Tech

Photosynthetic organisms tap light for fuel, but sometimes there’s too much of a good thing.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis reveals the core structure of the light-harvesting antenna of cyanobacteria or blue-green algae — including key features that both collect energy and block excess light absorption. The study, published Jan. 6 in Science Advances, yields insights relevant to future energy applications.

Scientists built a model of the large protein complex called phycobilisome that collects and transmits light energy. Phycobilisomes allow cyanobacteria to take advantage of different wavelengths of light than other photosynthetic organisms, such as green plants on dry land.

This capability significantly increases global productivity from photosynthesis from across the solar energy spectrum — but it is fraught with risk.

“For cyanobacteria, excess light absorption is inevitable — and sometimes lethal,” said Haijun Liu, research scientist in chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University. Liu is the principal investigator and corresponding author of the new study, funded by the Department of Energy (DOE), Basic Energy Sciences.

“We’ve found interesting structural features in the interface where energy is transferred and regulated,” he said. “One of the regulatory processes called non-photochemical quenching is executed by a protein called orange carotenoid protein. A high-resolution structure of phycobilisome will allow us to understand such processes in detail.”

While researchers already knew that orange carotenoid protein helps protect cyanobacteria during high light conditions, they did not have a clear picture of all of the structural features at work.

They also did not know where and how orange carotenoid protein is sequestered in a living cyanobacteria cell.

“We were stunned when we first reached the current model,” Liu said. “We instantly noticed that an inactive orange carotenoid protein can actually get access to — or simply fit snugly in — the free space region between phycobilisome and PSII (the protein complex that receives energy from phycobilisome for photochemical reactions). Then it is ready to be recruited or activated by environmental cues.”

This structure was assembled by an all-Washington University team of analytical biochemists and structural biologists, including Himadri Pakrasi, the George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor in Arts & Sciences.

The team used structural proteomics in combination with structural modeling to resolve the structure. The method was first developed by Liu in Pakrasi’s lab a few years ago, in collaboration with members of a group led by Michael Gross, professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences and of immunology and internal medicine at the School of Medicine. The unique platform they created gave them significant advantages over other labs that had attempted to approach similar biological questions with electron microscope, cryo-electron microscope and other techniques.

The basic science groundwork in this new research helps explain how living organisms maximize photosynthetic efficiency during early events of photosynthesis. This theme was also supported by the Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC) at Washington University — one of 46 DOE Energy Frontier Research Centers, formerly directed by Robert E. Blankenship, the Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences Emeritus.

The new work will help future efforts to design biohybrid or synthetic systems that harness energy from light.

An analysis of 145 scholarly journals found that, among various factors that could contribute to gender bias and lesser representation of women in science, the peer review process itself is unlikely to be the primary cause of publishing inequalities. However, Flaminio Squazzoni and colleagues emphasize that the study does not account for many other factors that may affect women's representation in academia, including educational stereotypes and academic choices of priorities and specialties. Even as female representation has improved in fields such as the humanities, psychology, and the social sciences, a publication gap persists, with male authors continuing to publish more manuscripts in more prestigious journals. To better understand whether peer review and editorial processes contribute to these gender discrepancies, Squazzoni et al. leveraged an agreement on data sharing with several large scholarly publishers; the team includes authors from the publishing companies Elsevier, John Wiley & Sons, and Springer Nature. The researchers collected and analyzed almost 350,000 submissions to 145 journals by about 1.7 million authors, as well as more than 760,000 reviews completed by about 740,000 referees. The sampled journals were identified by publishers so as to maximize coverage of research fields, although journals from learned societies, among others, were not considered. They then analyzed each step of the editorial process for bias, including the selection of referees, referee recommendations, and the editorial decision for each manuscript. They also accounted for each submission's research field, its proportion of women authors, and the position of women in the author list, while controlling for the proportion of women among referees, journal impact factors, the number of authors per manuscript, and the type of peer review adopted by each journal (single-blind or double-blind). The authors note, however, that it was not possible to directly estimate the quality of each submission. Author gender did not appear to affect how frequently manuscripts were accepted in the life sciences and social sciences, while manuscripts with higher proportions of female authors were in fact more likely to succeed in biomedicine, health, and physical sciences. "Our findings do not mean that peer review and journals are free from biases," the authors write. "For instance, the reputation of certain authors and the institutional prestige of their academic affiliation, not to mention authors' ethnicity or the type of research submitted, could influence the process, and these factors could also have gender implications." The researchers note that collaborative data sharing efforts from funding agencies, academic institutions, and scholarly citation databases will be necessary to further elucidate how existing structures determine academic opportunities.

Step into your new, microscopic time machine. Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered that a type of single-celled organism living in modern-day oceans may have a lot in common with life forms that existed billions of years ago--and that fundamentally transformed the planet.

The new research, which will appear Jan. 6 in the journal Science Advances, is the latest to probe the lives of what may be nature's hardest working microbes: cyanobacteria.

These single-celled, photosynthetic organisms, also known as "blue-green algae," can be found in almost any large body of water today. But more than 2 billion years ago, they took on an extra important role in the history of life on Earth: During a period known as the "Great Oxygenation Event," ancient cyanobacteria produced a sudden, and dramatic, surge in oxygen gas.

"We see this total shift in the chemistry of the oceans and the atmosphere, which changed the evolution of life, as well," said study lead author Sarah Hurley, a postdoctoral research associate in the departments of Geological Sciences and Biochemistry. "Today, all higher animals need oxygen to survive."

To date, scientists still don't know what these foundational microbes might have looked like, where they lived or what triggered their transformation of the globe.

