Enzymes are essential in industries such as food production and pharmaceuticals, but natural enzymes often need improvements for commercial applications. Researchers in Japan have developed an in vitro selection platform, SMART, which could produce custom enzyme much more quickly and cost-effectively than conventional methods.

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have developed a method to differentiate the topography of medieval mountain castles from that of natural ridges using airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. This method is expected to be useful for detecting historically modified terrain, such as archaeological sites in mountainous regions, as well as for assessing the extent of topographic modifications and estimating the potential risk of landslides on modified slopes.

Researchers revealed how zinc levels control the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the cell’s primary protein factory, and how it fundamentally regulates cellular proteostasis. Using fluorescent probes, they found that the transporter ZIP7 keeps zinc levels in the ER low. When ZIP7 is disrupted, zinc level surges, inhibiting the enzyme Ero1 and disrupting the cell’s redox balance. This prevents proteins from folding correctly, leading to an array of pathologies including cancer.

Oxygen transport, a vital process for sustaining life, is carried out by red blood cells that deliver oxygen to tissues through microscopic capillary networks. Now, researchers from Kyushu University and Institute of Science Tokyo have developed a computational model that simulates this process by combining blood flow, chemical reactions, and oxygen consumption within one system. These simulations reveal that RBCs can adjust the amount of oxygen released based on surrounding oxygen levels, thereby maintaining a stable oxygen concentration across tissues.

Utilizing mice, researchers have identified the "organizer cells" responsible for building bone during fetal development. The study reveals a two-phase program led by RANKL-producing "organizer cells": early-stage septoclasts clear cartilage to create space, followed by LepR⁺ bone marrow stromal cells that sustain the marrow environment. This developmental blueprint is reactivated during fracture healing, offering a novel therapeutic target for bone diseases like osteoporosis by focusing on niche cells rather than the bone-destroying cells themselves.

An article published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters describes a new transient absorption microscope developed by a research group led by Prof. Toru Kondo at the National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB) / the Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems (ExCELLS) / SOKENDAI. This microscope integrates a unique optical alignment for single-objective absorption microscopy, a highly sensitive balanced detector, and lock-in-amplified detection, allowing femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption measurements to be performed continuously at a high repetition rate. Moreover, steady-state absorption and fluorescence measurements, i.e., simultaneous absorption and fluorescence imaging, can be performed. Furthermore, the fluorescence spectrum and lifetime can be acquired. The spatial resolution is ~300 nanometers, near the diffraction limit; the temporal resolution is less than 200 femtoseconds; and the detection sensitivity of the transient absorption signal is about 10^–7 in absorbance, approaching the single-molecule level.

Researchers from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Nagoya City University, and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science in Japan have discovered ion channel molecules that respond directly to extracellular potassium, revealing a similar potassium-binding mechanism in fruit flies and humans. This discovery may point to previously unexplored mechanisms for sensing extracellular K⁺ and its homeostasis, potentially leading to new therapeutic targets.