SUTD researchers have designed and 3D-printed microscopic colour routers that can capture clearer images in dim conditions without the light losses of conventional filters.

Researchers from the University of Osaka have shown how a protein complex called CCAN assembles at chromosomes inside the cell, forming a spherical shell-like structure inside the nucleus. The protein CENP-C is critical for building this shell, with cells that fail to form it showing defective chromosome segregation. These findings suggest that the ordered shell-like configuration of CCAN is critical for accurate chromosome segregation during cell division.

The rare earth elements that help power electric vehicles, wind turbines, medical imaging machines and other advanced technologies may be hiding in an unlikely place: industrial wastewater. Rice University researchers have developed an ultraporous material capable of pulling several valuable and rare earth elements from complex waste streams, a potential step toward recovering critical minerals that might otherwise be discarded.

Nicotinic acid, also known as niacin or vitamin B3, is used widely in the pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries and as a feed additive, yet its industrial production still relies mainly on chemical synthesis under harsh conditions that cause serious environmental pollution. Biocatalysis with nitrilase offers a greener alternative, but free enzymes and free cells are unstable and difficult to recover. Researchers have now developed a biomimetic hybrid immobilization platform that combines a zeolite core with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG200) crosslinking and a TEOS-derived silica shell to encapsulate whole cells of Corynebacterium glutamicum engineered to express a mutant nitrilase from Pseudomonas putida. The optimized biocatalyst achieved 88.78% molar conversion of 50 g/L 3-cyanopyridine, outperforming free cells at 62.83%, and was reused for 14 cycles to produce 603.56 g/L nicotinic acid at 90.2% total molar conversion.