But Hurley and her colleagues think they might have gotten closer to an answer by drawing on studies of naturally-occurring and genetically-engineered cyanobacteria. The team reports that these ancient microbes may have floated freely in an open ocean and resembled a modern form of life called beta-cyanobacteria.

Studying them, the researchers said, offers a window into a time when single-celled organisms ruled the Earth.

"This research gave us the unique opportunity to form and test hypotheses of what the ancient Earth might have looked like, and what these ancient organisms could have been," said co-author Jeffrey Cameron, an assistant professor of biochemistry.

Take a breath

You can still make the case that cyanobacteria rule the planet. Hurley noted that these organisms currently produce about a quarter of the oxygen that comes from the world's oceans.

One secret to their success may lie in carboxysomes--or tiny, protein-lined compartments that float inside all living cyanobacteria. These pockets are critical to the lives of these organisms, allowing them to concentrate molecules of carbon dioxide within their cells.

"Being able to concentrate carbon allows cyanobacteria to live at what are, in the context of Earth's history, really low carbon dioxide concentrations," Hurley said.

Before the Great Oxidation Event, it was a different story. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere may have been as much as 100 times what they are today, and oxygen was almost nonexistent. For that reason, many scientists long assumed that ancient microorganisms didn't need carboxysomes for concentrating carbon dioxide.

"Cyanobacteria have persisted in some form over two billion years of Earth's history," she said. "They could have been really different than today's cyanobacteria."

To find out how similar they were, the researchers cultured jars filled with bright-green cyanobacteria under conditions resembling those on Earth 2 billion years ago.

Hurley explained that different types of cyanobacteria prefer to digest different forms, or "isotopes," of carbon atoms. As a result, when they grow, die and decompose, the organisms leave behind varying chemical signatures in ancient sedimentary rocks.

"We think that cyanobacteria were around billions of years ago," she said. "Now, we can get at what they were doing and where they were living at that time because we have a record of their metabolism."

Resurrecting zombie microbes

In particular, the team studied two different types of cyanobacteria. They included beta-cyanobacteria, which are common in the oceans today. But the researchers also added a new twist to the study. They attempted to bring an ancient cyanobacterium back from the dead. Hurley and her colleagues used genetic engineering to design a special type of microorganism that didn't have any carboxysomes. Think of it like a zombie cyanobacterium.

"We had the ability to do what was essentially a physiological resurrection in the lab," said Boswell Wing, a study coauthor and associate professor of geological sciences.

But when the researchers studied the metabolism of their cultures, they found something surprising: Their zombie cyanobacterium didn't seem to produce a chemical signature that aligned with the carbon isotope signatures that scientists had previously seen in the rock record. In fact, the best fit for those ancient signals were likely beta-cyanobacteria--still very much alive today.

The team, in other words, appears to have stumbled on a living fossil that was hiding in plain sight. And, they said, it's clear that cyanobacteria living around the time of the Great Oxygenation Event did have a structure akin to a carboxysome. This structure may have helped cells to protect themselves from growing concentrations of oxygen in the air.

"That modern organisms could resemble these ancient cyanobacteria--that was really counterintuitive," Wing said.

Scientists, they note, now have a much better idea of what ancient cyanobacteria looked like and where they lived. And that means that they can begin running experiments to dig deeper into what life was like in the 2 billion-year-old ocean.

"Here is hard evidence from the geological record and a model organism that can shed new light on life on ancient Earth," Cameron said.

Modelling study suggests that pregnant women in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, who are exposed to poor air quality, may be at higher risk of stillbirths and miscarriages.

An estimated 349,681 pregnancy losses per year in south Asia were associated with exposure to PM2.5 concentrations that exceeded India's air quality standard (more than 40 μg/m³), accounting for 7% of annual pregnancy loss in the region from 2000-2016.

First study to estimate the effect of air pollution on pregnancy loss across the region indicates that air pollution could be a major contributor to pregnancy loss in south Asia, so controlling air pollution is vital for improving maternal health.

However, limitations in the survey data mean the study was unable to distinguish between natural pregnancy loss and abortions, which may have led to an underestimation of the effect of air pollution on natural pregnancy loss.

Poor air quality is associated with a considerable proportion of pregnancy loss in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, according to a modelling study published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal.

Previous studies have suggested a link between air pollution and pregnancy loss in other regions, but this is the first study to quantify the burden in south Asia, which is the most populous region in the world and has the highest rate of pregnancy loss. [1,2,3] Therefore, understanding the risk factors for pregnancy loss in south Asia is crucial to improving maternal health regionally and globally.

Lead author on the study, Dr. Tao Xue, Peking University, China, says, "South Asia has the highest burden of pregnancy loss globally and is one of the most PM2.5 polluted regions in the world. Our findings suggest that poor air quality could be responsible for a considerable burden of pregnancy loss in the region, providing further justification for urgent action to tackle dangerous levels of pollution." [1]

One of the co-authors, Dr. Tianjia Guan, is from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. She says "We know losing a pregnancy can have knock-on mental, physical and economic effects on women, including increased risk of postnatal depressive disorders, infant mortality during subsequent pregnancy, and increase the costs related to pregnancy, such as loss of labour. Therefore, reducing pregnancy loss may also lead to knock-on improvements in gender equality." [1]

To carry out their analysis, the authors combined data from household surveys on health from 1998-2016 (from women who reported at least one pregnancy loss and one or more livebirths) and estimated exposure to PM2.5 during pregnancy through combining satellite with atmospheric modelling outputs. They created a model to examine how exposure to PM2.5 increased women's risk of pregnancy loss, calculating risk for each 10 μg/m³ increased in PM2.5 after adjusting for maternal age, temperature and humidity, seasonal variation, and long-term trends in pregnancy loss.

