Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist Tomas Grejtak has received STLE’s Early Career Award, honoring high-impact research in tribology (friction, wear, and lubrication), and will be recognized at the society’s May 18–21 annual meeting in New Orleans. His work focuses on wear, friction, deformation, and contact mechanics in materials used in nuclear, biomass, and automotive systems.

Researchers from Dalian University of Technology have developed an innovative seismic protection system that combines segmented rocking trusses with multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMD) to significantly improve the earthquake resilience of high-rise steel buildings. The proposed system overcomes the limitations of conventional rocking structures that are primarily effective only for first-mode vibration control. By dividing the rocking truss into multiple segments along the building height and strategically placing MTMDs based on the structure's vibration characteristics, the new design achieves uniform deformation distribution, prevents weak-story failure mechanisms, and reduces maximum inter-story drift ratios by 7% to 29%. The findings, published in Lifeline Emergency and Safety, demonstrate that this hybrid approach effectively controls multi-order vibration mode damage while maintaining the self-centering advantages of traditional rocking systems.

The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) calls for effective solutions such as phage therapy. In China, phage therapy has been implemented in over 30 hospitals, treating more than 500 patients with multidrug-resistant infections. Phage therapy can currently be developed through two pathways: as a novel biomedical technology or as a new drug. However, regulatory ambiguity persists due to a lack of standardized quality criteria and clear approval frameworks. This article proposes a "standards first, pathway pilots, and industry cultivation" strategy. Key recommendations include developing national quality control guidelines for therapeutic phage preparations and clarifying the detailed guidelines for approval policies for new biomedical technologies, biologics, and advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). These efforts aim to enable safe and effective clinical translation, positioning China as a frontrunner in phage therapy and making significant contributions to the global response against AMR.

The intravenous infusion of mesenchymal stem cells from family donors is safe and improves symptoms such as pruritus (itching), sleep disturbances, and fatigue associated with Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa (RDEB), popularly known as "butterfly skin". This is one of the primary conclusions of a clinical trial conducted by researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT) of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Fundación Jiménez Díaz Health Research Institute (IIS-FJD), the CIBER Rare Diseases (CIBERER), and the La Paz University Hospital in Madrid.