Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs) are key devices for achieving efficient "hydrogen-electricity" conversion. They have attracted significant attention due to their high energy conversion efficiency and zero carbon emissions. However, their core component, oxygen reduction/evolution (ORR/OER) electrocatalysts, still face challenges of activity and stability. Among them, platinum-group catalysts (such as Pt, Ir, Ru) are currently the most effective ORR/OER catalysts, but issues like their scarcity and high cost severely limit their large-scale utilization in PEMFCs/PEMWEs. Single-atom catalysts (SACs) and multi-atom catalysts (MACs), with their nearly 100% metal utilization rate and unique electronic structures, provide a new path for developing low-loading, high-activity, and high-stability platinum-group catalysts.

A phase 2 clinical trial showed burosumab, a targeted antibody therapy, safely restored phosphate balance in children and adults with fibrous dysplasia, a rare bone disorder associated with fractures and deformities. The therapy reduced abnormal bone turnover markers and improved mobility in severely affected children, including independent walking after full-time wheelchair use. The findings suggest that inhibition of fibroblast growth factor-23 may help reduce disability and improve physical function in patients with phosphate-wasting skeletal disease.

Osteosarcoma is an aggressive bone cancer characterized by high rate of recurrence and metastasis. In a new study, researchers show that restoring the RNA-editing enzyme adenosine deaminase acting on RNA 2 (ADAR2) slows tumor growth, reduces invasion, promotes bone-like differentiation, and improves chemotherapy sensitivity in cell and mouse models. The findings identify IGFBP7 RNA editing as a key mechanism underlying these effects, highlighting a potential differentiation-based treatment strategy for pediatric patients with bone cancer.

Achieving in situ dynamic tracking of neurotransmitters in the complex intestinal lumen remains a major technical challenge in gastroenterology and biosensing. The research team developed a general sensing architecture that integrates a one-dimensional nanoconductive network with supramolecular host-guest recognition, and on this basis constructed a stretchable electrochemical sensing platform. This platform offers a systematic solution to three key obstacles in the in situ detection of small molecules in the gut lumen: adaptation to mechanical deformation, suppression of biofouling, and selective recognition of structurally similar molecules. Using this framework, the team revealed for the first time the central role of enterochromaffin cells (ECs) in immune-mechanical signal integration by electrochemical strategy. Under stimulation by microbial mimetics and their metabolites, ECs integrate multiple external signals and reset their response threshold through dual regulation: enhancing neurotransmitter synthesis and storage while increasing sensitivity to mechanical stimulation.

The significance of this study lies not only in validating sensing performance in the intestinal setting, but also in proposing a practical strategy to address a long-standing and widely shared challenge in in vivo electrochemical monitoring. More importantly, by emphasizing the coordinated design of sensing material structure and function, this work moves beyond optimizing a single performance metric in stretchable devices and instead establishes a systematic framework for accurate chemical information acquisition in complex mechanical and biochemical environments. Although the intestinal lumen serves here as a particularly challenging validation scenario, the underlying design principles are expected to be applicable to other in vivo monitoring systems.

A novel combination of silybin and carvedilol is firstly confirmed to synergistically block hepatic stellate cell activation by targeting the Wnt4/β-catenin signaling pathway, and its 50:1 fixed ratio in vivo can reverse liver fibrosis in a dose-dependent manner, providing a scientific and practical experimental basis for the clinical translation of liver fibrosis therapy.

Researchers have successfully engineered an L-amino acid deaminase to overcome substrate inhibition, a major bottleneck in the biocatalytic production of phenylpyruvic acid. The study demonstrates an approximately 17-fold improvement in productivity at high substrate concentrations through strategic modification of the enzyme’s binding pocket.

Researchers have created an innovative paper-based analytical device that can detect microRNA-21—a biomarker associated with multiple cancers—using only a smartphone camera for readout, demonstrating a cost-effective platform with potential for point-of-care cancer diagnostics.