Nature Reviews Bioengineering, Published online: 17 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s44222-025-00361-yFunctional nucleic acids (FNAs) achieve specific target recognition, molecular binding and catalytic activity by folding into defined secondary and tertiary structures. This Review focuses on two major classes of FNAs — aptamers and DNAzymes — and discusses their structural features, production strategies and engineering approaches as well as their clinical applications in diagnostics, targeted therapy and precision medicine.

Metal-organic frameworks were the next big thing in chemistry when they were invented more than three decades ago. Now, these intriguing materials are becoming commercial tools for capturing carbon dioxide and harvesting water from the air.

Nature - Being named as a Nobel laureate is the ultimate prize for many scientists, but how do other science prizes compare?

N-glycans on glycoRNAs prevent innate immune sensing of endogenous small RNAs, and the natural mechanism they use demonstrates how glycoRNAs exist on the cell surface and in the endosomal network with...

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 04 August 2025; doi:10.1038/s41580-025-00873-wLysosomes degrade cellular components, and their membrane is an important signalling hub. Recent insights into the mechanisms that maintain lysosomal membrane homeostasis — including the interplay between membrane damage, repair, lysophagy and lysosome biogenesis — highlight their importance in physiology, in disease and during ageing.

Nature - Super-resolution technique works with off-the-shelf optical microscopes.

Super-resolution technique works with off-the-shelf optical microscopes.

By combining bioorthogonal metabolic labelling and resolution enhancement through sequential imaging of DNA barcodes, the molecular organization of individual sugars in the native glycocalyx has been ...

SNAP-tag is a widespread tool for labeling protein for bioimaging. Now, Kühn et al. report SNAP-tag2 with increased labeling kinetics and brightness, which translates into a better performance in live...

Recipients Schreiber and Schultz will each receive $500K prize for work on chemical probes, unnatural amino acids, and new therapeutics