Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Itaconate mechanism of action and dissimilation in <i>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</i>

Itaconate, an abundant metabolite produced by macrophages upon interferon-γ stimulation, possesses both antibacterial and immunomodulatory properties. Despite its crucial role in immunity and antimicr...

Adaptive evolutionary trajectories in complexity: Transitions between unicellularity and facultative differentiated multicellularity

Multicellularity spans a wide gamut in terms of complexity, from simple clonal clusters of cells to large-scale organisms composed of differentiated cells and tissues. While recent experiments have de...

Can science-based interventions tamp down polarization?

Intercellular mRNA transfer alters the human pluripotent stem cell state

Intercellular transmission of messenger RNA (mRNA) is being explored in mammalian species using immortal cell lines. Here, we uncover an intercellular mRNA transfer phenomenon that allows for the adap...

A periplasmic protein modulates the proteolysis of peptidoglycan hydrolases to maintain cell wall homeostasis in <i>Escherichia coli</i>

Bacterial cell wall assembly and remodeling require activities of peptidoglycan (PG) hydrolases as well as PG synthases. In particular, the activity of DD-endopeptidases, which cleave the 4-3 peptide...

Multiorifice acoustic microrobot for boundary-free multimodal 3D swimming

The emerging new generation of small-scaled acoustic microrobots is poised to expedite the adoption of microrobotics in biomedical research. Recent designs of these microrobots have enabled intricate...

Targeting EPHB2/ABL1 restores antitumor immunity in preclinical models of ependymoma

Ependymoma (EPN) is a common form of brain tumor in children, often resistant to available cytotoxic therapies. Molecular profiling studies have led to a better understanding of EPN subtypes and revea...

Profile of Geoffrey M. Heal

Retrospective SARS-CoV-2 human antibody development trajectories are largely sparse and permissive

Immunological interventions, like vaccinations, are enabled by the predictive control of humoral responses to novel antigens. While the development trajectories for many broadly neutralizing antibodie...

Abrupt transformation of West Greenland lakes following compound climate extremes associated with atmospheric rivers

Arctic ecosystems are affected by accelerated warming as well as the intensification of the hydrologic cycle, yet understanding of the impacts of compound climate extremes (e.g., simultaneous extreme...

Tree rings and Earth System Models unveil mid-Holocene alpine climate

Advancing forecasting capabilities: A contrastive learning model for forecasting tropical cyclone rapid intensification

Tropical cyclones (TCs), particularly those that rapidly intensify (RI), pose a significant threat due to the uncertainty in forecasting them. RI TC periods, which intensify by at least 13 m/s within...

Evolution of complexity through regulatory variation at a single gene

Maternal manipulation in the social Hymenoptera

Gesture counteracts gender stereotypes conveyed through subtle linguistic cues

Despite increased attempts to express equality in speech, biases often leak out through subtle linguistic cues. For example, the subject–complement statement (SCS, “Girls are as good as boys at math”)...

Postdoc publications and citations link to academic retention and faculty success

Postdoctoral training is a career stage often described as a demanding and anxiety-laden time when many promising PhDs see their academic dreams slip away due to circumstances beyond their control. We...

Cortical reorganization following dorsal spinal injuries in newborn monkeys reveals a critical period in the development of the somatosensory cortex

Lesions of the dorsal columns of the spinal cord in adult macaque monkeys lead to the loss of hand inputs and large-scale expansion of the face inputs in the hand region of the somatosensory cortex. I...

Nav1.8, an analgesic target for nonpsychotomimetic phytocannabinoids

Pain impacts billions of people worldwide, but treatment options are limited and have a spectrum of adverse effects. The search for safe and nonaddictive pain treatments has led to a focus on key medi...

Electrifying the brain capillary Ca ²⁺ signal

Falling racial inequality and rising educational inequality in US prison admissions for drug, violent, and property crimes

Using administrative and survey data, we show that there has been a sea change in the contours of American imprisonment. At the end of the twentieth century, inequality in the prison admission rates o...

Nanoscopic acoustic vibrational dynamics of a single virus captured by ultrafast spectroscopy

The natural vibrational frequencies of biological particles such as viruses and bacteria encode critical information about their mechanical and biological states as they interact with their local envi...

Removal by the fittest in ocean dead zones

Phase formation and phase stability for the homogenous and heterogeneous amorphous metals versus the crystalline phase

From molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of melt-quenching and thermal aging procedures in pure Ag, Cu, Ag–Cu binary alloys, and Cu–Zr binary alloys, we have identified two distinct amorphous phases f...

Valuing the benefits of reducing firearm violence in the United States

Justifying a proposed government regulation intended to reduce firearm violence requires a conceptually sound estimate of the monetized value of that impact and how that value is distributed across th...

Dispersal of influenza virus populations within the respiratory tract shapes their evolutionary potential

Viral infections are characterized by dispersal from an initial site to secondary locations within the host. How the resultant spatial heterogeneity shapes within-host genetic diversity and viral evol...