Using this association, they calculated the number of pregnancy losses that may have been caused by PM2.5 in the whole region for the period 2000-16 and looked at how many pregnancy losses might have been prevented under India's and WHO's air quality standard (40 μg/m³ and 10 μg/m³, respectively).

In the study, they included 34,197 women who had lost a pregnancy, including 27,480 miscarriages and 6,717 stillbirths, which were compared to livebirth controls. Of the pregnancy loss cases, 77% were from India, 12% from Pakistan, and 11% from Bangladesh.

Gestational exposure to PM2.5 was associated with an increased likelihood of pregnancy loss, and this remained significant after adjusting for other factors. Each increase in 10 μg/m³ was estimated to increase a mother's risk of pregnancy loss by 3%.

The increase in risk was greater for mothers from rural areas or those who became pregnant at an older age, compared to younger mothers from urban areas.

From 2000 to 2016, 349,681 pregnancy losses per year were associated with ambient exposure to air pollution exceeding India's air quality standard-- accounting for 7% of the total annual pregnancy loss burden in this region. For air pollution above WHO air quality guideline, exposure may have contributed to 29% of pregnancy losses. [4]

Although WHO's guidelines aims for a safer level of air pollution, the authors note that India's standard is a more realistic target level, given the high average levels of air pollution in the region and the need to balance practical governance and public health.

Pregnancy loss associated with air pollution was more common in the Northern plains region in India and Pakistan. Although the total burden of pregnancy loss was predominantly borne by rural women aged under 30 years old in recent years, the burden attributable to PM2.5 also affected older mothers (aged 30 years or over) in rural areas because of their high susceptibility to the adverse effects of PM2.5.

The authors note several limitations of their study. In the surveys, they were not able to distinguish between natural pregnancy loss and abortions and there was under-reporting of pregnancy losses because of stigma or ignoring very early pregnancy losses. They also note that the survey data is subject to recall bias, therefore, recommending the causality of the association should be further examined in longitudinal studies. In addition, satellite-based estimates of PM2.5 were used, this was necessary because insufficient local monitoring is available.

Chinese scientists have established the world's first integrated quantum communication network, combining over 700 optical fibers on the ground with two ground-to-satellite links to achieve quantum key distribution over a total distance of 4,600 kilometers for users across the country. The team, led by Jianwei Pan, Yuao Chen, Chengzhi Peng from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, reported in Nature their latest advances towards the global, practical application of such a network for future communications.

Unlike conventional encryption, quantum communication is considered unhackable and therefore the future of secure information transfer for banks, power grids and other sectors. The core of quantum communication is quantum key distribution (QKD), which uses the quantum states of particles--e.g. photons--to form a string of zeros and ones, while any eavesdropping between the sender and the receiver will change this string or key and be noticed immediately. So far, the most common QKD technology uses optical fibers for transmissions over several hundred kilometers, with high stability but considerable channel loss. Another major QKD technology uses the free space between satellites and ground stations for thousand-kilometer-level transmissions. In 2016, China launched the world's first quantum communication satellite (QUESS, or Mozi/Micius) and achieved QKD with two ground stations which are 2,600 km apart. In 2017, an over 2,000-km-long optical fiber network was completed for QKD between Beijing and Shanghai.

Using trusted relays, the ground-based fiber network and the satellite-to-ground links were integrated to serve more than 150 industrial users across China, including state and local banks, municipal power grids, and e-government websites. This work shows that quantum communication technology can be used for future large-scale practical applications. Similarly, a global quantum communication network can be established if national quantum networks from different countries are combined, and if universities, institutions and companies come together to standardize related protocols, hardware.

In the last couple of years, the team extensively tested and improved the performance of different parts of the integrated network. For instance, with an increased clock rate and more efficient QKD protocol, the satellite-to-ground QKD now has an average key generation rate of 47.8 kilobits per second, which is 40 times higher than the previous rate. The researchers have also pushed the record for ground-based QKD to beyond 500 km using a new technology called twin-field QKD (TF-QKD).

Next up, the team will further expand the network in China and with their international partners from Austria, Italy, Russia and Canada. They also aim to develop small-scale, cost-efficient QKD satellites and ground-based receivers, as well as medium and high earth orbit satellites to achieve all-time, ten-thousand-km-level QKD.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - There's no doubt the Earth's temperatures are going up. According to a December report by the World Meteorological Organization, 2020 is on track to be one of the three hottest years on record, already within the warmest decade to date. During the year's hottest months, many people rely on electricity-generated cooling systems to remain comfortable. But the power plants that keep air conditioners pushing out cold air could soon be in a vicious cycle in a warming world-not able to keep up with growing demands on hotter days and driving up greenhouse gas emissions to dangerous levels.

Ethan Coffel, assistant professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School, explores this power and climate struggle in the research paper, "Thermal power generation is disadvantaged in a thermal world." The work published in the scientific journal Environmental Research Letters. Professor Coffel answered five questions about the new findings and how warming temperatures will impact every part of our power infrastructure.

Q: Can you describe your research?

A: We show that the thermal power plants that currently generate most of our electricity are already having to reduce their electricity output on hot days due to cooling limitations. On the hottest days, power plant capacity can be reduced by more than 10 percent because the air and water that are used to cool the plants is too warm. This lost generation capacity is a problem because these hot days are when electricity is most needed to run air conditioners.

As global warming makes heat waves more frequent, intense and long, the negative effects of heat on power plants will become more pronounced. With 2 degrees Celsius of global warming-the upper target agreed to in the 2015 Paris Accord-power plant outages on hot days could nearly double from today's level.

