In order to identify the intervention targets for vascular calcification in diabetic atherosclerotic plaques, Prof. Zhongqun Wang's team at the Department of Cardiology, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University has performed spatial metabolomics and single-cell transcriptomics analyses on the anterior tibial arteries of diabetic foot amputations. Results indicated that the catabolism of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) was enhanced and the expression of BCAT2 (a key metabolic enzyme in the BCAA catabolic pathway) in VSMCs was increased in the calcified anterior tibial arteries of patients with diabetic foot undergoing amputation.

On-chip gas sensors are crucial for environmental and health monitoring but have struggled with high sensitivity. A team from PolyU has now developed a novel suspended chalcogenide waveguide photothermal spectroscopy that dramatically enhances the on-chip sensing performance. The chip-scale sensor achieves an unprecedented detection limit of 330 ppb for acetylene gas, a large dynamic range for 6 orders of magnitude, and fast response under 1 second, setting a new benchmark for integrated photonic gas sensors.

A nationwide Japanese registry analysis highlights a major gap in routine chronic kidney disease (CKD) care: metabolic acidosis is frequently missed because serum bicarbonate levels are rarely measured. In this study, it was found that half of the tested CKD patients presented low bicarbonate levels. Similar patterns in North America suggest a global issue. Because metabolic acidosis accelerates kidney decline and increases mortality, bicarbonate monitoring represents a simple, actionable opportunity to improve CKD outcomes in clinical practice.

After creating tiny biological “robots” or biobots, scientists have taken the quest to reimagine life forms a step further, adding nerve cells and observing how they self-organize and alter biobot behavior. The resulting neurobots take on new shapes and show unique behaviors. The researcher seek to understand the rules of self-organization for the nervous system, and ultimately how to work with those rules to guide neurons to new structures in the lab or restore existing tissues in the body.