Window to China
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, R&D spending in 2019 was 2.214 trillion CN¥ or about 320 billion US$. Investment in basic researcb accounted to 6% of total, company expenditure on R&D was 76.4%. Xinhua news release, August 27, 2020
A group around Dr. GAO Lizeng from the CAS Institute of Biophysics (IBP) has found that a chitosan- functionalized iron oxide nanozyme (IONzyme) functions as a catalytic adjuvant to enhance nasal mucosal immunity. The modified nanozyme combines with flu virus particles loaded with negative charges to produce the composites of nanozyme and inactivated flu virus, thus promoting the delivery of vaccines to mucosal targets and the formation peroxides in the acidic lysosomes, enhancing the level of ROS. When experimental mice were given intranasal immunization twice with a combination of a H1N1 whole inactivated virus complex, a 100% protective immunity against influenza viruses was achieved compared to 30% with the vaccine without IONzyme. CAS news release, August 27, 2020a https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202000771
A consortium around Xiaoli ZHAO at CAS Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technologies prepared a hydrogel composed of catechol-modified quaternized chitosan and poly(d,l-lactide)-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(d,l-lactide, loaded with bioactive glass. When the hydrogel formed after injection into ruptured skin of mice, the skin was sealed and wound healing was accelerated, probably due to endothelial cells migration and angiogenesis stimulated by the nano-scale glass. Anti-bacterial activity towards S. aureas and E. coli was > 95%. CAS news release, August 6, 2020
According to the manufacturer, Kylin V10 features excellent user experience, a rich extended ecosystem, and its security level ranks first in China. It is seid to be compatible with over 10,000 hardware and software products, including CPU, firmware, cloud platform and big data, produced by over 1,000 domestic and foreign enterprises. The company will develop mainly server, desktop and embedded operating systems, combining artificial intelligence, mobile computing and cloud interconnection technologies. Xinhua news release, August 15, 2020
An irrigation system developed by Ningxia University includes technologies and equipment involving wind-solar-powered water extraction, underground seeping pipes and a control software system operated on smartphones. It has been alredy applied over a total area of 575,733 hectares in northwest China, Oman and Egypt and will now be installed in Qatar in a project worth 1.26 billion US$. It is claimed to save over 22% of water and 27% of energy while irrigating industrial crops. Xinhua news release, August 18, 2020
Locust swarms have recently devastated large agricultural areas in Eastern Africa and Southern Asia. A team around Xianhui WANG and Le KANG at CAS Institute of Zoology and CAS University of Science and Technology has investigated 35 odorous compounds emitted by locusts and their interaction with over 100 locust receptors, with the result that 4VA triggers a receptor coded by gene OR35. Once 4 – 5 animals have aggregated, production of 4VA is increased and both gregarious and solitary locusts are strongly attracted to form a swarm, regardless of age and sex. Possible control measures now include laying pheromone traps to lure locusts, or using gene-editing technologies to prevent locusts from sensing 4VA, thus preventing swarms. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2610-4
The team of James C. LIAO at the Institute of Biological Chemistry of Academica Sinica in Taipei, Republic of China, has reprogrammed E. coli using metabolic robustness criteria followed by laboratory evolution to establish a strain that can efficiently utilize methanol as the sole carbon source and grows to high cell density at a rate comparable with natural methylotrophs in a wide range of methanol concentrations. LIAO is Professor emeritus of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.07.010