Q: In conducting your research, in what ways or specific examples did you find climate change impacting human systems?

A: Our work demonstrates a harmful interaction between human adaptation and infrastructure vulnerability in a warming world. As hot days become more frequent, more people will want air conditioners to protect themselves from unpleasant and dangerous heat. But, these air conditioners need electricity, which further increases the greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming! And further, more A/C will increase electricity demand at the same time as heat is reducing the output of power plants, potentially straining the electricity grid in some places.

Q: What does your research reveal or uncover about future global electricity production?

A: We find that thermal power generation will be disadvantaged in a warmer world. By the middle of the century, we find that 100-200 additional average-sized global power plants could be required to make up for the electricity generation capacity lost due to heat. Transitioning the electricity sector to renewables-especially wind and solar-will not only reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, but will also reduce the negative impacts of global warming on our power infrastructure.

Q: So much attention is put on governments, companies, cities, etc. and their contributions to global warming. Are there smaller things individuals and families can and should focus on?

A: While individual steps are no substitute for strong national policy action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there are many things individuals can do, both large and small. Some big steps people can take are installing solar panels on their homes, replacing gas or oil furnaces with electric heat pumps, replacing an old vehicle with an electric car, or replacing a gas stove with an electric model. These infrastructure investments can significantly reduce someone's individual emissions (and keep those emissions low for years to come).

Smaller steps include flying just a bit less, driving a bit less or eating a bit less meat. These individual actions are important because they encourage others around you to take climate-friendly steps to reduce their emissions too.

Q: What should policymakers be doing now to prepare for warming threats and its impact to our electricity supply? What options would you suggest?

A: To meet the Paris Accord target of 1.5-2 degrees Celsius of global warming, global greenhouse gas emissions need to reach net zero by mid-century. Achieving this goal would require extremely large investments in renewable energy, electric vehicles and changes to land management. These changes are starting to happen, but not nearly fast enough.

We are very fortunate that major progress has been made to reduce the cost of wind and solar power-these zero-carbon electricity sources are now often cheaper than fossil fuels. So making the transition away from coal, oil and gas not only makes climate sense, but also economic sense. However, we are already feeling the impacts of global warming.

Governments should be preparing for the large increases in electricity demand that will come with increased temperatures and A/C use, and ensuring that electricity supplies are sufficient to meet this rising power demand, even after accounting for the reduced power output of thermal power plants on hot days.

Ling Li, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, has found insights into building stronger and tougher ceramics by studying the shells of bivalve mollusks.

This perspective is formed by looking at the capacity of the basic mineral building blocks in the shell to anticipate fractures, instead of focusing only on the shape and chemistry of the structure. The results of his group's findings were published in the Nov. 10, 2020, issue of Nature Communications.

Li's team conducted an in-depth analysis of the microscopic structures of the shells of pen shell mollusks, bivalves native to the Caribbean. The shells of these animals consist of two layers, an inner nacre layer and a brown-colored outer layer. The inner nacre layer, also known as mother-of-pearl, is often iridescent due to its regular nanoscopic layering structure, similar to the coloration mechanism for many bottlefly wings.

Li's team focused their attention to the outer layer, which is composed of prism-shaped calcite crystals arranged in a mosaic pattern. Between adjacent mineral crystals, very thin (approximately 0.5 micrometers, less than one-hundredth the size of a human hair) organic interfaces are present that glue the crystals together. The calcite crystals measure approximately half a millimeter in length and 50 micrometers in diameter, resembling elongated prisms.

Unlike many geological or synthetic crystals, where the atoms within their crystalline grains are perfectly arranged in a periodic fashion, the calcite crystals in the pen shells contain many nanoscopic defects, primarily composed of organic substances.

"You can consider the biological ceramic, in this case the pen shells' calcite crystals, as a composite structure, where many nanosized inclusions are distributed within its crystalline structure," said Li. "This is especially remarkable as the calcite crystal itself is still a single crystal."

Normally, the presence of structural defects means a site of potential failure. This is why the normal approach is to minimize the structural discontinuities or stress concentrations in engineering structures. However, Li's team shows that the size, spacing, geometry, orientation, and distribution of these nanoscale defects within the biomineral is highly controlled, improving not only the structural strength but also the damage tolerance through controlled cracking and fracture.

When these shells are subjected to an outside force, the crystal minimizes plastic yielding by impeding the dislocation motion, a common mode for plastic deformation in pure calcite, aided by those internal nanoscopic defects. This strengthening mechanism has been applied in many structural metal alloys, such as aluminum alloy.

In addition to adding strength, this design allows the structure to use its crack patterns to minimize damage into the inner shell. The mosaic-like interlocking pattern of the calcite crystals in the prism layer further contains large-scale damage when the external force is spread across the individual crystals. The structure is able to crack to dissipate the external loading energy without failing.

"Clearly these nanoscopic defects are not a random structure, but instead, play a significant role in controlling the mechanical properties of this natural ceramic", said Li. "Through the mechanisms discovered in this study, the organism really turns the originally weak and brittle calcite to a strong and durable biological armor. We are now experimenting possible fabrication processing, such as 3D printing, to implement these strategies to develop ceramic composites with enhanced mechanical properties for structural applications."

In a paper published by the journal Matter, engineers from the University of Surrey together with partners from Harvard University, University of Science and Technology of China, UK National Physical Laboratory, George Washington University and Zhejiang University Ningbo Research Institute report on how they have developed a breakthrough sensor system and manufacturing process.

