On March 10, the research team led by Prof. KE Yuehai at the Zhejiang University School of Medicine published an open-access article entitled “Phosphatase Shp2 regulates biogenesis of small extracellular vesicles by dephosphorylating Syntenin” in Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. This study identified a group of tyrosine phosphatases that regulate the synthesis and secretion of small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) and elucidated that tyrosine phosphatase PTPN11/Shp2 negatively controls th...

Serotonin, dopamine and endorphins are the three most important substances for human happiness. Among them, Serotonin, or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), is a messenger molecule that produces a sense of well-being and happiness and is therefore also known as the “happy hormone”. Fluctuations in its level are often associated with emotional changes. For example, 5-HT deficiency can lead to depression. However, the biological mechanism as to how 5-HT generates a sense of well-being has yet to be dec...

The global pandemic has brought in its wake a steep rise in the consumption of face masks and an acute shortage of their raw material—propene. In 2020, the consumption of propene added up to 116 million tons globally. To meet the increasing demands for propene, oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODHP) has emerged as one of the key industrial technologies. In this regard, researchers, including XIAO Feng-Shou and WANG Liang from the Zhejiang University College of Chemical and Biological E...

Wearable sensing technology is an essential link to future personalized medicine through seamlessly monitoring heart rate, body temperature, and physical activities of human body. Recently, a wearable electronic sensor for plants has been jointly developed by LIU Xiangjiang and YING Yibin from the College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, WANG Xiaozhi from the College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering and HU Zhongyuan from the College of Ag...

Surgical resection is currently the primary treatment option for most malignant tumors. However, it remains to be a formidable challenge to remove tumor lesions in a precise and thorough manner. Recurrent abdominal malignancies, such as colon and ovarian cancers, are highly invasive and metastatic, and can migrate to surrounding tissues and critical organs in an immersive way. For this reason, imaging techniques, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ar...

On March 16, the lab led by FAN Hengyu from the Zhejiang University Life Sciences Institute published an open-access article entitled “The CNOT4 Subunit of the CCR4-NOT Complex is Involved in mRNA Degradation, Efficient DNA Damage Repair, and XY Chromosome Crossover during Male Germ Cell Meiosis” in the journal Advanced Science. It is the first time that researchers have reported the physiological function of the CNOT4 subunit of the CCR4-NOT complex during the process of embryo developme...

On March 30, the convocation ceremony was held for the Spring 2021 degree candidates on Yuquan Campus. In the congratulatory remarks, President WU Zhaohui said, “In today’s world, the 4th Industrial Revolution and the 2nd Machine Revolution are highly integrated, acting as a catalyst for changes in economic growth, civilization evolution, and scientific and educational development. Innovation-driven development cannot be achieved without the leadership of youth.”He inspired graduate...

The research team led by Prof. FAN Longjiang from the Zhejiang University College of Agriculture and Biotechnology published an opinion article entitled “De-Domestication: An Extension of Crop Evolution” in the journal Trends in Plant Science on February 26, 2021. It summarizes the latest research into de-domestication and proposes that crop evolution should extend from three nodes (wild plantsàlandraceàmodern cultivars) to four nodes (wild plantsàlandraceàmodern cultivarsà...

[Message from the editor: Prof. FAN Longjiang, featured in the newly released university video, discovered the cause for weedy rice in paddies, improving weed control and crop yield.] Quotes from the interview: - Now we adopt the latest approaches such as genomics and bioinformatics to better understand rice. Meanwhile, with a large amount of genomic data we can improve our breeding efficiency.- Through a large-scale global study of the genome, we discovered that the so-called wee...

[Message from the editor: Prof. WU Xiaobo, featured in the newly released university video, pioneered research in innovation management and big data business models.]  Quotes from the interview: - In the end of 1980, I was a PhD student, studying the innovation management. During that time, not so many people believe in innovation, so I got to explain what innovation was and how important innovation was.- China is changing so fast for the education, especially for the business edu...