A research team has uncovered the genomic basis behind why some vine tea varieties accumulate far more dihydromyricetin than others.

This study developed and validated an AI-driven, transferable city-scale assessment framework for municipal living plastic waste. By aligning life-cycle environmental accounting with process-based costs and benefits within a unified boundary, the approach provides robust support for forecasting and elastic dispatch.

Researchers from Wuhan University of Technology have developed a laser-stepwise-induced graphene (LSIG) method that significantly lowers sheet resistance to just 15 Ω sq^-1. By combining focused and defocused laser pulses, this technique reduces structural defects and improves crystallinity in laser-induced graphene, enabling advanced applications in electromagnetic shielding and infrared stealth.

Researchers have developed a magnetic, transferrin-modified liposomal delivery system (HM@MNLs-Tf) to improve the brain-targeted therapy of glioblastoma using harmine, a plant-derived anti-cancer compound. By leveraging transferrin receptor-mediated targeting and an external magnetic field, the system efficiently crosses the blood-brain barrier, selectively delivers harmine to glioma cells, and minimizes neurotoxic side effects. In preclinical studies, HM@MNLs-Tf demonstrated enhanced tumor accumulation, significant inhibition of tumor growth, and reduced central nervous system toxicity, offering a promising strategy for precise and safe glioblastoma treatment.

Malignant cutaneous melanoma is the most invasive and metastatic type of skin cancer. Surgical resection, the conventional treatment for it, is associated with two major issues: incomplete tumor removal, which easily leads to recurrence, and poor healing of large postoperative wounds. Additionally, acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) is a common subtype of this cancer. The existing bulky dressings used for ALM are prone to falling off during joint movement, significantly compromising the therapeutic effect. To address these problems, we have developed a nanocomposite hydrogel wound patch (M_xNd/yCe@M SAC). By adopting a cascaded sequential therapy strategy, this patch is specifically designed to solve the key challenges of high recurrence rate and poor wound healing after melanoma surgery.

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction (CO₂RR) to formate offers a sustainable pathway for carbon utilization under mild conditions. However, its practical application is hindered by the high energy consumption of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Replacing OER with the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) enables simultaneous formate production at both electrodes and significantly lowers the overall energy input. Recently, the research group of Professor Junfeng Xie at Shandong Normal University has developed a two-electrode system featuring a crystalline/amorphous Bi-BiNiO_x/NF cathode and a β-Ni(OH)₂ anode for efficient formate synthesis.

A new study uses theoretical modelling to reveal the key role of graphene in TiO₂/graphene photocatalytic composites. Presence of defects in graphene is found to enable covalent bonding between graphene and TiO₂, creating hybridised electronic states that facilitate charge transfer and hinder electron-hole recombination, and therefore enhance the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂/graphene composites.

A research team from China has developed a tuning strategy to enhance the conventional chiral seeded growth method. By incorporating a pre-incubation step involving seeds and chiral ligands, the team aimed to control the initial symmetry breaking by modulating their interactions. Under optimized incubation conditions, chiral plasmonic nanorods (CPNRs) exhibiting high chiroptical responses were successfully synthesized. These resulting CPNRs were used to explore the enhancement mechanism of silver ions in the plasmon-mediated oxidative coupling reaction of 4-aminothiophenol.