Current strains of the bovine (cow) H5N1 virus are not known to be transmissible among people; however, infections have occurred in people exposed to infected wild birds, poultry, dairy cows and other mammals. As part of pandemic preparedness efforts, researchers have monitored the H5N1 virus for years to understand viral genetic mutations that occur in nature and what impact they may have on transmissibility.

Influenza viruses attach to cells with a surface viral protein called hemagglutinin (HA). The HA latches on to sugar (glycan) molecule receptors on cells to cause infection. Avian (bird) influenza viruses — like H5N1 — have not infected people often because the human upper respiratory tract lacks the avian-type cell receptors found in birds. Scientists are concerned that viruses could evolve to recognize human-type cell receptors in the upper airways and acquire the ability to infect people and spread between them.

Scientists at Scripps Research used the H5N1 strain isolated from the first U.S. human infection with the bovine strain 2.3.4.4b (A/Texas/37/2024) to test how mutations in the HA gene sequence affected the binding of that protein with avian versus human-type cell receptors. The researchers introduced several mutations into the viral HA protein that had been observed to occur naturally in the past and found that one mutation, called Q226L, improved the ability of the protein to attach to receptors typically found on human cells, especially when an additional mutation was present. Importantly, the researchers introduced the genetic mutations only into the HA surface protein and did not create or conduct experiments with a whole, infectious virus.

The experimental finding with the Q226L mutation alone does not mean HPAI H5N1 is on the verge of causing a widespread pandemic, the authors note. Other genetic mutations would likely be required for the virus to transmit among people. In the setting of a growing number of H5N1 human cases resulting from direct contact with infected animals, the findings stress the importance of continued efforts at outbreak control and continued genomic surveillance to monitor for the emergence of HPAI H5N1 genetic changes and maintain public health preparedness.

The research was funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), through its Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response program.

Akbulut and his research group have developed an innovative pesticide delivery system called nanopesticides. These tiny technologies, developed through a collaboration between Texas A&M University’s engineering and agricultural colleges, Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallo, professor of Horticultural Science and Dr. Younjin Min, professor of Chemical Environ Engineering at University of California, Riverside, could change how we use pesticides.

“The U.S. is a world leader in agricultural production, feeding not just our nation but much of the world. Yet we are using pesticides in a way that is simply not sustainable — with a substantial fraction not reaching its intended target,” said Akbulut. “Our research shows that by optimizing the surface chemistry of pesticide carriers, we can make these essential crop protection tools more efficient.”

The team studied different types of nanopesticide carriers, testing their “stickiness” to pepper leaves, a representative model for many important crops. They discovered that the carrier’s surface chemistry plays an important role in how well the nanopesticide adheres to the plant.

Nanopesticides encapsulate the active pesticide ingredients within microscopic carriers. Think of it like delivering a targeted package directly to the pest, minimizing collateral damage. This research focused on understanding how these nanopesticides interact with plant surfaces, a crucial step in maximizing their effectiveness.

Pesticides are essential for protecting crops from pests and diseases, and without them, we would lose a huge portion of our harvests — up to 70-80% of fruits, 40-50% of vegetables, and 20-30% of cereals.

However, current pesticide application methods are incredibly inefficient. More than 80-90% of sprayed pesticides miss their target entirely, ending up in the environment where they can cause harm. This waste is not only bad for the planet, but it is also economically unsustainable.

This compound, which Akbulut and Yashwanth Arcot, Ph.D candidate discuss in their paper published in Surfaces and Interfaces Journal, is a mixture of Ethyl Lauroyl Arginate (ELA), a food preservative compound, and neem seed extract.

Arcot’s interest in the research focuses on nanopesticide chemistry to ensure a higher targeting ability and the strong correlation between the nanopesticide carrier and its adsorption behavior.

Akbulut believes that by using nanopesticide, he can increase the efficacy by better targeting the plant surface. Akbulut and his team aim to achieve this by taking various pesticides and modifying their interfacial properties using carriers that are best suited to interact with the plant surface characteristics.

Overall, the goal of the research is to find a way for more efficient and environmentally friendly pesticide formulations that are sustainable for agricultural practices and global food security.

“This study addresses a critical challenge in sustainable agriculture by optimizing nanopesticide systems to enhance efficacy, reduce environmental pollution, and minimize impacts on non-target organisms and human health,” Arcot said.

Neem seed is a naturally occurring pesticide that comes from the seeds of the neem tree and is used to control pests and diseases on crops. The extract from a neem seed tree grows mostly in India but is organic pesticide management.

“Organic pesticides use this formulation, and we also use this molecule in the center. Although the carriers are different, the active ingredient inhibits or inactivates the pest.”

According to the paper, among various types of pesticides, nanopesticides have shown to be an advanced crop protection strategy that relies on agricultural technology, nanotechnology, and materials chemistry.

