A research team of SUN Jian and GE Qingjie at CAS DICP reported a CO2 hydrogenation to olefin process that reaches 72% selectivity and produces 50.3% of heavy alkenes (C4-C18), among which linear α-olefins account for 80%. The process is catalyzed by carbon-supported iron, commonly used in C-C coupling reactions, with multiple alkali promoters extracted from waste biomass such as corncobs. The mineral elements from corncob may promote the surface enrichment of potassium, suppressing secondary hydrogenation of alkenes on active sites. Furthermore, the carburization of iron species was enhanced to form more Fe5C2 species, achieving a good match of reverse water-gas shift reaction and subsequent C-C coupling.

CAS news release, March 26, 2018

The first phase of the project is aimed at understanding how cancer and other complicated diseases develop by addressing the relationships and internal mechanisms between genes and phenotypes. As a first step, the project will produce a reference atlas for complete phenotypes of 20,000 healthy Chinese. Chief scientist of the project is LI Jin, Vice President of Fudan University.

CAS news release, March 26, 2018

According to a Nature symposium in Guangzhou, Chinese researchers published more than 90 original research papers in Nature in 2016, accounting for about 11 percent, compared with 0.4 percent in 1997.

CAS news release, March 26, 2018

A pilot drug store in Shandong has officially opened. This pharmacy is similar to a supermarket, but it is manned by a robotic pharmacist “Little Joe”. The level of the robotic pharmacist is equivalent to a pharmacist with 10 years of experience. He can diagnose the patient through consultation and give advice on medication. The pharmacy’s smart device will make recommendations based on the drug, and the patient can directly buy drugs by mobile payment. The robotic pharmacists is expected to play a role in lowering pharmacy costs and improving pharmacy service professionalism. A pharmacy’s average net profit is only 5% to 7%, of which the manpower cost is the highest, twice the rent. According to relevant statistics, there are 480,000 pharmacies throughout the country, and half of them are unable to provide professional pharmacists services because they do not have enough talent pools to provide accurate advice for patients. The drugs provided by the pharmacist robot are non-prescription medicines. For prescription medicines, according to relevant regulations, hospital doctors will be required to confirm the sale.

China Bio news release, March 26, 2018

The group of Guang ZHAO at QIBEBT has engineered Klebsiella to form optically pure D-lactic acid from glycerol in yields of 150 g/l (substrate conversion rate 0.91g/g, production efficiency greater than 3g/l/h), after metabolic blocks inhibiting the synthesis of by-products such as 1,3-propanediol and 2,3-butanediol. Polymers derived from D-lactic acid are used in high-end fields such as medical bone engineering, cigarette filter heads, high-grade textile fibers, and as the main raw material for 3D printing technology. It is estimated that the global polylactic acid market will have a compound annual growth rate of 20 %.

China Bio news release, March 23, 2018

The project aims to build a global influential, international, and open international big earth data science center, and is committed to promoting and realizing earth’s big data technology innovation, major scientific discovery, and „one-stop full-scale macro decision support“. Project leader is GUO Huadong, academician of CAS. The five-year pilot project has set up several platforms, e. g., for science and engineering, satellite imaging, big data cloud services, a digital belt and road map, panoramic China, and biodiversity and ecology. There are nine projects related to security. According to GUO, U.S. big data accounted for about 31%, EU for 19%, and China for 13% of global data in 2013. After more than four years of development, China’s share has increased to 16%, and in 2020 China will account for 21%.

CAS news release, March 21, 2018

Peking University Medical and Tencent will cooperate to explore systematic, mature smart medical overall solutions”. Relying on the quality medical resources of Peking University Medical and its hospitals, Tencent will provide its own resources in areas such as artificial intelligence, big data, mobile payment, real name verification. The cooperation between the two parties includes the joint establishment of an “Internet + Medical Big Data Research Demonstration Base”, a WeChat medicare payment project, insurance innovations, and online consultation.”

China Bio news release, March 16, 2017

On March 13, Nanjing’s GenScript Biotech Co. announced that it officially received a clinical trial approval from the State Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) for autologous reinfusion of LCAR-B38M. The CFDA received a total of 15 clinical applications for CAR-T cell therapy. Among them are Anke Biotechnology, Hengrui Pharmaceutical, Galaxy Biological, Fosun Pharma and other listed companies. Chinese pharmaceutical companies are struggling to catch up with the United States in the clinical study of CAR-T therapy. Currently, over hundred CAR-T clinical research projects have been registered. Precision biology companies such as Zhongyuan Concord, Pu Ruijin, and Zhifei Bio are actively involved in the deployment of CAR-T immunotherapy, as are the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing Cancer Hospital, Tongji Hospital and other medical services.

