The new reactor design could be a part of the solution to the pressing problem of emission impacts on the climate and biosphere by enabling more agile and scalable carbon dioxide mitigation strategies.

A study in Nature Energy describes the specialized reactor as having a modular, three-chambered structure with a carefully engineered porous solid electrolyte layer at its core. Haotian Wang, a Rice chemical and biomolecular engineer whose lab has been researching industrial decarbonization and energy conversion and storage solutions, said the work “represents a big milestone in carbon capture from the atmosphere.”

“Our research findings present an opportunity to make carbon capture more cost-effective and practically viable across a wide range of industries,” said Wang, the corresponding author on the study and associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

The device has achieved industrially relevant rates of carbon dioxide regeneration from carbon-containing solutions. Its performance metrics, including its long-term stability and adaptability to different cathode and anode reactions, showcase its potential for wide-scale industrial use.

“One of the major draws of this technology is its flexibility,” said Wang, explaining that it works with different chemistries and can be used to cogenerate hydrogen. “Hydrogen coproduction during direct air capture could translate into dramatically lower capital and operation costs for downstream manufacturing of net-zero fuels or chemicals.”

The new technology offers an alternative to the use of high temperatures in direct air capture processes, which often involve running a mixed gas stream through high-pH liquids in order to filter out carbon dioxide, an acidic gas. This first step of the process ties up the carbon and oxygen atoms in the gas molecules to other compounds in the liquid, forming new bonds of varying degrees of strength depending on the type of chemical used to trap the carbon dioxide. The next major step in the process involves retrieving the carbon dioxide from these solutions, which can be done using either heat, chemical reactions or electrochemical processes.

Zhiwei Fang, a Rice postdoctoral researcher who is a study co-first author, said conventional direct air capture technologies tend to use high-temperature processes to regenerate carbon dioxide from sorbent, or the carbon dioxide-filtering agent.

“Our work focused on using electrical energy instead of thermal energy to regenerate carbon dioxide,” Fang said, adding that the approach has several additional benefits, including it works at room temperature, needs no additional chemicals and generates no unwanted byproducts.

The types of chemicals used to trap the carbon dioxide have different drawbacks and advantages. Amine-based sorbents are the most widely used, in part because they tend to form weaker bonds which means less energy is required to take the carbon dioxide back out of the solution. However, they are highly toxic and unstable. Even though basic water-based solutions using sorbents like sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are a greener alternative, they require much higher temperatures to release the carbon dioxide back out.

“Our reactor can efficiently split carbonate and bicarbonate solutions, producing alkaline absorbent in one chamber and high-purity carbon dioxide in a separate chamber,” said Wang. “Our innovative approach optimizes electrical inputs to efficiently control ion movement and mass transfer, reducing energy barriers.”

Wang said he hopes the research will motivate more industries to pursue sustainable processes and fuel the momentum toward a net-zero future. He added that this and other projects in his lab over the years reflect Rice’s strategic focus on sustainable energy innovation.

“Rice is the place to be if you are passionate about sustainability and energy innovation,” Wang said.

Other authors on the study are former Rice postdoctoral researcher Xiao Zhang and Rice doctoral alumni and former postdoctoral scientists Peng Zhu and Yang Xia.

The research was supported by the Robert A. Welch Foundation (C-2051) and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (2020-71371).

Utilizing cutting-edge machine learning and systems biology, researchers analyzed and correlated huge data sets from flies and humans to identify key metabolites that impact lifespan in both species.Results published online in Nature Communicationssuggest that one of the metabolites, threonine, may hold promise as a potential therapeutic for aging interventions.

“These results would not have been possible without this pioneering approach,” says Buck professor Pankaj Kapahi, PhD, senior author of the paper. “There is a lot of data sitting out there that is not being correlated between species. I think this approach could be a game-changer when it comes to identifying potential interventions to improve human health.”

Threonine has been shown to protect against diabetes in mice. The essential amino acid plays an important role in collagen and elastin production and is also involved in blood clotting, fat metabolism and immune function.