The global team of engineers reveal that the new contact lens sensor system contains a photodetector for receiving optical information, a temperature sensor for diagnosing potential corneal disease and a glucose sensor for directly monitoring the glucose levels in tear fluid.

Dr Shiqi Guo, the first author of this study and current postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University, said:

"Our ultra-thin sensor layer is different from the conventional smart contact lenses -- with their rigid or bulk sensors and circuit chips that are sandwiched between two contact lens layers and make contact with tear fluids via microfluidic sensing channels. This new layer could instead be mounted onto a contact lens and maintain direct contact with tears, thanks to its easy assembly, high detection sensitivity, good biocompatibility and mechanical robustness; further, it doesn't interfere with either blinking or vision."

Professor Sheng Zhang, co-author from Zhejiang University, said:

"This multifunctional contact lens with field-effect transistors can provide diversified signals from eyes, which could be combined with advanced data analysis algorithms to provide personalised and accurate medical analysis for users. This kind of research will also become one of the major research directions at the Ningbo Research Institute."

Dr Yunlong Zhao, the co-author of this study and Lecturer in Energy Storage and Bioelectronics at the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI), University of Surrey, said:

"The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on the entire scientific community, with many of us asking how our work could help those suffering from similar future medical emergencies. We are confident that devices that utilise our sensor layer system could be used as a non-invasive way to help monitor and diagnose people's health. Our results provide not only a unique and simple method for manufacturing advanced smart contact lenses but also novel insight for designing other multifunctional electronics for human-machine interface."

Musical masterworks as the Queen of the Night's Aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute, are examples of the sounds trained human voices can produce. The precondition for vocal virtuosity as well as for any spoken word is vocal learning, the ability to imitate auditory input. Some songbirds and bats can do this, but humans excel. We can acquire new languages into old age. To shed light on the evolution of vocal learning, a team led by Julia Fischer from the German Primate Center (DPZ) - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research has analyzed the sound structures of Guinea baboons and was able to show that the grunts of baboons belonging to the same social group were more similar to each other than between the social groups. The changes were modest, however, and can best be conceived as an accent rather than a different language (Proceedings of the Royal Society B).

Vocal learning is the basis of all language learning and much research effort has been devoted to uncover the evolutionary roots of this ability. Whether or not our closest living relatives show evidence for vocal learning has been the subject of much debate. Guinea baboons are an interesting model to address the question whether social and auditory experience shapes their call characteristics, because the species lives in a nested multi-level society. Several affiliated males with associated females and young form "parties", and two to three "parties" form a "gang".

During affiliative interactions with other group members, males utter low-frequency grunts, indicating their benign intent. The team led by Julia Fischer studied the acoustic structure of these grunts in relation to group membership, while controlling for relatedness. The scientists found that the grunts of males belonging to the same social level, namely the same gang or party, were on average more similar to each other than grunts of males from different social level.

Genetic relatedness could not explain the similarity of the grunts. The researchers therefore attribute the baboons' "accent" to a simple form of vocal learning, in which the auditory experience facilitates the production of calls that sound more like those of the other males' in the group. "People do this also: they often involuntarily adjust the tempo or their pitch to be more similar to that of the person you are talking to, says Julia Fischer. In humans, this is known as vocal accommodation. "Such effects seem to be shared between nonhuman primates and humans. But it is a far cry from learning to say the first word - or master an entire language. It is important to distinguish between different forms of vocal learning to really develop a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of speech," Julia Fischer concludes.

The Earth is populated by an increasing number of  people who demand more and more products, which is simply not viable in the long run. Our planet does not have unlimited resources. Emissions are harming the environment in various ways.

More companies thus need to switch to more sustainable production, sometimes due to pressure from consumers, but often resulting from new rules imposed by the authorities.

But this kind of change can't ever pay off - or can it?

A new study by a research group from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has reviewed 100 articles on how sustainably oriented innovation affects companies' competitiveness.

"The majority of the studies find that sustainable innovation has a positive effect on company competitiveness," says PhD candidate Fanny Hermundsdottir in the academic group for Strategy and Business Development in the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management.

Sixty-four of the 100 articles concluded that sustainable innovation has a positive effect.

Twenty-nine of the articles showed mixed results - negative, positive and neutral.

Five of the articles offered no conclusion.

Two of the articles found negative effects.

The new NTNU study includes the results of many different studies, which use several distinct methods to measure sustainability and profitability. The answer is largely the same across the board: innovation and sustainability often pay off.

But innovation and development cost money and people. How are these results possible?

Hermundsdottir says the positive effects are not wishful thinking. "Innovation often results in increased value creation, reduced costs and other benefits," she says. "The sustainable shift opens up countless new business opportunities that companies can benefit from tremendously."

Arild Aspelund, a professor in NTNU's Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, says the number of customers who are willing to pay extra for sustainability is growing. "We're seeing this in the corporate market where sustainability is now usually a purchasing criterion that reduces the one-sided focus on price," he says.

The article reviews 188 different connections between sustainable innovation and value creation. Of these, 120 have positive effects. Only 14 are negative.

"Sure, we can discuss the validity of the finding that sustainability is profitable. However, this study shows that a lot of empirical research suggests just that. If we consider the opposite hypothesis, that sustainability only entails increased costs, then we find very little empirical research out there to support that claim," Aspelund says.

New thinking can lead to raw materials being used more efficiently, for example. At the same time, it can lead to the company using less energy, petroleum and water, or using smaller land areas to produce the same amount of products.

A thorough review of production processes can in any case lead to more cost-effective methods. Maybe the company can use other more environmentally friendly - or even recycled - materials, or it figures out how to use less packaging.

