The 2022 Zhejiang University (ZJU) SDG Global Summer School, entitled “SDG for a Better Future”, came to an end on Aug 15. Nearly 1,000 talented students from over 350 universities in more than 80 countries and regions participated in the 14-day program, during which they explored solutions to six of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through challenging academic modules and exciting non-curricular activities.This program, as part of “A Global ZJU for Social Good (Z4G)...

Auxin is the most important hormone in plants. It is mainly synthesized in cotyledons, young leaves and other growing tissues, and is transported to targeted issues via polar transport to regulate plant development and growth. How is this polar auxin transport (PAT) achieved?The research team from Zhejiang University Recently, the Zhejiang University-Hubei University joint team led by Dr. GUO Jiangtao from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine elaborated on the molecular mech...

[Editor’s note: Established in 1999, the Green Origin Association (GOA), a five-star student association at ZJU organizes various activities on and off campus to raise people’s awareness of environmental protection: birdwatching and bird protection, water protection, garbage collection, public lectures on the SDGs, etc. Recently the association won the UN PRME Award for their excellent performance advancing sustainability practices and responsible management education at ZJU, and we inter...

Long-term and excessive use of antibiotics has caused the spread of antibiotic resistance. The time- and cost-consuming process of new antibiotic development results in the much slower emergence of new antibacterial drugs than that of bacterial resistance. The emergence of superbugs has been growing to become a dominant challenge in human health. Tigecycline is regarded as the last line of defense to combat multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. However, increasing utilization has led to ris...

In celebration of the 125th anniversary of Zhejiang University, the Zhejiang University Technology Venture Program, which supports alumni entrepreneurship, jointly released the Zhejiang University Unicorns and Future Unicorns Alumni Startups List 2022 with Ofound Angeland Weilian. The List shows that as of 31 May 2022, ZJU alumni have founded25 unicorns (valued at US$1 billion and above) and 130 future unicorns. Among those listed are 2...

Pancreatic cancer is an exceedingly malignant tumor in the digestive system, and its five-year survival rate is little more than 10%. Metabolic alterations are one of the hallmarks of tumor cells. Oncogenic Kras-activated pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells depend heavily on an unconventional glutamine (Gln) catabolic pathway to sustain cell growth. In the conventional pathway, Gln is first converted to aspartate (Asp), which is transported from mitochondria into the cytosol, where it ...

Rice is one of the most important crops in the world, particularly in China. The rice yield is most severely hindered by Magnaporthe oryzae. According to the National Agro-Tech Extension and Service Center, approximately 400 acres of rice will be plagued by rice blast in 2022. Therefore, it is of supreme importance to reveal the pathogenic mechanism of Magnaporthe oryzae and discover potential pesticide targets for prevention and control of rice blast.The research team led by TAO Zeng ...

Perovskite LEDs are an emerging technology for next-generation display, lighting and communications. While perovskite LEDs can be produced simply at low cost, they show clear technological advantages. They offer the light weight and flexibility comparable to OLEDs, and color purity and tunability similar to LEDs based on III-V semiconductors. With only a few years of research by scientists around the world, the efficiency of perovskite LEDs already rivals the more mature technologies. However, s...

“‘SDG for a better future’ is not only the theme of our Summer School, but also our shared vision,” Prof. WU Zhaohui, president of Zhejiang University, said at the opening ceremony of the SDG Global Summer School, which was held on August 1 in the format of the metaverse. As part of Z4G, Zhejiang University’s sustainability action plan, the inaugural SDG Summer School in the virtual format is aimed to maximize the University’s positive impact on the youth and the world by enhancing sustain...

The modern lifestyle characterized by excessive nutrition and poverty of exercise contributes to the global epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Pancreatic β cell dysfunction, together with insulin resistance, are the main causes for the pathogenesis of T2D. A thorough analysis of the dynamic changes in the number and function of β cells in T2D and the mechanism of β cell dysfunction will provide a theoretical basis and molecular targets for the development of new and more effective...