The method — simplified

The work began with former Buck postdoc Tyler Hilsabeck, PhD, crunching data (involving metabolomics, phenotypes and genomics) to analyze 120 metabolites in 160 strains of fruit flies on both restricted and normal diets. The goal was to reveal how different genotypes responded to the diets to influence lifespan and healthspan. “This allowed us to find the ‘needles in the haystack’ when it came to identifying relevant metabolites,” Hilsabeck says.

Vikram Narayan, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow then cross-referenced findings with human data from the massive UK Biobank. “Using the human data allowed us to focus on interesting metabolites to those that are conserved in both species. It also allowed us to uncover the impact of those metabolites in humans,” he says. Importantly, the team then brought those relevant metabolites back into the fly to validate results.

The results

In flies, threonine extended lifespan in a strain-and-sex-specific manner. Individuals with higher levels of threonine-related metabolites had longer, healthier lives. “We’re not saying that threonine is going to work in all conditions,” says Kapahi. “Our research shows it works in subsets of both flies and people. I think most of us have stopped expecting to find a ‘magic-bullet’ intervention for aging. Our method provides another way to develop precision medicine for geroscience.”

The results also include findings that were not so positive for both species. Orotate, which is relatively understudied and has been linked with fat metabolism, was negatively associated with aging. In flies orotate counteracted the positive impact of dietary restriction across every strain of the animals. In humans, orotate was linked to a shorter lifespan.

Larger implications

Kapahi hopes the larger research community will begin employing this method. “So many times we find things that work in worms and flies and then we don’t have the resources to move the basic science forward. This approach allows us to say with a lot more certainty that discoveries are going to be relevant in humans.” Kapahi says this method may reduce the need for studies in mice, something he welcomes.

The study appears in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience.

Olfactory dysfunction, often dismissed as a minor inconvenience, may actually be an early sign of various neurological and bodily diseases, as indicated by this research. “The data are particularly interesting because we had previously found that olfactory enrichment can improve the memory of older adults by 226 percent,” said Leon. “We now know that pleasant scents can decrease inflammation, potentially pointing to the mechanism by which such scents can improve brain health.”

This finding, he added, could hold key implications for mitigating symptoms and possibly even reducing the onset of certain diseases through therapeutic olfactory stimulation.

The study delves into the methodical tracking of 139 medical conditions associated with both olfactory loss and heightened inflammation, uncovering insights into a shared pathway linking these factors. Olfactory loss, which often precedes conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, may serve as an early indicator of disease onset, allowing for more proactive therapeutic approaches.

“It was difficult to track down the studies for so many medical conditions,” said Leon, reflecting on the complexity of linking olfactory loss to such a wide array of disorders. The challenge, he added, underscores the importance of these findings in framing olfactory health as integral to overall well-being.

By showing how olfactory enrichment can mitigate inflammation, this research has laid a foundation for future studies aiming to explore the therapeutic use of scent to address a broader range of medical conditions. “It will be interesting to see if we can ameliorate the symptoms of other medical conditions with olfactory enrichment,” said Leon.

Together with Woo, Leon is now working on a device to deliver olfactory therapy, which could hold promise as a novel, non-invasive way to improve health outcomes.

As science continues to uncover the profound impacts of our senses on health, this research underscores a critical need for further study into olfactory therapies.

“Our main goal with this project is to be able to tell communities that are affected by extreme weather events whether they will continue to see more events like this in the future,” says Carl Schreck, senior research scientist with North Carolina State University’s North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies (NCICS). “Getting this information to them in a timely manner will help them make informed decisions about hardening infrastructure or rebuilding after a weather event.”

Schreck and a team of scientists from NC State, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the University of Colorado, Boulder and Princeton University set out to establish a routine process for evaluating extreme weather events. 

The test case for the study was an extreme heat wave that occurred in Texas and Louisiana in 2023. The event was notable for its duration – it lasted almost the entire summer. Most heat wave measurement metrics are designed for events that last three to seven days.

