ãHydrogen production by water electrolysis has attracted attention in terms of realizing carbon neutrality.
ãHowever, large overvoltage (= overpotential) is a challenge that causes excessive degradation for the electrode in conventional electrodes. To solve this challenge, optimization of the material composition of the electrode has been advanced, but it is not sufficient.
ãIn the invention, as a new electrode design approach, the surface structure of the electrode (nano/micro structure) is calculated and designed in terms of introduction of the interaction with the electronic polarization of chemical reaction intermediates or the vibrational polarization of water molecules in water electrolysis. It can reduce the overpotential and Tafel slope by applying above method successfully.
ãThe invention enables water electrolysis with low overpotential, and is expected to reduce power consumption and extend the life of the electrode.
UW-Madison researchers have developed a multi-functional antibiotic nanoparticle that incorporates hemoglobin and the clinically approved antifungal agent naftifine in the core which is coated with red blood cell membranes. The antifungal agent inhibits release of a small molecule that absorbs reactive oxygen species while the iron molecules in the hemoglobin inhibit release and accumulation of hydrogen sulfide by the bacteria. As neutrophil activity against the bacteria depends on reactive oxygen species, blocking two pathways the bacteria use to absorb reactive oxygen species should result in neutrophil-mediated destruction of the bacteria. Coating the particle in red blood cell membranes yields a large number of polyunsaturated fatty acids which modify the bacterial cell membrane making it more susceptible to oxidative damage. The researchers have shown the particle is effective in killing antimicrobial-resistant S. aureus in a pneumonia model, a peritonitis model, and a bacteremia model. The particle is also efficient in killing S. aureus biofilms.
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The inventors have an extensive data package showing the particle has multi-functional antibacterial activity as they envisioned. They have some safety data and have some preliminary data showing efficacy in vivo.
UW-Madison researchers in collaboration with a researcher at Clemson University have developed a chemical scaffold that potently inhibits whole Naegleria fowleri parasites in culture. They have prepared > 90 analogs with potency to EC50 = 40 nM. The compounds do not show cell toxicity in a human neuronal cell line and appear to get into the CNS.
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Literature/academic efforts describe compounds with weak inhibition at best (> 30 uM) and no indication of efficacy. For reference, miltefosine, the golden child of amoeba treatment, has an
EC50 value in the 40-80 uM range.
Researchers from UW-Madison and UW-River Falls have developed a process that could enable the use of milk-derived FAs in IVFE. The inventors have identified processing steps to address each of the limitations outlined above, including: (1) starting from anhydrous milk fat (AMF), which is obtained via centrifugation and vacuum treatments following cream or butter manufacture, to increase the fat concentration (>98% milk fat); (2) crystallization of the AMF to isolate the desirable fatty acids (i.e., fractionation); and (3) emulsification of the desired fatty acids using ultra high-pressure homogenization (UHPH). The resultant composition would be an IVFE comprising the desired blend of FAs (e.g., omega -3, -6, and -9) in a form factor that is compatible for intravenous administration.Â
UW-Madison researchers have developed a novel camelid antibody against the cancer target cMET. As cMET is overexpressed on many tumors, this antibody may be useful for imaging tumors and/or delivering therapeutics to tumor cells.
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The inventors have validated the antibody for target binding, conjugated the antibody to a radioactive molecule for cancer imaging in a preclinical animal model for cancer, and is being studied for its ability to decrease cMET activity.
This is a cost-effective, large-scale DNA bait synthesis method that we call Circular Nucleic acid Enrichment Reagent, or CNER (pronounced as snare). The CNER method involves circularization of target template oligos that contain a linker region to promote circularization via splint-ligation and a rare-cutter restriction enzyme site for subsequent discretization of the capture probes. Circularized templates are isothermally amplified by rolling circle amplification (RCA) with the inclusion of biotinylated nucleotides. The long RCA products are discretized into single biotinylated baits by restriction digestion. The resulting biotinylated CNER probes can be generated in microgram quantities and used for capture enrichments on streptavidin-coated beads.
Figure:
Circular Nucleic acid Enrichment Reagent method. An oligonucleotide template pool containing restriction enzyme recognition sites (RES) and oligo-dT linkers is circularized by an oligo-dA splint adapter mediated ligation. Circularized templates are isothermally amplified using oligo-dA and oligo-dT oligos by rolling circle amplification (RCA). RCA products are then digested with restriction enzymes to generate CNERs. CNERs generate both strands (dark and light shades of colors) of the templates. Biotinylated nucleotides (purple diamonds) are incorporated during amplification.
UW-Madison researchers have developed a method of enriching microbial DNA in a plasma DNA sample for early detection of microbial infection. Previously, this group found that microbial DNA fragments are shorter in plasma compared to human cell-free DNA, due to high levels of degradation of microbial DNA in plasma. Other researchers have shown that single stranded DNA library preparation can also enrich for microbial DNA fragments in samples because ssDNA preparations are more effective at incorporating the shorter microbial fragments into a sequencing library. The UW-Madison researchers combined these two steps, removing long strands of DNA followed by creating a ssDNA library from the resulting shorter strands of DNA, to develop an enrichment approach. They demonstrated that this method enriches microbial DNA by a mean of 202-fold across 46 patient plasma samples making it much more feasible to use whole genome sequencing for microbial DNA detection.
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To provide context, for an average sample analyzed using 10 million sequencing reads, this enrichment approach increases the total microbial DNA reads from 65 reads to 11,000 reads. This improved sensitivity makes this method feasible for clinical use. Being able to do whole genome sequencing on the DNA should allow the researchers to determine the source of the microbial DNA, as well. They are currently working on that last step.
UW-Madison researchers have developed a novel protocol for generating nearly pure retinal progenitors (PAX6/VSX2 positive cells) without contamination by forebrain cells. Retinas develops from precursors of forebrain cells, and the inventors recently discovered that BMP (bone morphogenetic protein) pathway-related genes are differentially expressed in the developing retinal and forebrain neural progenitors by comparing their expression profile using single cell RNA-Seq datasets. In examining the role of the BMP pathway in retinal differentiation, the inventors found that continued inhibition of the BMP pathway, which is commonly used for neural differentiation, blocks retinal differentiation. Addition of BMP after neural induction by TGF-beta alone in the first week significantly enhances the retinal differentiation. After a series of analyses, the inventors identified the optimal stage for application of BMPs, the duration of BMP administration and the dosage of BMPs. Thereby, the inventors developed a novel protocol for generating nearly pure retinal progenitors (PAX6/VSX2 positive cells) without the contamination of forebrain cells by first guiding the stem cells to primitive ectoderm cells with TGFb inhibitor in the first 6 days followed by differentiation to retinal progenitors with BMPs. The retinal progenitors can be further differentiated into the terminally differentiated retinal cells: ganglion, amacrine, and photoreceptor cells. The differentiation of retinal cells in vitro using our newly developed method has been validated by single cell RNA-seq and immunostaining.
Zinc oxide is used as an ultraviolet shielding agent in cosmetics such as sunscreens. However, in the conventional manufacturing technology, it was difficult to control the particle size of zinc oxide, and it was considered that the texture was bad. Furthermore, there is concern about the effects on the environment and the human body due to toxic exhaust gas caused by treatment at high temperature and the use of inert gas in the manufacturing process. The present invention relates to a method for producing spherical zinc oxide with uniform particle size and monodisperse, and spherical zinc oxide with a simple, low cost and low environmental impact. The spherical zinc oxide is expected to be used as a cosmetic with high ultraviolet shielding effect, excellent soft focusing property and excellent usability.