ζ-Carotene, a key intermediate in lycopene biosynthesis, is widely found in plants and photosynthetic microorganisms, but its isomer-specific properties remain poorly understood due to isolation and purification challenges. Researchers have now developed a purification strategy to obtain high-purity geometric isomers and systematically characterized, for the first time, their isomer-specific spectral properties, photoisomerization behavior, UV-shielding capacity, antioxidant activity, and skin-related biological activities—highlighting ζ-carotene's promise as a natural ingredient for skin health and photoprotection.

Hydrogen may be a clean fuel, but not all hydrogen is green. Most H₂ is still produced from fossil fuels, while storing and transporting it remain costly and technically challenging. For hydrogen to truly live up to its green promise, we need cleaner and less costly ways to produce and store it. Looking for a more sustainable way forward, researchers at Tohoku University have developed a potential solution. Their new recyclable system uses baker’s yeast to store hydrogen directly in organic molecules and abundant, inexpensive iron ions to release it when needed.

Researchers have performed a full calculation within Glauber theory, a cornerstone framework for high-energy nuclear collisions. By accounting for all order multiple-scattering processes, their method accurately reproduces experimental data and provides a benchmark for simpler approximations, strengthening the theoretical foundation for studying ordinary and exotic nuclei.

Applying palaeoproteomics to ancient dental calculus from eight premodern commoners buried in the Umeda cemetery in Osaka, Japan, researchers identified 38 dietary proteins from 17 taxa, including high‑grade sea bream, salmonids from distant waters, terrestrial mammal meat, and cottonseed oil products. These findings show that even relatively poor urban commoners in premodern Osaka accessed an unexpectedly diverse range of foods supplied through the city’s role as the “Kitchen of the Realm."

A five-university Japan-Taiwan research consortium - led by Principal Researchers Yoshitane Imai (Professor, Kindai University) and Ming-Chia Li (Associate Professor, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University) - has been selected for the 2026 Japan–Taiwan Exchange Association Joint Research Grant Program in Natural and Applied Sciences. The participating institutions include Kindai University, Ibaraki University, Osaka Metropolitan University, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, and National Central University.

Through this international collaboration, Japanese and Taiwanese researchers are developing core technologies for circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes (CP-OLEDs), a type of next-generation semiconductor optical device that natively emits circularly polarized light.

To launch the project, the "2026 Taiwan–Japan Joint Symposium on Next-Generation Circularly Polarized Luminescence Technology" will be held on September 1–2, 2026, at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and National Central University in Taiwan. A delegation of researchers and students from Kindai University, Ibaraki University, and Osaka Metropolitan University will travel to Taiwan to present their latest scientific findings. The two-day program features dedicated sessions for early-career researchers, laboratory tours, and strategic planning meetings to align research objectives for the upcoming three-year initiative.

For decades, scientists have understood proteins primarily through two defining features: their amino acid sequence and their three-dimensional structure. This framework has driven major advances in biology, biotechnology, and medicine, culminating in recent artificial intelligence tools capable of predicting protein structures with remarkable accuracy. Yet a fundamental challenge remains: even when a protein's sequence and structure are known, predicting its function, interactions, and behavior often remains difficult. An international team of researchers from Japan, Finland, Italy, and the United States now reports evidence that part of this missing information may lie in an often-overlooked component of proteins: the highly organized water surrounding them. In a study accepted for publication in Nature Communications, the team provides the first direct three-dimensional visualization of sequence-dependent hydration architectures surrounding peptide assemblies at sub-nanometer resolution using advanced three-dimensional atomic force microscopy (3D-AFM). The findings reveal that water near peptide and protein surfaces is not simply a passive solvent. Instead, it forms highly organized, multilayered structures whose organization is dictated by the underlying amino acid sequence and surface chemistry. These hydration architectures extend multiple layers from the peptide surface and contain distinct structural signatures associated with hydrophobic, polar, aromatic, and charged amino acid residues. 

Developmental disorders, including autism, entail challenges in social life; as the number of affected individuals has risen, this has become a significant societal concern. Using a mouse model, we demonstrate that a mutation in CHD8, a gene associated with autism spectrum disorder, causes abnormal differentiation of ventral progenitor cells, leading to autistic-like behavior in adulthood. This should lead to the elucidation of mechanisms underlying autism onset during brain development and to the advancement of therapeutics.

Hematopoietic stem cells can transform into any type of blood cell. However, this ability declines as we age. Recent research at Tohoku University uses AI to guide their deep dive into understanding which genes cause aging in stem cells.