“The other interesting piece of this event is that it occurred within the daytime warming hole,” Schreck says. “The warming hole refers to an area in the central U.S. where temperatures have not warmed at the same rate that we see over most other places. This is because increased precipitation there has kept afternoon temperatures from warming.”

The scientists used a two-step process to determine whether the heat wave was an anomaly or part of a new pattern. First, they took historical data from heat monitoring stations across the U.S. from the past 100 years to see how unusual 2023 was. Then they compared that data with the frequency of heat waves in both past and present predictive computer models.

Comparing those predictive models can indicate whether climate change is playing a role in the event.

“A similar drought wouldn’t have been as hot 50 years ago,” Schreck says. “That tells us the heat wave is directly related to climate change and that we will see even hotter heat waves in the future.”

Now that these methods have been established, the researchers plan to use them to determine the role of climate change in future heat waves.

The work appears in Environmental Research: Climate and was supported by NOAA’s Climate Program Office and the U.S. Department of Commerce. David Coates and John Uehling, research associates at NCICS, and NC State research professors Xiangdong Zhang and Kenneth Kunkel are co-authors. David R. Easterling and Russell S. Vose, NOAA/National Centers for Environmental Information; Joseph J. Barsugli, University of Colorado Boulder; Andrew Hoell, NOAA/Physical Science Laboratory; Nathaniel C. Johnson, NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory; and Zachary M. Labe, Princeton University, are also co-authors.  

“The evidence is clear; individuals should get vaccinated if they have conditions that place them at risk for severe disease. For older adults and those with chronic conditions, RSV should be considered as serious as the flu, and they should get vaccinated,” said Branche.

RSV is a significant cause of severe respiratory illness among older adults, especially those with underlying health conditions. Worldwide, RSV causes millions of infections, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths annually in adults aged 60 and older. In the US, adults over 65 experience high rates of RSV-related hospital visits, intensive care unit admissions, and deaths. Older people with RSV are at higher risk of severe illness compared to those with influenza or COVID.

Vaccines Protect Against Severe Symptoms and Keep People Out of the Hospital

In 2023, the FDA approved three RSV vaccines for older adults. Studies have shown these vaccines to be effective, with the Pfizer, GSK, and Moderna vaccines preventing RSV pneumonia and bronchitis in more than 80 percent of participants.

A recent study published in The Lancet assessed the effectiveness of RSV vaccines using data from a large electronic health record network involving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and multiple US healthcare systems. The study found that RSV vaccines were 80 percent effective in preventing hospitalization, ICU admission, and death among adults aged 60 and older. Vaccine effectiveness was consistent across age groups, including those 75 and older, and among immunocompromised individuals. The study did not find evidence of waning vaccine protection within the season.

However, the uptake of the RSV vaccine in the 2023-2024 winter season was low. An estimated 24 percent of US adults aged 60 years and older received the vaccine, compared to influenza vaccination rates, which approach 50 percent each year for the same group. “Providers were not sure how to apply the shared clinical decision-making recommendations in the first season, and there remains a general lack of knowledge among the medical community and the public on what constitutes a risk for severe disease and who needs to be protected,” said Branche.

Boosting Rates and Better Vaccines

Based on these findings, the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a group of medical and public health experts that advises the CDC, updated guidelines in June 2024 to recommend RSV vaccination for all adults aged 75 and older, those 60 and older in long-term care facilities or with chronic and high-risk health conditions.

“This new data enabled the ACIP to make more definitive recommendations, which will build public confidence in the effectiveness of these vaccines and make implementation a lot easier for providers and pharmacies,” said Branche.

New research shows that vaccines that target multiple strains of the RSV virus, called bivalent vaccines, may provide longer protection. URMC infectious disease experts Edward Walsh, MD, and Ann Falsey, MD, helped lead an international study of a bivalent RSV vaccine developed by Pfizer, the results of which were recently detailed in the New England Journal of Medicine. The vaccine effectively prevented severe RSV-related lower respiratory tract illnesses over two RSV seasons, with an overall efficacy of more than 80 percent. The experimental vaccine was particularly effective in individuals aged 60-79.