With less than 10 years left to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Open Science is often deemed as an accelerator and enabler of sustainable and innovative solutions. In this context, what role should universities play in promoting Open Science? How can universities and researchers capitalize on Open Science in a bid to realize the SDGs?In response to these isssues, the 4th WLA University Presidents Forum, co-hosted by Zhejiang University and World Laureates Association, kicked...

The ZJU-UIUC Institute formally inaugurated Prof. LEE Der-Horng as the Institute’s dean on October 27. Prof. HE Lianzhen, vice president of Zhejiang University, extended her warm welcome to Prof. Lee on behalf of the University. “Prof. Lee will play a vitally important role in advancing the University’s engineering discipline to the forefront of the world. I hope that the International Campus will create a favorable environment for Prof. Lee and build a fantastic joint research platform,...

On October 26, Prof. HE Lianzhen, vice president of Zhejiang University, and Prof. Marc-Philippe Weller, vice-rector for International Affairs at Heidelberg University, signed an agreement for a student exchange program by video link. Both parties shared their ideas and initiatives in scientific research and global cooperation. They hoped that the two universities could deepen cooperation in the domains of digital health and sustainable development. They also looked forward to official...

Differentiation of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) into functional neural cells is of tremendous significance to treat neural diseases. However, the limited neural differentiation of BMSCs remains a major challenge. Recent studies suggest that miRNAs may play a crucial role in regulating the neural differentiation of stem cells as effective signaling molecules. Due to their unique physiochemical attributes, miRNAs cannot be efficiently delivered in vitro and in vivo, thus...

ProfileNóra Kovács was part of the first batch of international students to join the Zhejiang University-University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute (the ZJU-UIUC Institute, ZJUI) and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 2021. A native Hungarian, Nóra speaks four languages: Hungarian, Chinese, English and German. Upon graduation, she received offers from many of the world's leading universities, including UC Berkeley, UIUC and TU Delft.Beginnings: a coincidental i...

The research team led by Prof. ZHANG Jin from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine and the team led by Dr. HU Zeping from the Tsinghua University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences published their collaborative research regarding metabolic remodeling during murine early embryo development in the journal Nature Metabolism on October 14.Component analysis of the fallopian tubal liquid and identification of suitable medium ingredients for culturing mammalian embryos in vitro highligh...

Plant roots continuously secrete primary and secondary metabolites into soil. These exudates are key players in the interactions between plants, animals and soil in the rhizosphere. Benzoxazinoids are a group of secondary metabolites widespread in grasses (Poaceae), including maize, wheat and rye. These metabolites are regarded as general defense metabolites in plants, being associated with a wide spectrum of direct antifeedant, insecticidal, antimicrobial, and allelopathic activities. They are ...

Prof. YUAN Huiqiu from the Zhejiang University Department of Physics has been honored as a 2021 Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), one of the world’s largest and most prestigious organizations dedicated to the advancement of physics. Prof. Yuan was specifically cited for “his outstanding contribution to the research areas of unconventional superconductivity, quantum criticality, topological materials with strong electronic correlations, and superconductors with ...

On September 30, the research team led by YI Wen at the Zhejiang University College of Life Sciences published a research article entitled “One-step enzymatic labeling reveals a critical role of O-GlcNAcylation in cell-cycle progression and DNA damage response” in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAcylation) is a prevalent and dynamic post-translational modification on serine or threonine residues of numerous proteins and it plays...

【Message from the editor: In the previous issues, Dr. SHAO Fangwei, associate professor from ZJUI, and Dr. CHEN Di from ZJE, shared their research and teaching at the International Campus. Today, let’s meet Dr. LIU Zuozhu, who joined ZJUI as an assistant professor in 2020. His research interests mainly lie at machine learning, deep learning algorithms and applications. Detailed directions include unsupervised/semi-supervised learning algorithms, Bayesian inference, and their applications ...