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Category: chemistry

Advancements in organoid models emulating metastatic niches

Metastatic niche in organoid models.

The mortality rate of cancer patients remains high, mainly due to the lack of metastasis-tailored treatments, highlighting the need for alternative experimental approaches that capture metastatic development in a human context.

Human-induced pluripotent stem cell derived organoids cocultured with cancer cells (‘chimeroids’) have the potential to emulate aspects of colonized organ specific microenvironments and offer an alternative platform for target identification and drug discovery, as these models are amenable to scalable genetic and chemical perturbation screens.

Conceptually, organoid models have progressed from epithelial-only organoids to multilineage, niche enriched systems incorporating stromal, vascular, and tissue-resident immune components, thereby bringing in vitro models closer to organ-specific metastatic microenvironments.

Yet no single organoid model fully recapitulates the entire complexity of an organ in vivo; thus, model selection must be driven by the specific scientific question, ensuring that the relevant stage of metastatic development and organ microenvironment are appropriately represented. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights https://sciencemission.com/organoid-models-emulating-metastatic-niches

Metastases cause most cancer-related deaths, underscoring the need for therapies targeting metastatic stages, including the tumor microenvironment. Yet translating biological insights into treatments remains difficult. Preclinical metastasis research largely relies on rodent models, which have species-specific limitations and are incompatible with large-scale perturbation screens in a human context. Human organoids aim to emulate organ microenvironments in vitro and, when cocultured with cancer cells, can provide complementary models. These ‘chimeroids’ may enable scalable studies of cancer–microenvironment interactions and support genetic and pharmacological screens to discover new targets, offering insights into the final, often lethal step of metastasis—tissue colonization.

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Restoring mitochondrial function in dendritic cells to treat cancer

To counteract this effect, researchers introduced dendritic cells with high mitochondrial activity into tumors in preclinical mouse models, restoring immunogenic activity and improving tumor control.

Immunotherapies for cancer, such as immune checkpoint blockade, have greatly improved care for many malignancies, but have not been successful in all cancers. To determine if their findings could help make immunotherapy more effective in tumor-bearing mice, the investigators compared the therapeutic effects of administering dendritic cells with high mitochondrial activity in combination with immune checkpoint blockade with those of either treatment alone.

“We saw the most pronounced therapeutic effect in mice treated with the combination of dendritic cells that had high mitochondrial activity and immune checkpoint blockade,” said co-first author. “Those combinations synergistically slowed or stopped tumor growth and extended survival far more than either treatment alone.”

To test one combination therapy’s long-term effects, the researchers exposed treated mice to a new tumor months later. Those mice also stopped the new tumor’s growth, indicating durable, long-term immune memory was successfully established.

To better understand the relationship between mitochondrial function and dendritic cells, the researchers examined key metabolic pathways affected by the tumor microenvironment. They identified a signaling axis composed of two proteins, OPA1 and NRF1, that regulate communication between mitochondria and the nucleus. Their expression was greatly downregulated in dendritic cells during tumor progression. Within tumors, that circuit’s downregulation acts as a metabolic switch, in effect telling the cell that it is in an energy crisis, leading dendritic cells to shut down their nonessential functions, including immunogenic activity. Science Mission sciencenewshighlights.

Scientists have discovered how tumors disable immune “gatekeeper” cells that alert the rest of the immune system to the presence of cancer — and how restoring their energy production can improve immunotherapy. Dendritic cells activate the cytotoxic immune cells that destroy cancer. The researchers found that tumors reduce dendritic cell function by decreasing their mitochondrial fitness, thus preventing formation of the anticancer immune response.

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MXene breakthrough boosts conductivity 160x with perfect atomic order

A new technique known as the GLS method takes a very different approach. Instead of relying on harsh chemicals, it starts with solid materials called MAX phases and uses molten salts along with iodine vapor to form MXene sheets. This process allows researchers to control which halogen atoms, including chlorine, bromine, or iodine, attach to the surface.

The result is a much cleaner material. The surface atoms are arranged in a uniform and highly ordered way, and unwanted impurities are greatly reduced. The team demonstrated the versatility of this approach by successfully producing MXenes from eight different MAX phases.

Breaking fuel cell barriers: New platinum catalyst brings high-efficiency hydrogen vehicles closer to commercialization

A research team has developed a next-generation platinum-based catalyst that improves both activity and durability in hydrogen fuel cells. The study is published in Advanced Materials. The team was led by Professor Sang Uck Lee of the School of Chemical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University, with Ph.D. candidate Jun Ho Seok as a co-first author and Dr. Sung Chan Cho, in collaboration with Professor Kwangyeol Lee’s team at Korea University and Dr. Sung Jong Yoo’s team at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).

Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity through the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen and are considered a promising clean energy technology. However, their broader commercialization has been hindered by the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode and by catalyst degradation during long-term operation.

Conventional platinum-based intermetallic catalysts are known for their structural stability, but their atomic composition and arrangement are difficult to tune precisely. This has limited efforts to optimize their electronic structure and has made it challenging to achieve both high catalytic activity and long-term durability under demanding operating conditions, such as those required for hydrogen-powered vehicles.

High-throughput platform helps engineer fast-acting covalent protein drugs

A team led by principal investigators Bobo Dang and Ting Zhou at Westlake University/Westlake Laboratory have developed a high-throughput platform for engineering fast-acting covalent protein therapeutics. Their study, titled “A high-throughput selection system for fast-acting covalent protein drugs” published in Science, opens new avenues for next-generation biologics.

