Yue Wu, a graduate student at Sichuan University, will present her team’s results at the ACS Fall 2025 Digital Meeting, a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

“Losing weight can help some people prevent long-term health issues like diabetes and heart disease,” says Wu. “Our microbeads work directly in the gut to block fat absorption in a noninvasive and gentle way.”

Weight gain is caused by genetic and lifestyle factors, including eating a high-fat diet. A high-fat diet is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as one where 35% or more of a person’s daily calories come from fat, as opposed to protein or carbohydrates. Some pharmaceuticals, such as orlistat, inhibit certain gastric enzymes from breaking down dietary fats, leading to less fat being absorbed by the body. Orlistat is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medication and is effective for weight loss. However, for some people it causes serious side effects, including liver and kidney damage.

So, Wu and her colleagues wanted to target the fat absorption process with their weight-loss intervention but do so without negative side effects. “We want to develop something that works with how people normally eat and live,” says Wu.

To get started, the team created tiny plant-based beads that spontaneously form through a series of chemical bonds between the green tea polyphenols and vitamin E. These structures can form chemical tethers to fat droplets and serve as the fat-binding core of the microbeads. The researchers then coated the spheres in a natural polymer derived from seaweed to protect them from the acidic environment of the stomach. Once ingested, the protective polymer coating expands in response to the acidic pH, and the green tea polyphenols and vitamin E compounds bind to and trap partially digested fats in the intestine.

The microbeads are nearly flavorless, and the researchers foresee them being easily integrated into people’s diets. For example, the microbeads could be made into small tapioca- or boba-sized balls and added to desserts and bubble teas.

The researchers assessed the microbeads as a weight-loss treatment in rats. They put the animals into three groups (eight rats per group), those which were fed a high-fat diet (60% fats) either with or without microbeads and those which were fed a normal diet (10% fats) for 30 days. Rats fed the high-fat diet and microbeads:

• Lost 17% of their total body weight, while rats in the other groups didn’t lose weight.
• Had reduced adipose tissue and less liver damage compared to rats fed the high-fat and normal diets without microbeads.
• Excreted more fat in their feces compared to rats not given microbeads. The extra fat in the rats’ feces had no apparent ill effects on the animals’ health.

Additionally, the eight rats on high-fat diets that consumed microbeads showed similar intestinal fat excretion, but without the gastrointestinal side effects the researchers observed with a fourth group of rats they treated with orlistat.

Wu and her team have started working with a biotechnology company to manufacture the plant-based beads. “All the ingredients are food grade and FDA-approved, and their production can be easily scaled up,” says Yunxiang He, Sichuan University associate professor and co-author on Wu’s presentation.

They’ve also initiated a human clinical trial in collaboration with the West China Hospital of Sichuan University. “This represents a major step toward clinical translation of our polyphenol-based microbeads, following our foundational results,” says Wu. “We have officially enrolled 26 participants in our investigator-initiated trial, and we anticipate that preliminary data may become available within the next year.”

Title Oral polyphenol-based microbeads with synergistic demulsification and fat locking for obesity treatment

Abstract Excessive fat intake is strongly linked to the growing prevalence of obesity and associated metabolic disorders. Orlistat is the only Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for limiting the absorption of fat; however, the unabsorbed fat in the colon can cause severe side effects. Here, we report a polyphenol-mediated fat-locking (PmFL) microbead made of green tea polyphenol, dietary fiber (alginate), and D-a-tocopherol that efficiently captures and excludes a broad spectrum of dietary fat derivatives in the gut. Mechanistically, PmFL microbeads actively capture emulsified fat droplets through gastrointestinal pH-responsive expansion and facilitate multiple molecular interaction-driven demulsification and fat locking. The high-fat dieted rats orally administered PmFL microbeads showed 17.02% weight loss, accompanied by reduced adipose tissue, alleviated liver damage, and lower blood fat levels. Notably, the rats exhibited direct excretion of fat-containing feces without side effects or blood glucose fluctuations. Our work provides a basis for novel dietary strategies to combat obesity.

The research was funded by National Key R&D Program of China; the National Excellent Young Scientists Fund; the National Natural Science Foundation of China; the Talents Program of Sichuan Province; the Double First-Class University Plan of Sichuan University; the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering; the Tianfu Emei Program of Sichuan Province; the Postdoctoral Special Funding of Sichuan Province; the Postdoctoral Funding of Sichuan University; the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Leather Chemistry and Engineering; and the National Engineering Research Center of Clean Technology in Leather Industry.

The research, led by McGill University scientist Masha Prager-Khoutorsky in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team at McGill and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, suggests the brain may be a missing link in certain forms of high blood pressure – or hypertension – traditionally attributed to the kidneys.

“This is new evidence that high blood pressure can originate in the brain, opening the door for developing treatments that act on the brain,” said Prager-Khoutorsky, associate professor in McGill’s Department of Physiology.

Hypertension affects two-thirds of people over 60 and contributes to 10 million deaths worldwide each year. Often symptomless, the condition increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and other serious health problems.

About one-third of patients don’t respond to standard medications, which primarily target the blood vessels and kidneys based on the long-standing view that hypertension begins there. The study, published in the journal Neuron, suggests the brain may also be a key driver of the condition, particularly in treatment-resistant cases.

