Nanomedicines often acquire a protein corona in the bloodstream before reaching the brain. A new Perspective in Science Bulletin argues that this evolving layer should be engineered as a programmable interface that can guide recognition, transcytosis and release across the blood-brain barrier.

Objective: This commentary outlines how single-cell and multi-omic approaches can advance biomarker discovery and translational validation in exercise medicine.

Methods: The article synthesizes emerging evidence from human and animal exercise studies using single-cell RNA sequencing, single-nucleus RNA sequencing, single-cell ATAC sequencing, spatial transcriptomics and related multi-omic technologies. It focuses on skeletal muscle, immune regulation, ageing-related cellular states, chronic disease contexts and translational validation strategies.

Results: Single-cell approaches can resolve exercise-responsive cell types, cellular states, regulatory programmes and cell-cell communication that are masked by tissue-level or bulk measurements. The article highlights applications in muscle repair and fibre-type adaptation, immune redistribution and inflammatory regulation, vascular and metabolic adaptation, biological ageing and responder profiling. It proposes a pipeline that links discovery of cell-derived signatures to validation through accessible assays, including flow cytometry, targeted RNA panels, proteomics, methylation assays, immunoassays and routine clinical chemistry platforms.

Conclusions: Single-cell sequencing is best viewed as a discovery engine for precision exercise biomarkers rather than a near-term routine clinical test. Future work should combine well-defined exercise protocols, longitudinal sampling, spatial and tissue-specific profiling, physiological outcomes, human-animal comparisons and rigorous independent validation.

Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of East Anglia have shown that carefully shaped light can reveal important chiral effects in free space, without the complex materials or extreme focusing conditions that scientists once thought were necessary. The finding could help improve optical sensing, imaging, communication and future quantum technologies. 

Fruit peel color is more than a surface trait: it shapes consumer preference, market value, and breeding direction. 

The gut microbiome is not a mere spectator but an active player in colorectal cancer (CRC), driving tumor initiation and progression through direct bacterial attacks, metabolite signals, and genetic manipulation.

Recently, a research team from the Hefei Institute of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, CAS, developed a kappa opioid receptor (KOR) biased agonist with high efficacy and reduced side effects through structure-based rational design. The study was supported by the Steady High Magnetic Field Facility (SHMFF), including a 9.4 T magnetic resonance imaging system and an integrated experimental animal platform.

Recently, a research team led by Prof. GAO Xiaoming from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed developed a multimodal neural network model, MM-LHRNet, for accurate and rapid retrieval of atmospheric CO₂ column concentrations using laser heterodyne radiometry (LHR).

As global air pollution policies successfully cut human-made emissions, an overlooked natural feedback loop is undermining those hard-won gains.

Researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science analyzed 32 years of global ground-based observations from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and studied how aerosol optical depth (AOD) changes throughout the day.