Physicists at the University of Liège (Belgium) have succeeded in sculpting the surface of water by exploiting surface tension. Using 3D printing of closely spaced spines, they have combined menisci to create programmed liquid reliefs, capable of guiding particles under the action of gravity alone. This is a promising advance for microscopic transport and sorting, as well as marine pollution control.

Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage biotechnology company driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI), today announces the development of novel pan-KRAS inhibitors of new chemotypes through structure-based drug design, scaffold hopping combined with intense molecular modeling, empowered by the generative chemistry methods of Chemistry42, Insilico’s proprietary generative chemistry platform. Developed in the joint efforts of artificial intelligence and human expertise, the candidate compounds demonstrated pan-KRAS inhibition with potency in the upper nanomolar range. The results have been recently published on ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

Professor Marco Durante, Head of the Biophysics Department at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung and Professor at the Department of Physics at TU Darmstadt, Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, has been granted a prestigious European Union research funding award for established scientists: The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded him the renowned Advanced Grant. The biophysicist will be able to use the millions in funding to realize an ambitious research project to improve tumor therapy. As lead scientist and together with his team he will conduct research into even more effective treatments for cancer and investigate a promising radiotherapy method that uses ultra-short pulses of heavy ion beams with ultra-high dose rates.

For the second time, Würzburg chemistry professor Frank Würthner has received a prestigious award from the European Research Council: the ERC Advanced Grant is endowed with 2.5 million euros. The professor is pursuing an ambitious goal: he wants to synthesise schwarzites, novel carbon-based nanomaterials with unique properties.