How salt disrupts the brain

To mimic human eating patterns, rats were given water containing two per cent salt, comparable to a daily diet high in fast food and items like bacon, instant noodles and processed cheese.

The high-salt diet activated immune cells in a specific brain region, causing inflammation and a surge in the hormone vasopressin, which raises blood pressure. Researchers tracked these changes using cutting-edge brain imaging and lab techniques that only recently became available.

“The brain’s role in hypertension has largely been overlooked, in part because it’s harder to study,” Prager-Khoutorsky said. “But with new techniques, we’re able to see these changes in action.”

The researchers used rats instead of the more commonly studied mice because rats regulate salt and water more like humans. That makes the findings more likely to apply to people, noted Prager-Khoutorsky.

Next, the scientists plan to study whether similar processes are involved in other forms of hypertension.

“Microglia regulate neuronal activity via structural remodeling of astrocytes” by Ning Gu et al., was published in Neuron and supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Azrieli Foundation.

One of the most promising approaches to overcoming this challenge is topological quantum computing, which aims to protect quantum information by encoding it in the geometric properties of exotic particles called anyons. These particles, predicted to exist in certain two-dimensional materials, are expected to be far more resistant to noise and interference than conventional qubits.

“Among the leading candidates for building such a computer are Ising anyons, which are already being intensely investigated in condensed matter labs due to their potential realization in exotic systems like the fractional quantum Hall state and topological superconductors,” said Aaron Lauda, professor of mathematics, physics and astronomy at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the study’s senior author. “On their own, Ising anyons can’t perform all the operations needed for a general-purpose quantum computer. The computations they support rely on ‘braiding,’ physically moving anyons around one another to carry out quantum logic. For Ising anyons, this braiding only enables a limited set of operations known as Clifford gates, which fall short of the full power required for universal quantum computing.”

But in a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of mathematicians and physicists led by USC researchers has demonstrated a surprising workaround. By adding a single new type of anyon, which was previously discarded in traditional approaches to topological quantum computation, the team shows that Ising anyons can be made universal, capable of performing any quantum computation through braiding alone. The team dubbed these rescued particles “neglectons,” a name that reflects both their overlooked status and their newfound importance. This new anyon emerges naturally from a broader mathematical framework and provides exactly the missing ingredient needed to complete the computational toolkit.

From mathematical trash to quantum treasure

The key lies in a new class of mathematical theories called non-semisimple topological quantum field theories (TQFTs). These extend the standard “semisimple” frameworks that physicists typically use to describe anyons. Traditional models simplify the underlying math by discarding objects with so-called “quantum trace zero,” effectively declaring them useless.

“But those discarded objects turn out to be the missing piece,” Lauda explained. “It’s like finding treasure in what everyone else thought was mathematical garbage.”

The new framework retains these neglected components and reveals a new type of anyon — the neglecton — which, when combined with Ising anyons, allows for universal computation using braiding alone. Crucially, only one neglecton is needed, and it remains stationary while the computation is performed by braiding Ising anyons around it.

A house with unstable rooms

The discovery wasn’t without its mathematical challenges. The non-semisimple framework introduces irregularities that violate unitarity, a fundamental principle ensuring that quantum mechanics preserve probability. Most physicists would have seen this as a fatal flaw.

But Lauda’s team found an elegant workaround. They designed their quantum encoding to isolate these mathematical irregularities away from the actual computation. “Think of it like designing a quantum computer in a house with some unstable rooms,” Lauda explained. “Instead of fixing every room, you ensure all of your computing happens in the structurally sound areas while keeping the problematic spaces off-limits.”

“We’ve effectively quarantined the strange parts of the theory,” Lauda said. “By carefully designing where the quantum information lives, we make sure it stays in the parts of the theory that behave properly, so the computation works even if the global structure is mathematically unusual.”

From pure math to quantum reality

The breakthrough illustrates how abstract mathematics can solve concrete engineering problems in unexpected ways.

“By embracing mathematical structures that were previously considered useless, we unlocked a whole new chapter for quantum information science,” Lauda said.

The research opens new directions both in theory and in practice. Mathematically, the team is working to extend their framework to other parameter values and to clarify the role of unitarity in non-semisimple TQFTs. On the experimental side, they aim to identify specific material platforms where the stationary neglecton could arise and to develop protocols that translate their braiding-based approach into realizable quantum operations.

“What’s particularly exciting is that this work moves us closer to universal quantum computing with particles we already know how to create,” Lauda said. “The math gives a clear target: If experimentalists can find a way to realize this extra stationary anyon, it could unlock the full power of Ising-based systems.”

In addition to Lauda, other authors include the study’s first author, Filippo Iulianelli, and Sung Kim of USC, and Joshua Sussan of Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York.

The study was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Grants (DMS-1902092, DMS-2200419, DMS-2401375), Army Research Office (W911NF-20-1-0075), Simons Foundation Collaboration Grant on New Structures in Low-Dimensional Topology, Simons Foundation Travel Support Grant, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE- 1842487) and PSC CUNY Enhanced Award (66685-00 54).