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Nanoparticle gels that deliver an immunostimulatory molecule and an inhibitor of an immunosuppressive factor to tumours over a period of a few days are reported this week in Nature Materials. When injected in melanoma tumours in mice, the nanoparticles delay tumour growth and significantly increase the survival time of the mice.

This press release contains: · Summaries of newsworthy papers: Materials: Immunostimulatory nanoparticles for cancer therapy Medicine: Oral vaccine reaches the gut mucosa Photonics: Looking through walls and around corners Methods: The Metatron: a system to study animal dispersal · Geographical listing of authors --- [1] Materials: Immunostimulatory nanoparticles for cancer therapy DOI: 10.1038/nmat3355 Nanoparticle gels that deliver an immunostimulatory molecule and an inhibitor of an immunosuppressive factor to tumours over a period of a few days are reported online this week in Nature Materials. When injected in melanoma tumours in mice, the nanoparticles facilitate sustained delivery of the molecules, delay tumour growth and significantly increase the survival time of the mice. One of the mechanisms by which aggressive cancers such as melanomas evade the immune system is by the secretion, from tumours, of immunosuppressive factors such as TGF-beta. This protein inhibits the effects of Interleukin-2 (IL-2) — a signalling molecule used in conventional immunotherapy that mediates immune responses. Tarek Fahmy and colleagues designed a nanoparticle consisting of a protective lipid bilayer surrounding a degradable polymer gel encapsulating a lipid-soluble TGF-beta inhibitor and the water-soluble IL-2 immunostimulatory protein. The researchers show that the nanoparticles enhance the activity of innate and adaptive immune responses against subcutaneous and metastatic melanomas in tumour-bearing mice. Author contact: Tarek Fahmy (Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA) Tel: +1 203 432 1043; E-mail: tarek.fahmy@yale.edu --- [2] Medicine: Oral vaccine reaches the gut mucosa DOI: 10.1038/nm.2866 An oral vaccine that protects both rectal and genital mucosas in mice from viral infections by specifically targeting the large intestine is published online this week in Nature Medicine. Mucosal immunization induces adequate immune responses that protect against pathogens at mucosal sites. However, intracolorectal administration of a potential vaccine is not practical at the clinic and an oral route would likely destroy the vaccine because of the high pH in the stomach. Jay Berzofsky and colleagues designed a nanoparticle releasing system to solve this problem. The nanoparticles contain peptide vaccine and immune adjuvants coated with a polymer that precludes premature uptake in the small intestine and release of contents before reaching the large intestine. In mice, the oral vaccine system induced immunity and protected against rectal and vaginal viral challenge similar to colorectal vaccination, and this was specific to targeting of the large intestine mucosa. Clinical studies in humans will be needed to optimize the formulation of the oral vaccine to the physical characteristics of the human gut. Author contact: Jay Berzofsky (National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA) Tel: +1 301 496 6874; E-mail: berzofsk@helix.nih.gov --- [3] Photonics: Looking through walls and around corners DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2012.150 A technique that allows real-time imaging through opaque materials and around highly scattering optical diffusers is reported in Nature Photonics this week. The findings could prove valuable for applications such as Earth-based astronomy and deep tissue imaging, both of which are currently hindered by scattering and dense materials. Yaron Silberberg and co-workers demonstrate a scheme which is based on wavefront shaping, and involves using a spatial light modulator to shape the phase of scattered light such that it refocuses at a desired location. Exploiting the angular range in which a single wavefront pattern inverts scattering allows wide-field real-time imaging to be achieved through a single process. In