The changes, along with the new status as a more environmentally friendly company, can also open up new markets among environmentally conscious customers.

Aspelund points out that more and more consumers are willing to pay extra for sustainable products and services.

"This value is especially prevalent among young consumers, and is spreading really quickly. So in that sense, the results aren't surprising," he says.

In addition to the fact that innovation quite simply can be profitable in the long run, companies may not have any other choice when the authorities impose new requirements on them, such as for cleaning or recycling. Then be ahead of the competition might be the profitable option.

"Traditionally, companies have seen restructuring towards sustainability as a financial burden. But our findings indicate that this traditional view isn't true. So the question is no longer whether sustainable innovation pays off, but rather how innovation can take place in the best possible way," says Hermundsdottir.

Admittedly, results will differ a lot from company to company, which the background material also indicates. National, market, industrial and business factors have a major impact on the results. The connections are also very complicated, and what works for some will not necessarily work for others.

Often considered the world's oddest mammal, Australia's beaver-like, duck-billed platypus exhibits an array of bizarre characteristics: it lays eggs instead of giving birth to live babies, sweats milk, has venomous spurs and is even equipped with 10 sex chromosomes. Now, an international team of researchers led by University of Copenhagen has conducted a unique mapping of the platypus genome and found answers regarding the origins of a few of its stranger features.

It lays eggs, but nurses, it is toothless, has a venomous spur, has webbed feet, fur that glows and has 10 sex chromosomes. Ever since Europeans discovered the platypus in Australia during the late 1700's, the quirky, duck-billed, semiaquatic creature has baffled scientific researchers.

Modern day researchers are still trying to understand how the platypus -- often considered to be the world's oddest mammal -- got to be so unique. Their understandings have now advanced, to a great degree. For the first time, an international team of researchers, led by University of Copenhagen biologists, has mapped a complete platypus genome. The study is published in the scientific journal, Nature.

"The complete genome has provided us with the answers to how a few of the platypus' bizarre features emerged. At the same time, decoding the genome for platypus is important for improving our understanding of how other mammals evolved -- including us humans. It holds the key as to why we and other eutheria mammals evolved to become animals that give birth to live young instead of egg-laying animals," explains Professor Guojie Zhang of the Department of Biology.

The platypus belongs to an ancient group of mammals -- monotremes -- which existed millions of years prior to the emergence of any modern-day mammal.

"Indeed, the platypus belongs to the Mammalia class. But genetically, it is a mixture of mammals, birds and reptiles. It has preserved many of its ancestors' original features -- which probably contribute to its success in adapting to the environment they live in," says Professor Zhang.

Lays eggs, sweats milk and has no teeth

One of the platypus' most unusual characteristics is that, while it lays eggs, it also has mammary glands used to feed its babies, not through nipples, but by milk -- which is sweat from its body.

During our own evolution, we humans lost all three so-called vitellogenin genes, each of which is important for the production of egg yolks. Chickens on the other hand, continue to have all three. The study demonstrates that platypuses still carry one of these three vitellogenin genes, despite having lost the other two roughly 130 million years ago. The platypus continues to lay eggs by virtue of this one remaining gene. This is probably because it is not as dependent on creating yolk proteins as birds and reptiles are, as platypuses produce milk for their young.

In all other mammals, vitellogenin genes have been replaced with casein genes, which are responsible for our ability to produce casein protein, a major component in mammalian milk. The new research demonstrates that the platypus carries casein genes as well, and that the composition of their milk is thereby quite similar to that of cows, humans and other mammals.

"It informs us that milk production in all extant mammal species has been developed through the same set of genes derived from a common ancestor which lived more than 170 million years ago -- alongside the early dinosaurs in the Jurassic period," says Guojie Zhang.

Another trait that makes the platypus so unique is that, unlike the vast majority of mammals, it is toothless. Although this monotremes' nearest ancestors were toothed, the modern platypus is equipped with two horn plates that are used to mash food. The study reveals that the platypus lost its teeth roughly 120 million years ago, when four of the eight genes responsible for tooth development disappeared.

Only animal with 10 sex chromosomes

Yet another platypus oddity investigated by the researchers was how their sex is determined. Both humans and every other mammal on Earth have two sex chromosomes that determine sex - the X and Y chromosome system in which XX is female and XY is male. The monotremes, however, including our duck-billed friends from Down Under, have 10 sex chromosomes, with five Y and five X chromosomes.

Thanks to the near-complete chromosomal level genomes, researchers can now suggest that these 10 sex chromosomes in the ancestors of the monotremes were organized in a ring form which was later broken away into many small pieces of X and Y chromosomes. At the same time, the genome mapping reveals that the majority of monotreme sex chromosomes have more in common with chickens than with humans. But what it shows, is an evolutionary link between mammals and birds.

PLATYPUS FACTS

The platypus is endemic to eastern Australia and Tasmania. It is a protected species and classified by the IUCN as near-threatened.

Among the reasons why platypuses are considered mammals: they have mammary glands, grow hair and have three bones in their middle ears. Each trait helps to define a mammal.

The platypus belongs to the mammalian order monotreme, so named because monotremes use a singular opening for urination, defecation and sexual reproduction.

The animal is an excellent swimmer and spends much of its time hunting for insects and shellfish in rivers.

Its distinctive beak is filled with electrical sensors which are used to locate prey in muddy river beds.

The male platypus has a venomous spur behind each of its hind legs. The venom is poisonous enough to kill a dog and is deployed when males fight for territory.

