China in Africa

The excellent bipolar conjugated polymer material can both conduct electrons and holes and thus is an interesting base material for organic FETs. WAN Xiaobo and colleagues at QIBEBT used a large hindered base to successfully synthesize the thiazole isoindigo precursor, thiazole bismuth, and transformed it to thiazole Isoindigo. They further optimized the synthesis and polymerization routes, successfully synthesized polymer P (TzII-TTT) of isothiazole blue and thiophene, and studied the material’s photophysical properties and field effect transistor performance. The hole mobility of a P(TzII-TTT) bipolar field-effect transistor was 3.93 cm2V-1S-1, and the electron mobility 1.07 cm2V-1S-1, exceeding the performance of the similarly-structured pyridine isoindigo blue polymer.

CAS news release, April 28 2018

During a visit at Optical Valley in Wuhan, president Xi stressed that core technologies that are important to the country should always be fully mastered by the country itself. When visiting FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies Co, a pioneer in the optical communications sector, Xi said the industry is of great importance, as the country strives for a major global role in cyberspace. China has proved strong in being able to accomplish major tasks through concerted and concentrated efforts, and by doing so the country can achieve more breakthroughs in science and technology, Xi said.

CAS news release, April 28, 2018

The group of ZHANG Xiumin has found that urea+nitrate pretreatment of straw could destroy its physical structure and increase the neutral-detergent soluble content that degrades easily and fast in the rumen. Using wheat and rice straw, such pretreatment increased in vitro degradation by ruminant cultures. Also, CH4 production was decreased because the population of methanogens was reduced.

CAS news release, April 26, 2018

The group of JIN Gongsheng identified four potential Na+/H+ antiporters (Mrp1-2, NhaP and ChaA), and systematically described the physiological adaptation strategies of Corynebacterium glutamicum under saline and alkali stress conditions. They found that the Mrp1 protein of C. glutamicum has the most significant Na+/H+ ion transport activity, and this protein mainly plays a role under alkaline conditions. In vivo experiments further confirmed that the Mrp1 antiporter is mainly involved in the tolerance response of the strain under high NaCl and alkaline stress conditions, and the Mrp2 antiporter is mainly involved in the tolerance response of the strain under high KCl stress conditions. Loss at the same time will seriously affect the normal survival ability of the strain under high saline conditions.

CAS news release, April 26, 2018

The program, launched on April 23, 2018, by an US consortium, https://www.earthbiogenome.org/organization/, plans to decipher the genomes of all known eukaryotic species in the next 10 years, and use genomics techniques to help discover the remaining 80% to 90% of species unknown in the scientific community. It will include major contributions from BGI in Shenzhen. The total project funding is expected to be US$4.7 billion, which is lower than the current cost of the Human Genome Project. A major challenges is sample collection. The EBP project needs to develop a global strategy for collecting sample vouchers sufficiently preserved to produce high quality genomic sequences. The geographical distribution of biodiversity and the presence of biodiversity hotspots in remote areas of the world, such as the Amazon Basin or Borneo, will also make the collection of many organisms a significant challenge.

China Bio news release, April 25, 2018

According to PEI Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the Chang’e-5 lunar probe will contain four parts: an orbiter, a returner, an ascender and a lander. The lander will put moon samples into a vessel in the ascender after the moon landing. Then the ascender will take off from the Moon to dock with the orbiter and the returner which orbit the moon, and transfer the samples to the returner. The orbiter and returner then head back to the earth, separating from each other several thousands off the earth. Finally, the returner will make its way back to the earth.

CAS news release, April 25, 2018

CAS TIB was elected the 22nd International Centre of Excellence in Science and Technology at COMSATS, and will host COMSATS Coordination Committee meeting in 2019. CAS TIB is actively preparing for the establishment of a National Synthetic Biotechnology Innovation Center. COMSATS is an intergovernmental organization with its permanent Secretariat based in Islamabad, Pakistan. Established in 1994, the organization comprising 26 Member States, strives to promote South-South cooperation in the fields of Science and Technology that are most relevant to socio-economic development.