Akbulut said this discovery has profound implications for the future of agriculture. By tailoring the surface chemistry of nanopesticides, scientists can optimize their effectiveness, ensuring that more of the pesticide reaches the target pest and less ends up polluting the environment.

“For farmers or industry who are using the pesticides, they will clearly understand the value of this research,” Akbulut said. “Pesticides, in general, are considered bad for the environment, using neem seed extract ensures crop survival from pests and is non-toxic for consumption.”

The MARCO study — MAgnetic Resonance Imaging in COliac disease — which is published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH), was led by experts from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, alongside colleagues at the Quadram Institute.

Coeliac disease is a chronic condition affecting around one person in every 100 in the general population. When people with coeliac disease eat gluten, which is found in pasta and bread, their immune system produces an abnormal reaction that inflames and damages the gut tissue and causes symptoms such as abdominal pain and bloating.

The only treatment is a life- long commitment to a gluten free diet, which helps recovery of the gut tissue but still leaves many patients with gastrointestinal symptoms.

Luca Marciani, Professor of Gastrointestinal Imaging at the University, led the study. He said: “Despite being a common chronic condition, we still don’t precisely know how coeliac disease affects the basic physiological functioning of the gut and how the gluten free diet treatment may further change this.

“We launched the MARCO study to try and address this issue, by using MRI along with gut microbiome analysis to give us new insights into how a gluten-free diet affects people with coeliac disease.”

The team recruited 36 people who had just been diagnosed with coeliac disease and 36 healthy volunteers to participate in the study. Images were taken of their guts with MRI, along with blood and stool samples. The patients then followed a gluten free diet for one year and came back to repeat the study. The healthy participants came back one year later too and repeated the study, but they did not follow any diet treatment.

The study found that the newly diagnosed patients with coeliac disease had more gut symptoms, more fluid in the small bowel and that the transit of food in the bowel was slower than in the healthy controls.

The microbiota (the ‘bugs’ living in the colon) of the patients showed higher levels of ‘bad bugs’ such as E.coli. After one year of a gluten free diet, gut symptoms, bowel water and gut transit improved in the patients, but without returning to normal values. By contrast, the gluten free diet reduced some of the ‘good bugs’ in the microbiota, such as Bifidobacteria associated with reduced intake of starch and wheat nutrients, due to the different diet.

The patient study was conducted by Radiographer Dr Carolyn Costigan, from Nottingham University Hospitals, as part of her PhD studies at the University of Nottingham.

Professor Marciani said: “It was particularly interesting to see how the imaging results on gut function correlated with changes in the ‘bugs’ in the colon microbiota. The findings increase our understanding of gut function and physiology in coeliac disease and open the possibility of developing prebiotic treatments to reverse the negative impact of the gluten free diet on the microbiome.”

Dr Frederick Warren from the Quadram Institute said: “This study is the result of an exciting and innovative research collaboration bringing together medical imaging technology and gut microbiome analysis. We provide important insights which pave the way for future studies which may identify novel approaches to alleviate long-term symptoms in coeliac patients.”

Harte et al’s paper in PNAS, published on December 6, outlines their approach and provides four pared-down examples where it could be applied.

“Over the past 14 years, we have written a series of papers showing that in ecology, this top-down approach is very powerful and reveals patterns in ecosystems,” says Harte. “It accurately predicts ecological patterns such as the species-area relationship (how diversity increases with plot area) and the distribution of abundances and body sizes of species. But six years ago, we discovered that when an ecosystem is heavily disturbed — and as a result, the system-level properties are in flux — then the top-down approach fails miserably.” And so, Harte and his colleagues set out to develop a theory that could describe both the system-level dynamics and the probability distributions that characterize the system components for complex systems in flux.

Disturbances and the two-way feedback they can cause show up in many types of systems. In the case of a pandemic, conventional bottom-up Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) equations help measure the probability that an individual could get sick through proximity to an infected person. What this approach doesn’t capture, though, is the interplay between the micro and macro scales. As cases of the disease rise at the macro level, individuals might take notice and change their behaviors, causing case levels to fall.

Similarly, in an economy, the decisions individuals make on whether or not to take a job or make a purchase are influenced by system-level properties like GNP growth and inflation rates. Meanwhile, consumer spending is a driving factor in the economy and can impact economic growth or decline.

In 2021, Harte and colleagues first presented their new approach in the journal Ecology Letters with their paper “DynaMETE: a hybrid MaxEnt-plus-mechanism theory of dynamic macroecology.” Testing their theory against data from a heavily disturbed forest in Panama, the team showed that their hybrid model could explain changes in species distribution. Now, the authors generalize their model for possible application in other scenarios.

