MSU researchers use ‘smart’ bomb therapy to destroy breast cancer
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-May-2025 11:08 ET (1-May-2025 15:08 GMT/UTC)
A wife and husband professor team at Michigan State University are collaborating with researchers at the University of California, Riverside to create a new light-activated “smart” bomb to treat aggressive breast cancer.
Sophia Lunt, an MSU professor in biochemistry and molecular biology in the College of Natural Science, and Richard Lunt, an MSU professor and Johansen-Crosby Endowed Professor in Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering, along with Vincent Lavallo, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, have combined their expertise to help develop new light-sensitive chemicals called cyanine-carborane salts that are used in photodynamic therapy, or PDT, to destroy metastatic breast cancer tumors in mice with minimal side effects.
A research team led by Professor Xiaonan Wang from Tsinghua University has published a comprehensive review on AI-enhanced multi-scale smart systems for decarbonizing the chemical industry. The study, featured in Technology Review for Carbon Neutrality, explores innovations from micro-level materials discovery to macro-level industrial park optimization, highlighting how intelligent approaches enhance efficiency, sustainability, and carbon neutrality. It also examines cross-scale modeling for complex chemical processes and identifies key challenges such as data management and industrial integration. The review concludes with future research directions, advocating interdisciplinary strategies to drive the industry toward a greener and more efficient future.
A study from East China Normal University explores how Large Language Models (LLMs) can revolutionize education by automating teaching tasks. It highlights two key applications: generating customized materials and streamlining assessment. While LLMs reduce educators’ workload, human oversight remains crucial. The research suggests a collaborative model where teachers act as orchestrators and LLMs serve as assistants, ensuring AI integration enhances personalized education while maintaining instructional quality and adaptability.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) have developed an innovative method to study ultrafast magnetism in materials. They have shown the generation and application of magnetic field steps, in which a magnetic field is turned on in a matter of picoseconds.
An international research team coordinated at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) has developed mechanical metamaterials with a high elastic energy density. Highly twisted rods that deform helically provide these metamaterials with a high stiffness and enable them to absorb and release large amounts of elastic energy. The researchers conducted simple compression experiments to confirm the initial theoretical results. Their findings have been published in the science journal Nature. (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08658-z)