Another 2020 study demonstrated that platypus fur is fluorescent. The animal's brown fur reflects a blue-green color when placed under UV light. (source: https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2020-0027)

ABOUT THE STUDY

Advanced gene sequencing technology that combines numerous cutting-edge methods has allowed the research team to map a near-complete genome at the chromosomal level from both the platypus and its cousin, the echidna-- the only two currently living types of monotreme animals. The gene data fills in 90 percent of the gaps in previous genetic mappings. Over 96% of the genome sequences are placed in the chromosomes now.

The researchers have compared the monotreme genes and genomes from chickens, humans, rats, Tasmanian devils and lizards.

In addition to Yang Zhou (lead author) and Guojie Zhang of the University of Copenhagen, the research was carried out by, among others: Linda Shearwin-Whyatt of The University of Adelaide (Australia) and Jing Li of Zhejiang University (China). A complete list of the authors can be found in the research article.

The study has just been published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature.

2020 was an eventful year, with science at the front and center of most news cycles. As this seemingly long year wraps up, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, is highlighting the biggest chemistry stories, top research trends and predictions for the coming year.

Predictably, research on the novel coronavirus was the biggest chemistry story of the year, beginning in January when the genetic code for SARS-CoV-2 was published. Since then, thousands of papers have been published on the subject, with topics like mask efficacy, disinfectants and virus transmission getting the most attention. Other popular chemistry subjects included new insights about the atmospheres of other planets and how climate change fueled the year's wildfires. New lab tools and discoveries also caught the attention of C&EN editors, including a magnetic stir bar that measures a solution while it mixes, a mobile robot that can do the lab's "grunt work," a 3D printed fluorescent material considered the world's brightest and a metallic berry that could help researchers design new materials.

With 2020 in the rearview mirror, C&EN asked experts to weigh in on what might be in store for the coming year. Predictions for 2021 include advances in artificial intelligence, connectivity and automation, as well as increased interdisciplinary projects, all of which will help tackle big issues in a socially distanced world. Other guesses include new technologies that will make urban water supplies safer and increase recycling capabilities while reducing energy use. The ongoing pandemic also has researchers applying lessons learned from 2020 into the new year, from chemistry education strategies to the key role of nanoscience in scientific collaboration.

New York City, January 6, 2021 - CytoDel, Inc. ("CytoDel" or "the Company"), a privately-held corporation, today announces the publication of preclinical data on the Company's lead product, Cyto-111, in the peer-reviewed journal, Science Translational Medicine. The complete text of the article titled, "Neuronal Delivery of Antibodies has Therapeutic Effects in Animal Models of Botulism," can be found here.

Cyto-111 was conceived, expressed and purified in the laboratory of Konstantin Ichtchenko, Ph.D., NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, who was a principal investigator in the study, which was supported by grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Based on Dr. Ichtchenko's hypothesis that the C1ad delivery vehicle previously reported could be used to transport therapeutic proteins into the neuronal cytosol, researchers led by Dr. Ichtchenko developed and tested a potential treatment for botulism based on intracellular inhibition of the BoNT subtype A1 light chain metalloprotease (LC/A1). The main objective of the study was to develop and test a post-symptomatic botulism antidote that could rescue symptomatic animals challenged with a lethal dose of BoNT. Following in vitro validation of therapeutic mechanisms, efficacy studies were conducted in mice, guinea pigs and rhesus macaque monkeys.

The study showed that a precision biotherapeutic consisting of a function-blocking single domain antibody (sdAb; B8) cargo fused to the C1ad delivery vehicle (forming B8C1ad or Cyto-111) can enter neurons and protect SNARE proteins by inhibiting LC/A1 catalytic activity in situ. Post-symptomatic administration of B8C1ad produced antidotal rescue in mice, guinea pigs, and non-human primates following a lethal botulism challenge.

According to the study's authors, "The flexibility of the C1ad molecular delivery platform offers several advantages for the rapid generation of new treatments for neurological disorders. In particular, the presynaptic localization of LC suggests this therapeutic approach will be particularly effective in treating synaptopathies involving active zone proteins. Indeed, the platform can be efficiently redirected towards other protein targets by replacing or adding single domain antibodies or other protein moieties."

The study concluded that, "These data demonstrate that atoxic BoNT derivatives can be harnessed to deliver therapeutic protein moieties to the neuronal cytoplasm where they bind and neutralize intracellular targets in experimental models. The generalizability of this platform might enable delivery of antibodies and other protein-based therapeutics to previously inaccessible intraneuronal targets."

"This is a landmark study in converting the power of lethal botulinum neurotoxins into therapies. The approach used to turn botulinum toxin into a kind of Trojan horse that delivers a cargo into neurons has enormous potential for future drug development," noted Thomas C. Südhof, M.D., Professor in the School of Medicine in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and in Neurology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, a 2013 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology/ Medicine, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and Chair of CytoDel's Scientific Advisory Board.

"We are delighted to have these data published in a well-respected peer-reviewed journal as they represent the culmination of many years of research with the intent of finding a solution to effectively treat weaponized botulinum toxins. Importantly, these groundbreaking data are the result of the efforts of researchers from a number of renowned institutions including NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, and the US Army Medical Research Institute for Chemical Defense, without whose hard work and dedication this achievement would not have been possible," commented Phillip A. Band, Ph.D., Research Professor in the Departments of Orthopedic Surgery, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and co-inventor, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of CytoDel.

"Not only did these studies show that Cyto-111 can be an antidote to botulinum toxins, but they demonstrate the generalizability of the molecular vehicle in three different species to safely and effectively deliver functional antibodies to the inside of neurons via a non-viral mechanism. This is a particularly exciting breakthrough as no other labs have previously inactivated a pathogen inside of neurons, which are inaccessible to standard antibodies. This achievement opens the door for the development of new approaches to treat multiple neurological diseases," added Dr. Band.