Covalent small-molecule drugs have shown great success in cancer therapy by forming irreversible bonds with their targets. This has inspired efforts to extend covalent strategies to protein therapeutics, especially engineered miniproteins. However, their development is limited by a kinetic mismatch: Miniproteins are rapidly cleared in vivo, whereas covalent bond formation is typically slow. In addition, high-throughput platforms for systematically optimizing covalent protein reactivity have been lacking.

To address this challenge, the researchers proposed that precise spatial positioning of chemical warheads within protein scaffolds could enable molecular preorganization, thereby accelerating covalent bond formation without increasing intrinsic reactivity.

World’s largest quantum circuit simulation for quantum chemistry achieved on 1,024 GPUs

A joint research team between the Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology (QIQB) at The University of Osaka and Fixstars Corporation has demonstrated one of the world’s largest classical simulations of iterative quantum phase estimation (IQPE) circuits for quantum chemistry on up to 1,024 GPUs, surpassing the previous 40-qubit limit. The result expands the scale of molecular systems available for the development and validation of quantum algorithms for future fault-tolerant quantum computers, supporting progress toward industrial applications in drug discovery and materials development.

The paper was presented at NVIDIA GTC 2026, held in San Jose, California, March 16–19, 2026.

Overcoming unresolved challenges in drug discovery and developing new materials to address climate change will require advanced quantum chemical calculations beyond the reach of current technology. Against this backdrop, fault-tolerant quantum computers (FTQC) are widely anticipated as a key enabling technology, making it increasingly important to develop and validate, ahead of their deployment, the quantum algorithms that will eventually run on such systems.

Stretching metals can tune catalysis: A new method predicts energy shifts

Heterogeneous catalysis—in which catalysts and reactants are of different phases, e.g., solid and gas—is important to many industrial processes and often involves solid metal as the catalyst. Ammonia synthesis, catalytic converters for automobile exhaust, methanol synthesis, carbon dioxide reduction, and hydrogen production are examples of such metal-catalyzed heterogeneous catalysis.

The electronic structure of metal surfaces governs the adsorption of reactants and intermediates, and thus the catalytic activity. For this reason, strain engineering —which tunes the electronic structure of a metal catalyst by stretching or compressing its crystal lattice—has emerged as an important strategy for enhancing catalytic performance. Unfortunately, scientists have not been able to quantify how metal strain influences adsorption energies and reaction barriers across different metal catalysts, thereby limiting the rational design of catalysts with desired properties.

To address this challenge, a research team from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a method to predict how strain modifies adsorption energies and reaction barriers across diverse metal systems. The study is published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.

Cyclic catalysts use sunlight and air to regenerate during pharma ingredient synthesis

In chemical processes for producing pharmaceuticals, catalysts are a core technology that determines production speed and cost. However, until now, there has been a trade-off between “precise but disposable catalysts” and “reusable catalysts.” A KAIST research team has developed an eco-friendly catalytic technology that combines these two types, operating solely with light and air. This opens a pathway to producing pharmaceutical ingredients more cheaply and cleanly, with expected reductions in carbon emissions and environmental pollution. The study is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

A research team led by Professor Sang Woo Han of the Department of Chemistry has succeeded in combining two different types of catalysts into one system. One is a silver (Ag)-based catalyst that operates in a solid state, and the other is an organic photocatalyst, DDQ (a substance that triggers chemical reactions upon absorbing light), which operates in solution.

By enabling these two catalysts to function together, the team made it possible to carry out previously difficult reactions more efficiently.

Quasi-liquid layer controls growth mechanisms of ice-like materials

Clathrate hydrates are crystalline structures formed at the bottom of seafloors, created by water molecules trapping methane, carbon dioxide or other molecules. While these materials are underutilized in technology, a University of Oklahoma researcher is helping scientists better understand them through a trailblazing study.

Alberto Striolo, a professor in OU’s Gallogly College of Engineering, co-authored an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that addresses a key challenge toward utilizing hydrates: their slow growth rates. He and his fellow researchers have discovered an unusual interfacial layer on the hydrate that impacts its growth rate.

Striolo is the college’s Asahi Glass Chair in Chemical Engineering and Lloyd and Jane Austin Presidential Professor. He is also the director of the college’s Online Master of Science in Sustainability and the Materials Science and Engineering doctoral program.

Integrated strategy unlocks 29.76% efficiency for all-perovskite tandem solar cells

Two stacked layers comprise tandem solar cells (TSCs), with each subcell absorbing different wavelengths of sunlight, which makes TSCs more efficient than single-layer solar cells. All-perovskite TSCs hold great promise for next-generation photovoltaics, with a theoretical efficiency exceeding 40%. However, their practical performance is hampered by mismatched crystallization kinetics between their wide-bandgap (WBG) and narrow-bandgap (NBG) subcells, leading to phase segregation and defect accumulation.

To address this challenge, a research group led by Prof. Ge Ziyi and Prof. Liu Chang from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed an innovative colloidal chemistry strategy to enhance the performance of these TSCs, achieving a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 29.76%. Their study is published in Joule.

The researchers designed a unified carboxylate-based modulator system using two graded carboxylate anions—tartrate (Ta-) and citrate (Cit-)—to precisely regulate the nucleation dynamics of the two subcells.

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