Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality. Chemotherapy is still the most commonly used treatment for cancer patients. It typically relies on drug endocytosis and inhibits tumor cell proliferation via intracellular pathways. However, most chemotherapy drugs damage normal cells since they work by affecting the physiological processes of cell proliferation. The side effects of systemic chemotherapy used to treat cancer are often severe and may damage the tumor‐bearing host, especially the i...

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) develops in patients with chronic liver diseases, regardless of the presence of cirrhosis and represents the common final pathway leading to death. The short-term mortality rate amounts to 50-90% due to the fact that the cause of hepatocyte injury and the pathway involved in ACLF progression remain elusive. The chronic liver failure (CLIF) Consortium Acute-On-Chronic Liver Failure in Cirrhosis (CANONIC) study indicated that an intense systemic inflammatory r...

China is a country with a high incidence of liver cancer. According to the Global Cancer Report, the number of liver cancer cases in China accounts for 46.7% of the total number of cases all over the world. Although appreciable progress in the treatment of HCC has occurred over the past few years, current therapeutic effects are far from satisfactory, and the 5‐year survival rate varies from 14% to 18%. Various kinase inhibitors, such as sorafenib and lenvatinib, come as an enormous boon to live...

Of the approximately 1,200 plant virus species that have been described to date, nearly one-third are single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses, and all are transmitted by insect vectors. It is therefore of immense significance to investigate the insect transmission of plant ssDNA viruses.In January, Prof. WANG Xiaowei from the Zhejiang University College of Agriculture and Biotechnology co-published a review with Stéphane Blanc from the University of Montpellier in the journal Annual Revie...

For decades, transcription of bacteriophage T4 late genes has served as a model system to investigate mechanisms of transcription regulation. The T4 late promoters consist of a -10-like element placed at the position corresponding to the bacterial promoter -10 element. Nevertheless, there is no sequence conservation at the position corresponding to the bacterial promoter -35 element. In recent years, the research team led by Prof. FENG Yu from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine ...

To the ZJU community and our international friends, Warmest greetings from the Office of Global Engagement for a Happy Chinese New Year!  2021 is a year of the Chinese zodiac sign “Ox”, starting from Feb. 12th, 2021 and ending on Jan. 31st, 2022. The Ox has long been a symbol of power in Chinese culture. An Ox year is usually considered to be more hopeful and fruitful. May the Ox year bring you happiness and fortune.

[Message from the Editor: Spring Festival, also known as Chinese Lunar New Year, is an important occasion for the family reunion, and falls on Feb 12 this year. But due to the pandemic prevention, some students have chosen to stay put during the holiday. Some of them share their holiday plans with us.] Emaithy Samudio, Panama, an undergraduate student at the ZJU Ocean College“I have been in China since 2018 and moved to Hangzhou in 2019. I personally found Hangzhou a great city. It’s...

Human diseases are caused by the interplay between intrinsic molecular dynamics and environmental exposures, which can be broadly defined as biological, chemical, physical and even psychological exposures. Abnormal environmental exposures, especially during early life, can lead to a variety of acute and chronic diseases, including cancer, allergy/asthma and autoimmune diseases. The ‘exposome’ was first proposed by Christopher Wild to encompass the totality of human environmental exposures from...

Prevalence of seed-borne bacterial diseases poses a severe threat to rice production due to a drastic rise of toxin-producing Burkholderia pathogens, which lead to destructive damage to yield, quality and even resilience of paddy ecosystem. Manipulating disease resistance of the host plant is deemed to be a promising alternative and a more environmentally friendly approach in modern agricultural practices. However, is disease resistance related to the microbiota of the host plant? Is it her...

“I attach immense importance to the breakthrough from 0 to 1 and strive relentlessly to pursue innovation and transcendence, which is a driving force for my constant efforts in the cutting-edge research,” said ZHU Yongqun, a recipient of the 16th China Youth Science and Technology Award.ZHU Yongqun has long been committed to research into dangerous disease-inducing bacteria. He has achieved success in unveiling a multitude of “secret weapons” of pathogenic bacteria to overcome immune de...