contrast with previous wavefront-shaping approaches, this technique does not require a coherent source, interferometric detection, raster scanning or off-line computational reconstruction. Instead, it provides real-time imaging using white light, which is advantageous for realizing practical applications. Author contact: Yaron Silberberg (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel) Tel: +972 8 9344035; E-mail: yaron.silberberg@weizmann.ac.il --- [4] Methods: The Metatron: a system to study animal dispersal DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2104 A controlled experimental infrastructure for studies of animal dispersal at an unprecedented scale is described in a paper published this week in Nature Methods. This methodology will enable researchers in ecology and conservation biology to conduct experiments that were previously not feasible. Animals disperse from their habitats for a variety of reasons, including environmental change and habitat fragmentation due to human activity. Studying the factors that affect this process is not easy: existing setups trade off between scale and environmental control. Small laboratory setups allow control of climatic variables, but they do not realistically mimic field conditions and can typically be used for only small organisms. Large-scale field experiments lack environmental control. Jean Clobert and colleagues fill this gap with the Metatron: an infrastructure of 48 habitat patches on four hectares of land in southern France. Temperature, humidity and light in the individual patches of the Metatron can be experimentally controlled. The patches are connected by flexible corridors presenting varying degrees of difficulty to a dispersing animal. In pilot experiments, the researchers used the Metatron to study lizard and butterfly dispersal. The setup will be useful to study the dispersal of many organisms and to determine how dispersal is affected by changing environmental conditions. Author contact: Jean Clobert (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Moulis, France) Tel: +33 561 04 03 69; E-mail: jean.clobert@EcoEx-moulis.cnrs.fr --- Nature [5] HVEM signalling at mucosal barriers provides host defence against pathogenic bacteria DOI: 10.1038/nature11242 [6] The dynamic disulphide relay of quiescin sulphydryl oxidase DOI: 10.1038/nature11267 [7] Programmed elimination of cells by caspase-independent cell extrusion in C. elegans DOI: 10.1038/nature11240 [8] Mutations in the profilin 1 gene cause familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis DOI: 10.1038/nature11280 --- NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY [9] Genome mapping on nanochannel arrays for structural variation analysis and sequence assembly DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2303 --- NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology) [10] Rap2A links intestinal cell polarity to brush border formation DOI: 10.1038/ncb2537 --- NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY [11] Caspase-1 activity is required to bypass macrophage apoptosis upon Salmonella infection DOI:10.1038/nchembio.1023 [12] Architectural and thermodynamic principles underlying intramembrane protease function DOI:10.1038/nchembio.1021 --- NATURE CHEMISTRY [13] Spontaneous reduction and C–H borylation of arenes mediated by uranium(III) disproportionation DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1392 [14] Catalytic asymmetric carbon–carbon bond formation using alkenes as alkylmetal equivalents DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1394 [15] Designed, synthetically accessible bryostatin analogues potently induce activation of latent HIV reservoirs in vitro DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1395 --- NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE [16] The hydrology of the humid tropics DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1556 [17] Different glacier status with atmospheric circulations in Tibetan Plateau and surroundings DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1580 [18] Climate–society feedbacks and the avoidance of dangerous climate change DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1586 [19] Eco-evolutionary responses of biodiversity to climate change DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1588 [20] Radar backscatter is not a ‘direct measure’ of forest biomass DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1601 --- NATURE GENETICS [21] Association analyses identify multiple new lung cancer susceptibility loci and their interactions with smoking in the Chinese population DOI: 10.1038/ng.2351 [22] A genome-wide association study identifies two new susceptibility loci for lung adenocarcinoma in the Japanese population DOI: 10.1038/ng.2353 [23] The Blk pathway functions as a tumor suppressor in chronic myeloid leukemia stem cells DOI: 10.1038/ng.2350 [24] Meta-analysis identifies multiple loci associated with kidney function–related traits in east Asian populations DOI: 10.1038/ng.2352 --- NATURE IMMUNOLOGY [25] Deciphering the transcriptional network of the dendritic cell lineage DOI: 10.1038/ni.2370 --- NATURE MATERIALS [26] Tuning the autophagy-inducing activity of lanthanide-based nanocrystals through specific surface-coating peptides DOI: 10.1038/nmat.3363 [27] Long-range transfer of electron–phonon coupling in oxide superlattices DOI: 10.1038/nmat.3378 --- Nature MEDICINE [28] Simultaneous functional photoacoustic and ultrasonic endoscopy of internal organs in vivo DOI: 10.1038/nm.2823 [29] Pathological neoangiogenesis depends on oxidative stress regulation by ATM DOI: 10.1038/nm.2846 [30] GABAergic excitation after febrile seizures induces ectopic granule cells and adult epilepsy DOI: 10.1038/nm.2850 --- NATURE METHODS [31] A culture system to study oligodendrocyte myelination-processes using engineered nanofibers DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2105 [32] Wisdom of crowds for robust gene network inference DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2016 --- NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY [33] Shift registers based on magnetic domain wall ratchets with perpendicular anisotropy DOI:10.1038/nnano.2012.111 [34] Piezoelectric nanoribbons for monitoring cellular deformations DOI:10.1038/nnano.2012.112 [35] Deformation mechanisms in nanotwinned metal nanopillars DOI:10.1038/nnano.2012.116 --- Nature NEUROSCIENCE [36] Dissecting spatial knowledge from spatial choice by hippocampal NMDA receptor deletion DOI: 10.1038/nn.3166 [37] HMGA regulates the global chromatin state and neurogenic potential in neocortical precursor cells DOI: 10.1038/nn.3165 --- NATURE PHOTONICS [38] Quantum-limited frequency fluctuations in a terahertz laser DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2012.145 [39] All-optical wavelength shifting in a semiconductor laser using resonant nonlinearities DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2012.157 [40] Broadband dye-sensitized upconversion of near-infrared light DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2012.158 [41] Regenerative oscillation and four-wave mixing in graphene optoelectronics DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2012.147 --- Nature PHYSICS [42] Chimera and phase-cluster states in populations of coupled chemical oscillators DOI: 10.1038/nphys2371 [43] Experimental observation of chimeras in coupled-map lattices DOI: 10.1038/nphys2372 --- Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY [44] The mechanism of patellamide macrocyclization revealed by the characterization of the PatG macrocyclase domain DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2340 [45] DGCR8 HITS-CLIP reveals novel functions for the Microprocessor DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2344 [46] Phosphorylation of histone H3 Ser10 establishes a hierarchy for subsequent intramolecular modification events DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2310 *************************************************************************************************************** GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS AUSTRALIA Kirrawee: 27 Melbourne: 24 Mount Lawley: 23 Sydney: 27 CANADA: Guelph: 8 Sherbrooke: 19 CHINA Beijing: 2, 17, 21, 24 Guangzhou: 21 Hefei: 26 Lanzhou: 17 Nanjing: 21 Shanghai: 21 Shenyang: 21 Tianjin: 21 Wuhan: 21 Zhenjiang: 26 