“This model allows us to calculate things that haven’t been calculable before,” says Harte. “In these bi-level systems, when there’s both top-down and bottom-up influence, how do you calculate, when the system is disturbed, how the system and the individuals will respond over time? There was not an adequate theory before. This theory allows us to predict the trajectory of the system-level variables and the probability distribution of individual parts in that system.”

Harte proposes a test of the theory in a combustion tank — a simple thermodynamic system — and says other tests are needed. “The biggest insight here was realizing the importance of the question. We think this theory is good, but it may not be right. It’s still got to be tested across many types of systems.”

In nonequilibrium thermodynamics such as the proposed combustion tank experiment, predicting the probability distribution of molecular kinetic energies has been a frontier issue. “It has resisted calculation,” says Harte.

The hybrid theory offers a new way to study dynamics, whether in controlled lab settings or in some of the most tantalizing and critical problems facing humanity, from climate change and pandemics to economic volatility.

The Scalable Hydrogel-clad Ionotronic Nickel-core Electroluminescent (SHINE) fibre is bendable, emits highly visible light, and can automatically repair itself after being cut, regaining nearly 100 per cent of its original brightness. In addition, the fibre can be powered wirelessly and manipulated physically using magnetic forces.

With multiple useful features incorporated into a single device, the fibre finds potential applications as light-emitting soft robotic fibres and interactive displays. It can also be woven into smart textiles.

“Most digital information today is transmitted largely through light-emissive devices. We are very interested in developing sustainable materials that can emit light and explore new form factors, such as fibres, that could extend application scenarios, for example, smart textiles. One way to engineer sustainable light-emitting devices is to make them self-healable, just like biological tissues such as skin,” said Associate Professor Benjamin Tee, the lead researcher for this study.

The team’s research, conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Health Innovation & Technology (iHealthtech) at NUS, was published in Nature Communications on 3 December 2024.

Multifunctional innovation in a single device

Light-emitting fibres have become an area of burgeoning interest owing to their potential to complement existing technologies in multiple domains, including soft robotics, wearable electronics and smart textiles. For instance, providing functionalities like dynamic lighting, interactive displays and optical signalling, all while offering flexibility and adaptability, could improve human-robot interactions by making them more responsive and intuitive.

However, the use of such fibres is often limited by physical fragility and the difficulty of integrating multiple features into one single device without adding complexity or increasing energy demands.

The NUS research team’s SHINE fibre addresses these challenges by combining light emission, self-healing and magnetic actuation in a single, scalable device. In contrast to existing light-emitting fibres on the market, which cannot self-repair after damage or be physically manipulated, the SHINE fibre offers a more efficient, durable and versatile alternative.

The fibre is based on a coaxial design combining a nickel core for magnetic responsiveness, a zinc sulphide-based electroluminescent layer for light emission and a hydrogel electrode for transparency. Using a scalable ion-induced gelation process, the team fabricated fibres up to 5.5 metres long that retained functionality even after nearly a year of open-air storage.

“To ensure clear visibility in bright indoor lighting conditions, a luminance of at least 300 to 500 cd/m2 is typically recommended,” said Assoc Prof Tee. “Our SHINE fibre has a record luminance of 1068 cd/m2, comfortably exceeding the threshold, making it highly visible even in well-lit indoor environments.”

The fibre’s hydrogel layer self-heals through chemical bond reformation under ambient conditions, while the nickel core and electroluminescent layer restore structural and functional integrity through heat-induced dipole interactions at 50 degrees Celsius.

“More importantly, the recovery process restores over 98 per cent of the fibre’s original brightness, ensuring it can endure mechanical stresses post-repair,” added Assoc Prof Tee. “This capability supports the reuse of damaged and subsequently self-repaired fibres, making the invention much more sustainable in the long term.”

The SHINE fibre also features magnetic actuation enabled by its nickel core. This property allows the fibre to be manipulated with external magnets. “This is an interesting property as it enables applications like light-emitting soft robotic fibres capable of manoeuvring tight spaces, performing complicated motions and signalling optically in real-time,” said Dr Fu Xuemei, the first author of the paper.

Unravelling new human-robot interactions

The SHINE fibre can be knitted or woven into smart textiles that emit light and easily self-heal after being cut, adding an element of durability and functionality to wearable technology. With its intrinsic magnetic actuation, the fibre itself can also function as a soft robot, capable of emitting light, self-healing, navigating confined spaces and signalling optically even after being completely severed. Additionally, the fibre can be used in interactive displays, where its magnetism allows for dynamic pattern changes that facilitate optical interaction and signalling in the dark.

Looking ahead, the team plans to refine the precision of the fibre’s magnetic actuation to support more dexterous robotic applications. They are also exploring the possibility of weaving sensing capabilities — such as the ability to detect temperature and humidity — into light-emitting textiles made entirely from SHINE fibres.