Chemical Engineering Molecular engineering

Researchers at The University of Osaka have created highly transparent wood without plastic additives and revealed that its clarity depends on structural direction. Alkali treatment softens cellulose-based cell walls, allowing internal cavities to collapse during drying and reduce light scattering. Tangential sections become more transparent than radial ones due to anisotropic swelling and densification. The findings offer new design principles for sustainable transparent materials in buildings and advanced devices.

A research group led by Associate Professor Katsuya Sakai, Researcher Nichole Marcela Rojas-Chaverra, and Professor Kunio Matsumoto of the Cancer Research Institute and Nano-Life Science (WPI-NanoLSI) at Kanazawa University has developed a long-acting, subcutaneously injectable artificial hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) mimetic molecule using a fusion technology of cyclic peptides and protein engineering. They demonstrated in a mouse model that it improves liver fibrosis, lipid accumulation, and inflammation caused by non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). This research result provides an option for the development of NASH therapeutics as well as a technology for creating growth factor and cytokine mimetic molecules with improved pharmacokinetics.

Genome editing is making inroads into biomedical research and medicine. By employing biomolecule modeling tools, a Japanese research team is accelerating the pace and cutting the cost of zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology, a primary gene editing tool.