China in Africa

The group of Yingfei MA and Chenli LIU from CAS Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology have established a catalogue of phages in the human gut and correlated their occurrence with type II diabetes. Instead of a reciprocal relationship of phage specific to its bacterial host, a complex core interaction among bacteria and phages was revealed. Bacteriophages probably play roles in intestinal physiology that are far more important than the alteration of bacterial communities via killing their specific bacterial hosts.

CAS news release, March 6, 2018

Polar bears fur show almost no leakage of heat, due to a pore-like structure of the hair which form an air package under the fur. Bo HAO and colleagues at Zhejiang University have injected a 5 % fibroin solution into an iced spinning machine, forming fibers. In order to remove the ice, the fibers were then freeze-dried, resulting in fibers with an orderly distribution of narrow holes. When these fibers were worn into a miniature sweater, the surface temperature of a rabbit dressed in such sweater was locked between -10 ℃ to 40 ℃, providing a perfect heat stealth effect. Thermal conductivity of polar bear’s hair was found to be 27 W/K, whereas it was 19 W/K for the best among the bionic fibers produced. The group claims to be able to produce 1 meter of such fabric in two hours.

CAS news release, March 6, 2018

The group of JI Qujiang at Shanghai University of Science and Technology has achieved efficient single-base editing in S. aureus multiple drug-resistant clinical strains, by incorporating inactivated Cas9 protein and CDase. By editing the corresponding codons in the genome as stop codons, this technique enabled gene inactivation quickly and efficiently and enabled efficient base-site mutagenesis without the use of repair templates and without sacrificing conversion efficiency. It is expected that these results will speed up the study of new pathogenic and drug resistance mechanisms in Staphylococcus aureus, promote the discovery of drug targets and the development of new therapeutic approaches.

China Bio news release, March 5, 2018

A prototpye of a super-maglev train that might reach 1,000 kilometers an hour has been developed by Deng Zigang and his team from the applied superconductivity laboratory at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu. The train incorporates two technologies: maglev technology to eliminate wheel-rail friction, and evacuated tube transport to remove air friction. Deng and his team have slashed air pressure in the tube to 2.9 centibars, or 2.9 kilopascal, in experiments on a 6-meter-diameter test run of 45 m length at a maximum speed of 50 kilometers per hour. Japanese-made maglev trains traveled at a maximum speed of 603 kilometers an hour in 2015. Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has received a verbal government approval to build an underground train that can travel between New York and Washington DC (328 km) in 29 minutes.

CAS news release, March 5, 2018

The researchers scanned Weibo blogs by a program called Online Ecological Recognition (OER), which can measure the mental health of DV victims shortly before and after DV with dating data on this online social networks. In the study, the researchers first manually identified 232 DV victims from over 1 million users who used DV keywords in their posts. Not surprisingly, victims of intimate violence showed higher levels of depression, including higher suicidal inclinations and higher hostility.

CAS news release, March 2, 2018

Launched in late 2016, the satellite carries a hyperspectral CO2 detector, making China the third country in the world after the USA and Japan to provide CO2 data. Vegetation chlorophyll fluorescence can also be measured with high accuracy, allowing to estimate photosynthetic productivity of the world’s vegetation. Combined with simultaneous inversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, the synergy between the two will greatly enhance the global carbon sink observation capability. When TanSat satellite chlorophyll fluorescence measurements for 2017 were compared with those of the US OCO-2 satellite, the characteristics of seasonal variations were highly consistent.

China Bio news release, March 1, 2018

The CAS Institute of Psychology has developed an AI system which can scan and analyze users’ posts and comments on social network platforms such as Weibo. Once a potentially suicidal user is found, the system will use its Weibo Account to send them a message, encouraging them to call local suicide prevention services for help. According to China Youth Daily, the system has sent 14,435 messages to internet users since July 2017, with an accuracy rate of 92.2 percent. Suicide prevention is a priority of the Chinese government, as suicide, especially among young people, is becoming a serious issue in Chinese society. According to statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Health in 2017, suicide has become the leading cause of death of young Chinese people aged between 15 and 35.

