Core Viewpoint - The article discusses the recent announcement of the 2024 Annual Outstanding Paper Awards by Sanofi-Cell Research, highlighting three significant research papers published in Cell Research that have made notable contributions to their respective fields [2]. Group 1: Paper Summaries - The first paper titled "Hypoxia induces mitochondrial protein lactylation to limit oxidative phosphorylation" reveals that hypoxia-induced mitochondrial protein lactylation inhibits oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). The study identifies AARS2 as a lactyltransferase that modifies PDHA1 and CPT2, reducing acetyl-CoA influx and suppressing OXPHOS. SIRT3 can reverse this lactylation, emphasizing the role of lactylation in mitochondrial function regulation [8][13]. - The second paper titled "40 Hz light flickering promotes sleep through cortical adenosine signaling" demonstrates that 40 Hz light flickering increases extracellular adenosine levels in the primary visual cortex via ENT2-mediated transport. The study shows that 30 minutes of 40 Hz light flickering enhances both non-rapid eye movement and rapid eye movement sleep in mice, suggesting a non-invasive strategy for treating insomnia [14][16]. - The third paper discusses a novel design strategy for D-type proteins that can stably target natural L-type proteins or peptides. This research achieves the precise design of enantiomeric protein complexes with high stereospecificity and target specificity, exhibiting significant thermal stability and proteolytic resistance. The findings provide a new platform for disease treatment and biotechnological applications [18].