogramming; and (iii) cytokininmediated establishment of shoot apical meristem identity. We also discuss how these mechanistic insights have been harnessed for practical applications, including tissue culture-free transformation systems such as the cut-dip-budding (CDB) method, and developmental reprogramming strategies that employ ectopic expression of developmental regulator (DR) genes to induce DNSO in otherwise recalcitrant species. Together, these advances illustrate how understanding natural regeneration can guide the development of simplified, broadly applicable plant transformation technologies.

Accurate quantification of binding affinities for intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) is challenged by their flexibility and propensity for aggregation, often requiring cross-validation across distinct biophysical methods. Here, we investigated the interaction between interacting domains of karyopherin (31 (KapN) and Nup153 (Nup153 3-2), a highly aggregation-prone IDR fragment of nucleoporin 153. To circumvent experimental time constraints imposed by rapid sample aggregation, we employed a suite of short-timescale methodologies: NMR chemical shift perturbations (CSPs), lineshape analysis, 15N-edited diffusion NMR, and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Remarkably, despite relying on fundamentally different physical principles, all four methods yielded apparent dissociation constants (Kd) in the low-micromolar range, with lineshape analysis, diffusion NMR, and ITC converging closely (2-3 mu M) while CSP gave a modestly lower value (1.18 mu M). These findings demonstrate that cross-validating short-timescale methodologies can reveal and account for method-specific biases, providing a robust strategy for characterizing aggregation-prone biomolecular systems.

In nature, the [NiFe]-containing carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) catalyzes the reversible interconversion of CO and CO2 at a heterobimetallic active site, where CO2 is activated and converted to a bridging carbonite (CO22-) ligand in the Cred1-CO2 state. Synthetic models reproducing this [NiFe] heterobimetallic motif with a site-differentiated CO2 binding site remain limited. Herein, we report the synthesis of a tethered ligand (L1) incorporating a triphosphine pincer (PPP) unit and a bis(pyridylmethyl)amine (DPA) unit connected through a methylene bridge. Sequential metallation afforded tethered Ni0/MII dyad heterobimetallic complexes (M2 for M = Zn and M2 ' for M = Fe), in which the two metal centers are electronically decoupled despite being held in close proximity by the flexible linker. The absence of CO2 reactivity at the Ni0 center in M2 ' prompted an alternative approach employing a labile N2 ligand. Reaction of L1 with Ni(cod)2 under an N2 atmosphere afforded the mononuclear Ni0-N2 complex M3, which co-exists in equilibrium with the dinuclear N2-bridged adduct M3 ' (Keq = 1.12 +/- 0.14 M-1). Treatment of M3 with CO2 resulted in the rapid formation of the Ni0-CO2 adduct M4. Although incorporating Fe into a DPA unit has remained unsuccessful at this stage, DFT calculations on the prospective Ni0/FeII-CO2 species reveal a bridging carbonite ligand that mimics the binding mode analogous to the Cred1-CO2 state. While direct CO2 activation at the heterobimetallic core remains to be realized, this study provides a viable platform for site-differentiated [NiFe] complexes and serves as a valuable benchmark for biomimetic CODH model systems.

Covalent ligands represent small molecules including a reactive moiety that forms a covalent bond, enabling the targeting of proteins that are otherwise difficult to modulate. Accurate binding prediction is critical for achieving target specificity and minimizing off-target effects. However, publicly available computational tools remain limited in both accessibility and accuracy. To address this gap, we developed GalaxyCDock, a web server for covalent protein-ligand docking. GalaxyCDock predicts the binding modes of covalent ligands by employing the efficient pose sampling of GalaxyDock2 and a deep learning-based scoring function, GalaxyDock-DL. GalaxyCDock outperformed existing tools (AutoDock4, DOCK6) across standard and newly curated datasets. GalaxyCDock achieved high performance in both re-docking (up to 80%) and cross-docking (up to 61%). Furthermore, GalaxyCDock efficiently serves as a practical alternative to models like AlphaFold3 and Boltz-2 when receptor structure information is available. GalaxyCDock is publicly available at https://galaxy.seoklab.org/cdock. (c) 2026 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

We report a mechanistic investigation of site-specific sulfur(vi) fluoride exchange (SuFEx) in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Our results indicate that metal-ligated water molecules positioned within secondary building units (SBUs) are closely associated with the observed S-F bond activation of sulfonyl fluoride groups. Four MOFs incorporating SO2F-functionalized linkers were synthesized and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Among them, IRMOFZn-SO2F and UiO-68-SO2F, which possess geometrically well-aligned SBUs containing ligated water near the SO2F group, exhibited high SuFEx reactivity toward silylated substrates, producing trimethylsilyl fluoride (TMSF) as the sole byproduct. In contrast, MOFCu-SO2F and BMOFZn-SO2F, which lack appropriately oriented ligated water, showed no SuFEx activity. Furthermore, SuFEx did not occur under strictly anhydrous conditions or with free organic linkers, strongly suggesting that precisely positioned SBU-anchored water molecules are important contributors to productive SuFEx reactivity. This study provides mechanistic insight into hydrogen-bond-mediated SuFEx reactivity in porous materials and demonstrates the feasibility of water-assisted SuFEx-based PSM without added catalysts.