Research led by Hiromi Shiraishi, researcher at Chuo University, has revealed that, in addition to Japanese Eel (Anguilla japonica), American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) is now widely distributed in processed eel products sold at retail stores across Japan. While eel farming in Japan relies primarily on Japanese Eel, two-thirds of eel consumption in the country depends on imports of live adult eels and eel products, which include several species of anguillid eels. As the world’s largest importer and consumer of eel, Japan is in a position to contribute to the sustainable use of anguillids beyond Japanese eel.

- Development of "dynamic nanomedicines" for efficient delivery of nucleic acid medicines to sentinel lymph nodes.

- Delivering nucleic acid medicines to sentinel lymph nodes, which serve as a checkpoint for cancer metastasis, activates the immune system, helping to suppress cancer metastasis and recurrence.

- Enhancing cancer immunotherapy to make it effective against immunotherapy-resistant tumors.

- Precise size adjustment of nanomedicines (approximately 10 nm) enables delivery to sentinel lymph nodes.

- Precision nanomedicine design via advanced computational modelling.

- Aim to start clinical trials within five years.

- This announcement is part of a research project conducted by Professor Kanjiro Miyata of the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo (Visiting Research Scientist at iCONM), in collaboration with iCONM researchers.

Kyoto, Japan -- As we witness the detrimental effects of climate change, the need for a rapid shift to renewable energy is only becoming more urgent. One of the most efficient forms of renewable energy, solar power, is generated by solar cells, which are the building blocks of solar panels. These electronic devices use semiconductors to convert the energy of light into electricity, a process called the photovoltaic effect.

Conventional solar cells have fundamental limitations in output voltage and conversion efficiency. A phenomenon called the bulk photovoltaic effect, which has attracted much attention in recent years, may enable highly efficient solar energy conversion without such limitations. However, the essential physics of the bulk photovoltaic effect have not been fully understood.

This effect originates from quantum phenomena and involves the asymmetric photoexcitation behavior of electrons, causing a steady electrical charge flow called a shift current, which is usually generated in the system with space-inversion symmetry. Another current materializes when there is a break in time-reversal symmetry, or the symmetry of physical laws when the flow of time is reversed. Since time-reversal symmetry is broken in magnetic materials, new effects related to the bulk photovoltaic effect are expected to arise in magnetic systems, but many aspects of these systems remain unexplained both theoretically and experimentally.

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a new way of telling “aged” human cells apart from younger ones using electric fields. While key markers have been found for these “senescent” cells, current methods require biochemical “labels” which are difficult to apply and affect the cells themselves, making them difficult to study. The new method is label-free and less damaging. The team aims to diversify the method, extending it to other cell types.

One of the causes of infertility is abnormal chromosome function in oocytes. New research from Kyushu University has revealed an unexpected novel function of the histone modification H3K4me3: stabilizing chromosomes and spindles in mature mouse oocytes.