DENMARK Copenhagen: 45 EGYPT Cairo: 27 FRANCE Moulis: 4 Orsay: 4 Paris: 4, 8, 19, 39 St-Pierre-les-Nemours: 4 Toulouse: 4, 13 GERMANY Berlin: 43, 46 Bochum: 39 Dortmund: 27 Goettingen: 46 Heidelberg: 36 Leipzig: 27 Munich: 32 Stuttgart: 27 Tuebingen: 46 ISRAEL Rehovot: 3, 6 Tel-Aviv: 8 ITALY Milan: 8 Pisa: 8, 38 Rome: 20 Sesto Fiorentino: 38 JAPAN Chiba: 22 Kanagawa: 22 Osaka: 29 Shiga: 22 Tokyo: 22, 24, 29, 30, 37 Yokohama: 24 KOREA Chungcheongbuk-do: 24 NETHERLANDS Eindhoven: 33 Groningen: 40 Utrecht: 8, 10 SINGAPORE Singapore: 9, 24, 26, 41 SPAIN Barcelona: 45 SWEDEN Stockholm: 19 Uppsala: 4 TAIWAN Taichung: 24 Taipei: 24 UNITED KINGDOM Aberdeen: 44 Cambridge: 39, 46 Durham: 8 Edinburgh: 13, 20, 45 Lancaster: 16, 18 London: 29 Oxford: 14, 20, 36 St Andrews: 44 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA California La Jolla: 5 Los Angeles: 15, 28 Pasadena: 34, 35 San Diego: 9 San Francisco: 9, 24, 31 Stanford: 10, 11, 15, 25 Storrs: 19 Colorado Fort Collins: 16 Connecticut New Haven: 1 Delaware Newark: 6 Florida Alachua: 2 Georgia Atlanta: 8 Hawaii Hilo: 16 Honolulu: 16 Kansas Lawrence: 16 Maine Orono: 23 Maryland Baltimore: 12 Bethesda: 2 College Park: 20, 43 Frederick: 2 Massachusetts Boston: 23, 25, 32 Cambridge: 7, 8, 25, 32 Falmouth: 16 Worcester: 8, 23 Michigan Ann Arbor: 2, 24, 31 Hickory Corners: 19 Missouri St Louis: 25, 28 New Hampshire Durham: 24 New Jersey Princeton: 34 New Mexico Socorro: 16 New York Bronx: 25 New York: 25, 32, 41, 44, 46 North Carolina Chapel Hill: 2, 25 Durham: 16 Research Triangle Park: 16 Ohio Columbus: 17 Oregon Corvallis: 16 Pennsylvania Philadelphia: 9, 34 Villanova: 16 Rhode Island Providence: 35 Texas Houston: 21 Vermont Burlington: 11 Washington Seattle: 6 West Virginia Morgantown: 42 Wyoming Laramie: 16 The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. The listing may be for an author's main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details. --- PRESS CONTACTS… For media inquiries relating to embargo policy for all the Nature Research Journals: Rachel Twinn (Nature London) Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail: r.twinn@nature.com Neda Afsarmanesh (Nature New York) Tel: +1 212 726 9231; E-mail: n.afsarmanesh@us.nature.com Eiji Matsuda (Nature Tokyo) Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; E-mail: e.matsuda@natureasia.com --- For media inquiries relating to editorial content/policy for the Nature Research Journals, please contact the journals individually: Nature Biotechnology (New York) Michael Francisco Tel: +1 212 726 9288; E-mail: biotech@us.nature.com Nature Cell Biology (London) Sowmya Swaminathan Tel: +44 20 7843 4656; E-mail: cellbio@nature.com Nature Chemical Biology (Boston) Kim Tolleson Tel: +1 617 475 9241, E-mail: chembio@us.nature.com Nature Chemistry (London) Stuart Cantrill Tel: +44 20 7014 4018; E-mail: s.cantrill@nature.com Nature Climate Change (London) Rory Howlett Tel: +44 20 7014 4009; E-mail: nclimate@nature.com Nature Genetics (New York) Myles Axton Tel: +1 212 726 9324; E-mail: natgen@us.nature.com Nature Geoscience (London) Heike Langenberg Tel: +44 20 7843 4042; E-mail: h.langenberg@nature.com Nature Immunology (New York) Laurie Dempsey Tel: +1 212 726 9372; E-mail: immunology@us.nature.com Nature Materials (London) Vincent Dusastre Tel: +44 20 7843 4531; E-mail: materials@nature.com Nature Medicine (New York) Juan Carlos Lopez Tel: +1 212 726 9325; E-mail: medicine@us.nature.com Nature Methods (New York) Ray Parker Tel: +1 212 726 9627; E-mail: methods@us.nature.com Nature Nanotechnology (London) Peter Rodgers Tel: +44 20 7014 4019; Email: p.rodgers@nature.com Nature Neuroscience (New York) Kalyani Narasimhan Tel: +1 212 726 9319; E-mail: neurosci@us.nature.com Nature Photonics (Tokyo) Oliver Graydon Tel: +81 3 3267 8776; E-mail: o.graydon@natureasia.com Nature Physics (London) Alison Wright Tel: +44 20 7843 4555; E-mail: a.wright@nature.com Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (New York) Michelle Montoya Tel: +1 212 726 9331; E-mail: nsmb@us.nature.com --- About Nature Publishing Group (NPG): Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online. 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