EurekAlert! News by Subject: Tech & Engineering - News by Subject: Tech & Engineering

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 20-Aug-2025 21:11 ET (21-Aug-2025 01:11 GMT/UTC)

C-Path’s predictive safety testing consortium advances a transformative test to detect drug induced liver injury

Critical Path Institute (C-Path)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from Critical Path Institute’s Predictive Safety Testing Consortium have proposed glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) as a more liver-specific biomarker for detecting liver injury, supporting clearer decision-making. Currently, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase are considered the “gold standard” biomarkers in clinical practice and drug development. However, these biomarkers are not specific to the liver and can reflect changes in other tissues, which may lead to unclear diagnoses, particularly in individuals with muscle conditions or muscle-related drug side effects. By contrast, GLDH offers greater specificity to the liver, addressing this critical limitation.

Journal: Toxicological Sciences

Professor receives pilot funding to conduct study to increase forest farming in Appalachia

Virginia Tech
Grant and Award Announcement

The $500,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission wants to improve economic development in the region through sustainable non-timber forest farming practices.

New mechanism revealed: How saline water drives permafrost thawing

Peking University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Peking University, April 17, 2025: Using permafrost melting as a model system, Xu Ke's research team from the Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, Peking University, has made significant progress in the theory of solid-liquid phase transition in porous media. The related findings were recently published in Science Advances.

Journal: Science Advances

The UMA will coordinate an international consortium that will hasten the use of cement as a carbon sink

University of Malaga
Grant and Award Announcement

The University of Malaga has been selected for the first time ever to coordinate an innovation project under the Horizon Europe - European Innovation Council (EIC), `Pathfinder Challenges’ programme, which promotes initiatives that "open new scientific frontiers and revolutionise technology." In total, 31 of the 415 proposals submitted from 48 countries, will be funded. Eight have been granted in Spain.The University of Malaga has been selected for the first time ever to coordinate an innovation project under the Horizon Europe - European Innovation Council (EIC), `Pathfinder Challenges’ programme, which promotes initiatives that "open new scientific frontiers and revolutionise technology." In total, 31 of the 415 proposals submitted from 48 countries, will be funded. Eight have been granted in Spain.The University of Malaga has been selected for the first time ever to coordinate an innovation project under the Horizon Europe - European Innovation Council (EIC), `Pathfinder Challenges’ programme, which promotes initiatives that "open new scientific frontiers and revolutionise technology." In total, 31 of the 415 proposals submitted from 48 countries, will be funded. Eight have been granted in Spain.

AI in a mini-lab or putting precision to the test

ETH Zurich
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New miniature laboratories are ensuring that artificial intelligence (AI) doesn’t make mistakes. They provide a controlled test environment where algorithms and AI models can be checked before being put to work under real-life conditions. The aim is for AI to work reliably.

Journal: Nature Machine Intelligence

Understanding the energy transition: How models shape the future

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
Grant and Award Announcement

How does scientific model-building influence the energy transition – and with it our future? Models, and how they are presented, determine our thinking, but their foundations often remain invisible. The transdisciplinary research project Poetik der Modelle at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is investigating how we shape the future with energy transition models, and how we can communicate about them in a more accessible way. Funded as a Reinhart Koselleck project by the German Research Foundation (DFG), it questions the practices of modeling and aims to improve transparency, participation, and inclusion in the transformation of our energy system.

Efficient light control: meta-optics replace conventional lenses

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
Reports and Proceedings

Be it sensors, cameras, or displays: Metasurfaces have the potential to fundamentally improve optical systems in our everyday lives. By controlling light more precisely, they drive compact, multi-functional solutions. At Hannover Messe, which starts on Monday, March 31, 2025, researchers from KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) will present an optical component that enables highly efficient light control at steep angles of incidence, overcoming previous limitations.