CAS news release, April 24, 2018

CT102 is an antisense nucleic acid drug targeting the IGF1R gene involved in liver cancer. The drug was jointly developed by WANG Shengqi, a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences, and Hangzhou Tianlong Pharmaceutical Co. China is a country with a high incidence of liver cancer. The number of people who die from this disease each year is as much as 380,000, accounting for more than half of the world’s total.

China Bio news release, April 19, 2018

Sino Valley Technology Co. has reported the birth oft he first in vitro fertilized dogs in China, 2 male dogs and 4 female puppets. The company has successively established canine somatic cell lines, acquired mature oocytes, done somatic cell nuclear transfer and embryo transfer. A canine somatic cell cloning technology platform and a dog gene editing technology platform with independent intellectual property rights was established.

China Bio news release, April 17, 2018

Yuliang LI and colleagues from the CAS Institute of Chemistry have found a new catalyst for hydrogen production from water. They used graphdiyne and molybdenum disulfide as a catalyst and found it in alkaline media even superior to Pt/C. The high intrinsic activity was attributed to the enhanced electron transfer kinetics at the interface between eGDY and MDS, which facilitated the dissociation of the O–H bonds in water.

CAS news release, April 17, 2018

According to an article in Genetic Engineering News (GEN), Shenzhen’s BGI and Suzhou’s Genewiz rank 3 and 8 in sales among the top 10 global sequencing companies. On top are Illumina and Thermo Fisher.

GEN news release, April 13, 2018

ZHANG Zhongping and colleagues at CAS Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences have developed a spherical nucleic acid beacon (SNAB) probe based on specific double-stranded DNA tagged with biocompatible Au nanoparticles which binds to telomerase, a hallmark of rapidly multiplying cancer cells. The SNAB technology outperforms the gold standard method of telomerase activity measurement using PCR in terms of flexibility because it is applicable to both single cells and solid tumors in vivo, beyond cell lysates.

CAS news release, April 13, 2018

JIU Tonggang’s group from CAS Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) has developed a dual doping GD into electron transport layers of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and reached a certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20%. The employment of dual doping GD produced better film morphology of interface layers and electron transport efficiency occurring at PCBM and ZnO layers attributed to strong π-π stacking interaction between GD particles and PCBM/ZnO films. Graphdiyne (GD), an advanced full carbon nano structured material, is regarded as the most stable synthetic allotrope of carbon family for its unique structural characteristics of rigid carbon network, highly π-conjugated structure, a natural band gap and uniformly distributed pores.

CAS news release, April 13, 2018

At the China-ASEAN Innovation Forum held in Beijing, WANG Zhigang, China’s minister of science and technology (MOST) reported that joint laboratories include the China-Indonesia joint laboratory for high temperature gas cooled reactors, the China-Thailand railway system joint research center, the China-Laos joint laboratory for new and renewable energy, and the China-Myanmar joint laboratory for radar and satellite communications. According to WANG, China is willing to synergize the Belt and Road Initiative with ASEAN’s development plan to build a community with a shared future for China and ASEAN.

CAS news release, April 13, 2018

According to a Lancet publication on China Adult Lung Health Research” completed by Chinese scholars, the prevalence of COPD in adults aged 20 years and over in China is 8.6%, 13.7% in patients over 40 years of age, and in people over 60 years of age over 27%. The number of male patients is 2.2 times that of females. The risk for COPD in smokers over 60 years old exceeded 40%. Among non-smokers, the relationship between high PM2.5 concentration and the incidence of COPD was even more significant. The combination of smoking and high PM2.5 concentrations further increased the risk of illness. According to the World Health Organization, China’s COPD mortality rate ranks first in all countries and it has become the third leading cause of death.”

China Bio news release, April 12, 2018