Researchers at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center in Berlin are developing a targeted treatment for muscular dystrophy with the help of gene-editing. Preclinical research led by the Spuler Lab published in “Nature Communications” now paves the way for first-in-human clinical trials. 

Extreme temperatures, scarce water resources, and unpredictable weather characterize the challenging conditions of a typical desert. The Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG), Chinese Academy of Sciences has been dedicated to transforming the stretches of arid land into thriving ecosystems, focusing on the sustainable development of these areas. On December 9 2024, XIEG showcased its contributions toward this objective at the "Green Technology, Green Future" side event at the China Pavilion of UNCCD COP16.

Leading UCLA psychiatry and psychology professor Dr. Carrie Bearden combines genetics and neuroscience to investigate early indicators of psychosis risk in adolescents. Her innovative research at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior bridges crucial gaps between genetic predisposition and clinical intervention, offering new hope for early detection and prevention.

 To clarify the visual cues contributing to skin moisture and dryness, a research team from the Cognitive Neurotechnology Unit and Visual Perception & Cognition Laboratory of Toyohashi University of Technology, the Faculty of Design of Kyushu University, and the Central R&D Laboratory of Pias Corporation conducted several psychophysical experiments to investigate how image manipulation alters visual perceptions of skin moisture. The study demonstrated that emphasizing high-spatial-frequency components of skin lightness decreased the visual perception of moisture. These changes closely resembled physiological phenomena associated with skin dryness such as the appearance of white lines and emphasized pores, indicating that these are cues for perceiving skin dryness. The results of this study were published on December 17, 2024, in the Journal of the Optical Society of America A (https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.536898).

Researchers from Osaka University have developed a technology for voltage-controlled magnetization switching, which has the potential to be implemented in next-generation computational memory. This advanced technology enables low-energy data writing operations with non-volatility, making it scalable for future applications that require stable and reliable memory.

Quantum materials promise to revolutionize digital technology due to the possibilities of creating coherent superposition of multiple quantum states simultaneously. For technologies that are light-activated, the challenge has been to prepare excitonic states with long-lived coherences for efficient nanoscale transport of energy or charges. Scientists now report a diffusive quasi-particle “exction-polaron” in a  quasi-1-dimensional chain of Hexyl-Diammonium-BiI5 octahedra that can be exploited for nanoscale opto-electronic applications due to long-lived dressed lattice coherences at room temperature.