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. 

Accounting for atmospheric degradation of levoglucosan is essential for accurate identification of biomass burning sources in tropical regions, but as much as 88% of levoglucosan may be lost before measurement. After correcting for this atmospheric loss, the researchers identified urban domestic use of fuels, rather than agricultural burning, as the dominant source of PM_2.5 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 

Achromatic metalenses face stringent aperture-NA constraints, a key bottleneck in metasurface imaging. We first propose a novel achromatic imaging method using Bessel spots’ wideband consistency with non-blind restoration, design eccentric-phase off-axis meta-axicons, and develop a 9-meta-axicon integrated meta-camera. It achieves 10° FOV achromatic near-diffraction-limit imaging, circumvents aperture limits via natural dispersion, and provides a valuable solution for large-aperture wide-FOV meta-cameras.

Sodium-ion batteries are gaining attention as a lower-cost and more resource-abundant alternative to lithium-ion systems, but their practical performance is often weakened before they truly begin working. A major obstacle is the loss of active sodium ions during the first charge-discharge cycle, especially when hard carbon anodes are used. A new study reports a residue-free electrolyte additive, sodium trifluoromethanesulfinate (NaSO₂CF₃), designed to release sodium ions at the right stage of battery formation while avoiding harmful solid leftovers. By combining molecular design, electrochemical testing, and pouch-cell validation, the work offers a practical route to improving initial efficiency, cycle life, and manufacturability in sodium-ion batteries.

Optically addressable spin systems have emerged as promising platforms for quantum sensing. Researchers studying spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) have found that excitation wavelength plays a critical role in their performance. By tuning the wavelength, the team achieved a threefold improvement in the measured contrast and magnetic field sensitivity. The findings also uncover a strong impact on photodynamics, offering a practical pathway to optimising hBN-based defects for quantum sensing technologies.

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) are widely viewed as a safer and more powerful alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries, but their promise is often limited by unstable interfaces inside the cell. A new study shows that carefully introducing oxygen into a sulfide-based solid electrolyte (SE) can stabilize this vulnerable interface while keeping lithium ions moving rapidly. Using lithium sulfate (Li₂SO₄) as an oxygen source, the researchers reshaped the internal lithium pathways of an argyrodite electrolyte and activated cage-to-cage ion conduction. The result is a solid electrolyte that supports high capacity, fast charging and discharging, and long cycling stability, offering a practical strategy for next-generation batteries.