Cryopreservation is not a new technology, but there is still much to explore and perfect in the field. Current methods use slow freezing, a method that is conducive to ice formation, cell dehydration and an increase in cryoprotective agents (CPAs). These are not ideal circumstances for achieving immaculately cryopreserved cells. Researchers from the University of Tokyo use vitrification, a process that transforms a substance into a noncrystalline solid by rapid cooling. This cooling yields favorable outcomes in biological samples, even those that are typically difficult to freeze and thaw successfully. Despite challenges within this method, the future of regenerative medicine research may be greatly, and positively, impacted by the use of vitrification for cell cryopreservation.

A newly developed 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi receiver from Science Tokyo can survive radiation levels found inside nuclear reactors. With a radiation tolerance of up to 500 kGy, the chip allows robots used in nuclear plant decommissioning to be controlled wirelessly. Such receivers reduce the need for wired connections and can improve worker protection during decommissioning and cleanup operations at contaminated sites such as the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Kyoto, Japan -- In April 2021 the United States hosted the Leaders Summit on Climate, where many of the world's most powerful countries -- and largest carbon emitters -- committed to net-zero emissions targets. Many also made pledges to divest from fossil fuels and invest in green finance. Since then, the capacity for renewable energy and sales of electric vehicles have increased. Yet progress toward system-level transformations is still moving at a snail's pace.

Meeting these targets will depend on commitments from more than just the wealthiest nations. Given the size of their populations, economies, and greenhouse gas emissions, developing economies in Southeast Asia will also play essential roles in the transition to net-zero.

In a new book, a collaborative team of researchers including Akihisa Mori from Kyoto University, focuses on the net-zero transition in Southeast Asia, applying the lessons from the Leaders Summit on Climate to these countries. The researchers wanted to understand whether financial pledges, such as fossil fuel divestment and green finance, can help financial systems overcome the tradeoff between net-zero transitions and sustainable development in emerging markets and developing economies.

Researchers led by Hiroki R. Ueda at the University of Tokyo developed comprehensive 3D cellular atlases spanning all organs and the entire body, termed the CUBIC Organ/Body Atlas. By optimizing the CUBIC tissue-clearing method and establishing high-resolution whole-body imaging, the group mapped the spatial positions of individual cells and enabled quantitative comparisons across samples. This platform enables whole-body–scale quantitative analysis, integration with molecular data, and opens new opportunities for 3D biological and pathological analysis.

A team of researchers led by the University of Tokyo Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI) Project Assistant Professor Elisa Ferreira has shown that a discrepancy in a key cosmic measurement in the early universe originates from a subtle statistical interplay between measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO).

Researchers at AIMR engineered cultured neuronal networks with brain-like hierarchical modularity and directional connectivity using microfluidic devices. Integrating experiments with computational modeling, they demonstrated that directional connections suppress excessive synchrony and enhance balanced network dynamics. This platform advances understanding of brain organization and enables applications in drug discovery and brain-inspired biocomputing systems.

Kyoto, Japan -- Toward the right side of the periodic table below oxygen you'll find the chalcogens, or "ore-forming" elements. The chalcogens that occur naturally, including sulfur, selenium and tellurium, are all somehow involved in biological processes. Molecules containing sulfur, like the antioxidant glutathione, play a central role in redox regulation, the balance between oxidation and reduction that is essential for maintaining cellular health.

Recent studies have suggested that the heavier selenium and tellurium are active in biological redox systems as well, but the instability of molecules containing chains of different chalcogen atoms has made structural analysis difficult. Traditional methods have largely relied on mass spectrometry, which cannot be used to directly observe molecular bonds. This limitation motivated a team of researchers at Kyoto University to develop a method that would allow them to more clearly observe chains of chalcogens.

"We have long been interested in understanding how subtle atomic substitutions can alter biological function," says corresponding author Kazuma Murakami. "Chalcogen chemistry offers a unique window into redox biology that remains largely unexplored."

A computational method called scSurv, developed by researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo, links individual cells to patient outcomes using widely available bulk RNA sequencing data. The approach uses single-cell reference datasets together with patient survival data to infer the contributions of individual cells within complex tissues. The model identified cell populations associated with survival across several cancers, offering a way to uncover disease-driving cells and support the development of more targeted treatment strategies.

Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) has released new features in its Research Data Cloud (NII RDC) to help universities achieve immediate open access. The tools integrate GakuNin RDM and JAIRO Cloud, supporting researchers in publishing papers and supporting data, librarians in managing OA workflows, and research administrators in monitoring institutional OA status — all in compliance with Japan's new OA mandate for publicly funded research.

Kyoto, Japan -- Our genes are written in long strings of three-letter units composed of four different nucleotides. These units -- or codons -- specify one of many amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Multiple codons can encode the same amino acid, which seems to point to some redundancy in our genetic code.

Yet growing evidence suggests that these synonymous codons are not interchangeable: rather, some confer stability to mRNAs and are more efficiently translated in cells, and thus more optimal than others. mRNAs enriched in non-optimal codons are inefficiently translated and subsequently degraded, but how human cells detect and respond to these substandard codons has largely remained a mystery.

A collaborative team of researchers at Kyoto University and RIKEN, led by Osamu Takeuchi and Takuhiro Ito, was determined to unravel this enigma, and conducted several tests to better understand this process.