International Research Chemistry Awards

  In nanoscale particle research, precise control and separation have long been a bottleneck in biotechnology . Researchers at the University of Oulu have now developed a new method that improves particle separation and purification. The promising technique could be applied, for example, in cancer research. Separating nanosized particles remains a persistent challenge in biotechnology. Once particle size drops below a few hundred nanometres, their behaviour becomes dominated by diffusion – the random walk of particles. This weakens the forces used to guide them, causing separation accuracy to collapse. A microfluidics research group led by Professor Caglar Elbuken at the University of Oulu has developed a new solution to the problem. The method significantly improves the separation and purification of both small synthetic particles and nanoscale vesicles secreted by living cells. Particle separation is crucial because many biological processes occur precisely at the nanoscale. Extr...

  Pancreatic cancer has a lot of nerve. Notoriously tricky to detect, the disease also often resists traditional therapy . So, researchers are urgently looking for new ways to disrupt tumor formation. Though scientists know that the nervous system can help cancer spread, its role in the disease's earliest stages remains unclear. "One phenomenon that is known is called perineural invasion," says Jeremy Nigri, a postdoc in Professor David Tuveson's lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). "This means cancer cells will migrate within the nerve and use the nerve as a way to metastasize." Now, Nigri and his colleagues at CSHL have discovered that the nervous system plays an active part in pancreatic cancer development, even before tumors form. Using 3D imaging, they found that tumor-promoting fibroblasts called myCAFs send out signals to attract nerve fibers. The myCAFs and nerve cells then work together within pancreatic lesions to create a favorable environ...

  Renowned as first responders to threatening infections , neutrophils also happen to feature prominently in the microenvironment of tumors, where they and other immune cells play opposing and frequently mutable roles in promoting-or resisting-cancer progression. Though they've been linked to the growth of multiple cancers, including those of the lung and breast, neutrophils can assume multiple functional states, only some of which have such an effect. Identifying those states has, for technical reasons, proved to be quite a challenge. Now researchers led by Ludwig Lausanne's Mikaël Pittet have discovered a gene expression program executed by tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) and a corresponding biomarker that uniformly support cancer cell survival and tumor progression across human and murine tumors. The findings, detailed in the current issue of Cancer Cell , identify TANs characterized by this conserved genetic program as a central variable of the tumor microenvironment (T...

  Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, marked by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. What makes it more dangerous is the ability of cancer cells to move quickly through the body, allowing them to invade surrounding tissues. While this behavior is well known, the mechanism behind this rapid spread remains unclear. Researchers from Kyushu University set out to fill this gap and unveiled a new physical process that helps cancer cells move rapidly throughout the body. This study was led by Professor Junichi Ikenouchi from Kyushu University's Faculty of Medical Sciences, along with his colleagues at Kyushu University, in collaboration with Yokohama City University. The findings of this study, published in The EMBO Journal on February 3, 2026, reveal how water pressure generated inside cells aids in cancer cell migration. Healthy cells typically move by attaching to surfaces, which allows them to pull themselves forward. While existing therapies can target this...

  A new study from scientists at Yale University and the University of Missouri shows that catalysts made with manganese can efficiently convert carbon dioxide into formate. Manganese is widely available and low cost, making it an attractive alternative to expensive metals. Formate is considered a promising material for storing hydrogen, which could help power the next generation of fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells work by turning chemical energy from hydrogen into electricity, similar to how a battery operates. Although the technology holds promise for clean energy, large-scale adoption has been limited by the difficulty and cost of producing and storing hydrogen efficiently. "Carbon dioxide utilization is a priority right now, as we look for renewable chemical feedstocks to replace feedstocks derived from fossil fuel," said Hazari, the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Chemistry, and chair of chemistry, in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). Formic acid, the prot...