Drug-resistant bacteria could lead to more deaths than cancer by 2050, according to a report commissioned by the United Kingdom in 2014 and jointly supported by the U.K. government and the Wellcome Trust. In an effort to reduce the potential infection-caused 10 million deaths worldwide, Penn State researcher Scott Medina has developed a peptide, or small protein, that can target a specific pathogen without damaging the good bacteria that bolsters the immune system.

Medina, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, led the team who published its results Jan. 4 in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

"One of the best protective mechanisms we have to prevent infection are beneficial bacteria that inhabit our bodies, known as commensals," Medina said. "For example, we often avoid food poisoning because our guts are already populated by helpful bacteria. There's no room for the pathogen to take hold and colonize. If you wipe out the good bacteria, opportunistic pathogens can take advantage and cause infections."

Antibiotics can knock out an infection, but they can also kill off good bacteria, creating an opportunity for a potentially fatal secondary infection. Repeated exposure to antibiotics can also breed bacteria resistant to drugs. The potential for secondary infection and drug-resistant bacteria holds true for infections elsewhere in the body, too, according to Medina.

Led by biomedical engineering doctoral student Andrew W. Simonson, first author on the paper, the team set out to develop a peptide that could eradicate the pathogen that causes tuberculosis (TB), one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide, without harming surrounding good bacteria.

"There are great control strategies and treatments in place for tuberculosis, making it largely preventable and treatable, but drug-resistant TB is an emerging threat that is on track to becoming a serious global health problem," Medina said. "It's a scary prospect."

To develop a pathogen-specific antibacterial against TB, the researchers looked to the pathogen itself. The TB pathogen is wrapped in a thick envelope that is difficult to penetrate, especially compared to other bacteria.

"The envelope has pores, though -- channels through which the pathogen takes in nutrients and metabolites," Medina said. "We asked if we could mimic these channels to design antibacterials that would create holes in the bacterial envelope, and ultimately kill the pathogen."

The researchers made a peptide that seems to disrupt the protective outer coating of the pathogen, making the TB bacteria susceptible to antibiotics and die, but it does not interact with the good bacteria. Medina said they are currently studying the exact mechanism by which the peptide attacks the TB pathogen, but they suspect it has something to do with a fatty acid that lives on the pathogen's surface.

"There aren't many biochemical differences between the targeted pathogen and good bacteria, except for this surface lipid," Medina said. "We think the interaction of our peptide with this fatty acid is one of the things driving this preferential interaction."

He also pointed to the bacteria's thin carbohydrate region. In other types of bacteria, the carbohydrates form a thick defensive barrier that appears to insulate the bacteria against the peptide.

"It's not entirely clear why this works, but it's working on TB," Medina said. "There's a 10-fold improvement on the effectiveness of antibiotics on this pathogen relative to the other good bacteria."

Next, the researchers plan to investigate how to administer the peptide to treat TB in a full model system. Peptides tend to break down when injected, Medina said, so his team is working to develop an aerosol that would allow a person to inhale the peptides directly to the infected lung tissue.

"Once we understand why this peptide targets TB, and how to administer the peptide as a viable therapeutic, we can use this platform to design antibacterials toward other lung pathogens," Medina said.

A large scale study from Bentley University of the biotechnology companies that completed Initial Public Offerings from 1997-2016 estimates that 78% of these companies are associated with products that reach phase 3 trials and 52% are associated with new product approvals. The article, titled "Late-stage product development and approvals by biotechnology companies after IPO, 1997-2016," shows that these emerging, public biotechnology companies continue to have a role in initiating new product development, but are no longer distinctively focused on novel, biological products.

The new report from the Center for Integration of Science and Industry at Bentley University, published in Clinical Therapeutics, studied the 319 biotechnology companies focused on new drug development that completed Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) from 1997-2016. These companies contributed to development of 367 products that progressed to phase 3 and 144 new drug approvals through 2016, including 78 New Molecular Entities (NMEs). Key point of the study include:

For 70% of the approved products, development was initiated by the biotech company;

77% were developed with corporate partners and 87% were ultimately launched by a pharmaceutical partner or after an acquisition;

Seven products achieved annual sales of more than $1 billion during the study period;

Small molecule drugs, rather than traditional biological products (proteins, cells) comprised 75% of products reaching phase 3 and 78% of approvals.

Reformulations of existing products represented 36% of phase 3 products and 46% of approvals.

These biotech companies contributed to 16% of all New Molecular Entities approved 1997-2016 and 28% of biological approvals.

"We see that over two decades, the majority of newly public biotechnology companies are able to successfully initiate development of products that progress to late stage development or approval, most of which are ultimately brought to market by established pharmaceutical firms." " said Dr. Fred Ledley, Director of the Center for Integration of Science and Industry. "Our study also shows that the product portfolio of biotech companies is no longer distinctively focused on novel biological products or methods, but encompasses a wide range of small molecules and reformulations."

This study is one part of a large survey of the finances and late-stage product portfolios of companies with IPOs from 1997-2016, which show that, by the end of 2016, these companies had both created ~$100 billion in shareholder value and spawned 144 new products. While very few of these companies matured into fully integrated pharmaceutical companies, the long term economic performance of these biotech companies, in terms of market capitalization, shareholder value, fraction of companies acquired, and fraction of companies trading or sold above their IPO value, is similar to that of non-biotech companies with concurrent IPOs. Together these studies suggest that the risk of investing in public biotechnology companies is, in part, mitigated by this diversification into technologies with shorter times from IPO to approval and higher probabilities of success.