Prof. GAO Caixia from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and her collaborators proposed an integrated framework that combines biotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize crop breeding.

A team led by Prof. DOU Xincun at the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences synthesized a new covalent organic framework (COF)—a crystalline material made of a light element such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, or oxygen, which can be customized at the molecular level. Using the new COF—dubbed tDACH—the researchers inserted cyclohexane-based linkers as conjugation "breakpoints," thereby engineering π-conjugated domains that enable intrinsic exciton confinement at the molecular scale.

Theanine, a distinctive amino acid responsible for the rich flavor and calming properties of tea, is surprisingly sensitive to the level of phosphorus in soil. 

Pancreatic cancer cachexia is a devastating syndrome marked by unintentional weight loss, skeletal muscle wasting, and metabolic dysfunction that severely impairs patient outcomes. Affecting over 60% of pancreatic cancer patients, cachexia contributes to reduced quality of life, therapy intolerance, and high mortality. In a new comprehensive review published in hLife, researchers from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health highlight how this condition arises not from malnutrition alone, but through complex systemic crosstalk among multiple organs. The review provides a detailed account of the biological drivers of cachexia—including inflammatory cytokines, TGF-β family ligands, catabolic mediators, and tumor-derived extracellular vesicles—and their roles in orchestrating multi-organ deterioration. It also explores cutting-edge animal models and proposes potential therapeutic targets that could disrupt the vicious cycle of body wasting. This work lays a foundation for future clinical strategies to diagnose, monitor, and treat cachexia as a systemic disease.