China Bio news release, March 14, 2018

In collaboration with Guangken Sugar Co., the institute’s pilot plant in Guangdong reports to have achieved continuous and stable operation of an integrated membrane filtration system which turns raw sugarcane juice into refined white sugar, without chemical auxiliary materials such as sulfur, phosphoric acid and lime.

CAS news release, March 13, 2018

The group of Yongguo YU at Xinhua Hospital, affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University, and colleagues at Xiangya Hospital of Central South University have started a joint project on whole genome sequencing in an attempt to improve the overall level of pediatricians to treat children with rare diseases. There is already a national China Genomic Database for Childhood Genetic Disease Detection, and it is expected that and whole genome sequencing can detect complex genomic variations that could not be detected by curreng single gene or exon analysis via gene chips and other current gene sequencing methods. At present, about 6,000 to 7,000 rare diseases have been identified globally, and about 80% of rare diseases are caused by genetic defects.

China Bio news release, March 12, 2013

The 60 m high chimney contains particle filters and is powered by solar energy. It was developed by the group of Junji CAO at CAS Key Laboratory of Aersol Chemistry and Physics. The concrete chimney sits atop a large open structure with a glass roof. Solar radiation hitting the glass heats the air, causing it to rise towards the base of the tower. The air then passes through a wall of industrial filters before billowing out the chimney. The system is inspired by renewable-energy power plants that generate electricity from solar heat. At the tower and at 10 monitoring stations across a 10 square-kilometre area, monitors measure particulate matter under 2.5 micrometres in diameter (PM2.5). In a test run this winter, it was found that the tower expels between 5 and 8 million cubic metres of filtered air a day. The surrounding air monitors registered a 19% decrease in PM2.5 concentrations compared with monitors in other parts of the city. Sulfur dioxide gas, nitrogen oxides and ozone were not measured.

CAS news release, March 12, 2018

The group of Yongjin ZHOU at CAS DICP, in collaboration with Jens NIELSEN at Chalmers University of Technology, has engineered S cerevisiae to produce long-chain .alpha.-alkenes from fatty acids and secrete them into the medium. Key enzymes engineered into the strain were UndB, a membrane-bound decarboxylase from P. fluorescens not dependent on hydrogen peroxide, and a long-chain fatty acid transporter FATP1. Metabolic dynamic regulation was used to balance cell growth and product synthesis, and led to α- alkene production of 35.3 mg/L, of which >80% was secreted.

CAS news release, March 8, 2018

Combustible ice is a natural gas hydrate found in tundra or seabed areas and could amount to the equivalent of about 80 billion tons of fossil fuel. When melted or depressurized, it turns into water and natural gas. It occurs in the East and South China seas, there are 11 ore bodies containing 150 million tons of combustible ice in South China Sea’s Shenhu region alone, but there are also international disputes as to the ownership. China’s annual consumption of fossil fuels is about 600 million tons, meaning China theoretically has enough ice to last 133 years. Mining techniques are presently studied at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies and at Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, backed by China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Industrial production of combustible ice can be expected not earlier than 2030.

CAS news release, March 8, 2018

The four major industries addressed are biomedicine, biomedical engineering, biological services, and „health new economy“, with the segments biotech drugs, new chemical agents, modern Chinese medicine, high-performance medical equipment, smart health + precision medicine. Sinopharm has signed into opening its blood products HQ in the park, and In 2017, 52 new projects were introduced, with a total investment of over 50 billion yuan. With a total investment of 10 billion yuan, the China Center for Global Drug Commercialization (GDCC) will soon be completed here. Top talent introduction included a new Nobel team, the Bishop Cancer Institute (J Michael Bishop, Nobel prize 1989 for work on retroviral oncogenes), two CAS teams, and 21 high-level returnees. The park follows he “Expert + Platform + Capital” innovation model, encouraging scientists to become shareholders and professional companies to operate research institutes.

China Bio news release, March 7, 2018

Trogarzo™ (ibalizumab-uiyk) injection was developed by Taiwan’s Zhongyu New Drugs and is marketed in the US by Taiwan’s TaiMed Biologics. As a virus entry inhibitor,” ibalizumab binds to CD4, the major HIV receptor on the surface of T cells, to prevent these cells from getting invaded by the virus. As the first anti-retroviral therapy with a new mechanism of action in more than a decade, ibalizumab has received FDA-approved groundbreaking therapies, qualifications for priority review, fast track qualifications, and orphan drug qualifications.”

China Bio news release, March 7, 2018

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