iEnergy has been officially included in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) by Web of Science, a leading global provider of scientific and scholarly research information.

Micafungin is a semisynthetic echinocandin antifungal agent derived from fungal natural product FR901379 produced by Coleophoma empetri, which faces challenges in rational transformation of industrial strains due to poor chassis performance and unclear high-yield mechanisms. Recently, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Institute of Modern Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperated on heavy-ion irradiation mutagenesis, significantly improving the production performance of FR901379 (253.7%), and analyzed the heavy-ion irradiation damage repair mechanism and high-yield mechanism. This study not only provides better chassis cells and theoretical guidance for subsequent metabolic engineering modifications, but also provides a reference for the application of heavy-ion irradiation in filamentous fungal breeding.

To guard against harmful waterborne pathogens, many consumers, including managers of health-care facilities, install antimicrobial silver-containing showerheads. But in ACS ES&T Water, researchers now report that these fixtures are no “silver bullet.” In real-world showering conditions, most microbes aren’t exposed to the silver long enough to be killed. However, the composition of rare microbes in water from these showerheads varied with each type of fixture tested.