CAS news release, February 2, 2018

During a meeting of China’s Minister of S&T, WAN Gang, and the German Secretary of State at BMBF, Georg SCHÜTTE, accomplishments of cooperation during the past 40 years were reviewed, and 11 new joint innovation platforms were decided. There are now more than 300 scientific projects between universities of the two countries, and German scientists are actively involved in half of the top 20 scientific research institutions in China, he said. From 2006 to 2010, China and Germany collaborated on and jointly published more than 9,300 scientific papers. The number rose to more than 19,000 from 2010 to 2015, according to China’s National Center for Science and Technology Evaluation. China and Germany will continue to jointly research scientific projects such as public health, security, sustainable development, transportation and manufacturing. At the same time, Germany will strengthen cooperation with China in cutting-edge scientific fields, such as ecological protection, biotechnology, advanced materials and the internet of things.

CAS news release, March 1, 2018

According to a report by the State Health Planning Commission, Chinese companies mostly occupy the middle and low prize tier of medical devices, wheres the top tier is dominated by foreign brands which are considered about 15 years ahead in development. However, Chinese companies are catching up in this segment as well and make quick advances in areas such as orthopedics and cardiovascular interventional devices, implantable devices and artificial organs.

China Bio news release, Februry 27, 2018

A new study by ZHANG Wenping, a Panda specialist at Sichuan University in Chengdu, has shown by metagenome sequencing of the Panda’s gut that it is not the Panda microbiota which would make a major contribution to his nutrition by degrading of cellulose or lignin abundant in bamboo. Rather, the Panda’s own digestive enzymes have evolved for a high digestibility of starch and hemicellulose, allowing for a fast dietary transition from breast milk to bamboo shoots and tender leaves as a major source of nutrition. Bamboo has high levels of starch among all woody plants, and giant pandas have adapted to bamboo as their preferred nutrition because it is everywhere in their habitats, and they have few competitors for this food.

CAS news release, February 27, 2018

During an inspection of compliance with Chinese GMO rules which the Ministry carried out throughout China, it was reported that the vast majority of inspected units complied but seven R & D units and test units did irregular reporting. For example, Beijing Huaxin Albert Seed Technology Co. conducted an interim test of genetically modified corn which was not reported, and Anhui Huishang Tongchuang Hi-Tech Seed Co. bred a small amount of transgenic corn non-compliant with the reported material. The Ministry issued a warning to all units concerned.

China Bio news release, February 26, 2018

According to a survey of China International Ecommerce Publisher, the pharmaceutical market of China exceeded 2 trillion Yuan in 2017, of which the retail drug market reached 367.9 billion yuan, an increase of 9.5% over 2016. As of the end of November 2016, there were 12,975 drug wholesalers, 5609 drug retail chains, 226,331 retail pharmacies and 447,034 retail drugstores. Western medicines were still the main products, accounting for over 70%. The pharmaceutical e-commerce model is still in the ascendant and its scale has gradually risen to about 75 billion Yuan.

China Bio news release, February 26, 2018

The Hebei-based company is the only one in China which commercially uses three expression systems (mammalian cells, recombinant yeast, Escherichia coli). They are a leading producer of hepatitis B vaccine, G-CSF, GM-CSF, EPO and are the country’s major producer of recombinant human serum albumin. Currently a number of antibodies, fusion proteins, cytokines, vaccines and other recombinant protein drugs are under development.

China Bio news release, February 23, 2018

The group around LIU Guang-Hui at Tongji University in Shanghai has expanded airway basal cells isolated from bronchodilator patients collected at the time of bronchoscopy. After expansion and implantation in the donor patient, pulmonary functions improved.

Nikkei Biotech news release, February 16, 2018; China Bio news release, February 11, 2018