Diabetes, a global chronic disease, affects millions of people worldwide. Islet transplantation holds immense promise as a cure for diabetes, but it is circumscribed by shortage of organ donors and immunosuppression issues. Differentiation of Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) is regarded as an effective solution to cell-based therapy.On February 23, Prof. ZHU Saiyong’s lab at the Zhejiang University Life Sciences Institute published an article entitled “Human expandable pancreatic prog...

Last spring, China and some other Asian countries were plagued several times by dust storms, among which the dust storm that occurred in mid-March was considered to be the worst in the past decade in China. Large-scale dust storms, which have been dormant for years, have undergone a dramatic resurgence, seriously jeopardizing people’s life. What were the initial sources of the dust? How were its transport pathways? What kind of mechanism did trigger the event? All these pertinent scientific que...

By the end of December 2021, China’s first artificial upwelling demonstration project, located in the waters of Aoshan Bay in Qingdao, had been in operation for 40 months. In this project, an artificial system is installed to form seawater upwelling which can transport nutrient-rich seawater to the euphotic layer on the surface. In this way, the growth of phytoplankton and algae can be promoted, thereby improving primary productivity, restoring the marine ecological environment, and enhanc...

At the 7th China International College Students’ “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, a Buddha statue from the northern wall of the Guyang Cave in the Longmen Grottoes was “moved” to the exhibition site. A team named “Heritage Ark” from Zhejiang University replicated relics with 3D printing technology and brought them back to life. Since then, those precious Buddha statues perching in caves have been open to the general public.Heritage Ark...

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), characterized by left ventricular hypertrophy and fibrosis, is the most common monogenic cardiovascular disorder with global distribution and diverse clinical spectrum. The disease prevalence has been estimated at approximately 1:500 in the general population and even higher (1 case per 200) when both clinical and genetic diagnoses are taken into accounts. Patients with HCM are predisposed to heart failure, outflow tract obstruction and arrhythmias. The most vi...

Uncontrolled cell proliferation is a hallmark of cancer. To sustain the ceaseless cell division, cancer cells rewire metabolic pathways in order to provide sufficient nutrient and energy for mitotic progression. Metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells is usually orchestrated by dysregulation of metabolic enzymes. It is generally thought that dysregulated metabolic enzymes contribute to cell cycle progression mainly by providing essential metabolites to meet the cellular needs for biosynthesis an...

Leukemia, the blood cancer, is a group of hematopoietic malignancies. Many types of leukemia are associated with poor outcome. Unfortunately, during the past a few decades, the first-line leukemia therapy has long been traditional chemotherapy with high cytotoxicity and low selectivity, such as the “7+3” strategy, i.e., a combination of cytarabine and doxorubicin. Also, side effects of such intensive chemotherapies are often severe, especially in elder patients. Therefore, it is in urgent need...

Diabetes has become the leading metabolic disease threatening human health. Meanwhile, the association between exposure to harmful environmental factors and the occurrence of diabetes has always been a hot spot of public health and environmental medicine.A recent study conducted by Dr. ZHOU Zhou’s lab at the Department of Environmental Medicine, the Zhejiang University School of Medicine elucidated the Cd perturbed metabolomic signature in pancreatic beta cells and human urine. The origina...

Plastics bring much convenience to human life by virtue of their flexibility, plasticity, lightness and cheapness, but they also pose a considerable threat to the natural environment owing to their non-degradable bonds that lead to “white pollution”. In recent years, an increasing number of researchers have started to seek new “plastics” as an alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics.The research findings by Prof. LIU Zhaoming and Prof. TANG Ruikang from the Department o...

【Message from the editor: In the previous issues, Dr. SHAO Fangwei and Dr. LIU Zuozhu from ZJUI, and Dr. CHEN Di from ZJE shared their research and teaching at the International Campus. Today, let’s meet Prof. WEN Wu, who joined the Zhejiang University International Business School (ZIBS) as a full-time professor in 2020. He is also a doctoral supervisor of the College of Computer Science and Technology of Zhejiang University and the Secretary-General of the Internatio...