In his new book, Julian Mcclements explains why he is committed to eating ‘meat less’

Meat Less: The Next Food Revolution can be preordered now from major booksellers

Book Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

 

IMAGE: MEAT LESS IS DAVID JULIAN MCCLEMENTS' 11TH BOOK. view more 

CREDIT: SPRINGER PUBLISHING

Distinguished Professor of Food Science and prolific author David Julian McClements has a new book out this month – Meat Less: The Next Food Revolution (Springer, 2023).

Meat Less describes McClements’ journey to vegetarianism, a shift inspired by his daughter and his ongoing research work on developing healthier and more sustainable foods.

“In writing this book I take the viewpoint that there are no easy answers and that everyone must make the decision to eat meat or not based on their own values,” says McClements, a pioneering scientist who has written 11 books that explore the physics, chemistry and biology of improving the quality, safety and healthiness of foods.

At UMass, McClements is part of a multidisciplinary team that holistically explores the science and technology – including protein chemistry, soft matter physics, food engineering, sensory science, gastrointestinal fate and gut microbiome effects – behind the design and fabrication of plant-based foods that are better for humans and the planet.

In Meat Less, McClements examines the impact of meat consumption on the environment, human nutrition, animal welfare and food safety, delving into how much eating meat contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, biodiversity loss, antimicrobial resistance and zoonotic diseases (infections that spread between people and animals), as well as their impact on human health and well-being.

He discusses the latest advances in science and technology that are leading to more tasty, healthy and sustainable alternatives to real meat. These plant-, microbial-, lab-grown and insect-based meat analogs mimic the appearance, flavor and texture of meat. “The availability of more of these products will facilitate the worldwide transition to a more environmentally friendly and ethical diet,” McClements says. 

At the end of the book, McClements presents his vision of the human diet in 2050.

“In the final chapter, I discuss why I remain a vegetarian and have decided to dedicate the rest of my scientific career to finding sustainable and healthy alternatives to meat,” he says.

David Julian McClements is a Distinguished Professor of Food Science at UMass Amherst.

CREDIT

UMass Amherst

Meat Less is available for preorder now from major booksellers.

$10 million grant will help MU double the acreage of cover crops in the US by 2030

Five-year USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant will help double cover crop seed production.

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

 

IMAGE: CRIMSON CLOVER TEST PLOTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI BRADFORD RESEARCH AND EXTENSION CENTER view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

Rob Myers, director of MU’s Center for Regenerative Agriculture, is leading a new $10 million grant project from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), to support farmers and improve agriculture practices during severe weather and a warming climate.

The project aims to help double the acreage of cover crops in the U.S. to 40 million acres by 2030. Cover crops — plants that are used to protect and improve soil during a time when other crops are not being grown — help reduce soil erosion, improve soil health, smother weeds, control pests and diseases, and improve biodiversity.

“It was really pivotal to get this funding because one of the biggest factors that could limit future growth in acres of cover crops is having an adequate seed supply,” Myers said. “We also really need improved varieties that are well-adapted to different regions, soil types and cropping systems, so that farmers can get maximum benefit from the cover crops they are using.”

The project involves collaboration among 14 MU faculty, 38 scientists from across the country, 17 states, 12 universities, three seed companies, the American Seed Trade Association, three USDA Agricultural Research Service locations and three USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Materials Centers.

“It’s exciting to see scientists from so many disciplines at MU collaborating with colleagues across the country on groundbreaking research,” said Mun Choi, University of Missouri president. “By bringing together animal scientists, crop scientists, soil scientists and agricultural economists, we can discover more effective solutions that will be transformational for farmers, Missourians and Americans nationwide. This project will add economic value to farms while our researchers work to preserve the soil that is so critical for future food growth.”

Along with doubling the seed production for cover crops and distributing them to farmers nationwide, Myers’ team will educate farmers about new varieties of cover crops and examine which types are best suited for different regions of the country, depending on geography, weather conditions and types of soil.

“This project will provide great collaboration with farmers and seed companies to provide new cover crop varieties helping protect and improve soils across the U.S.,” said Christopher Daubert, vice chancellor and dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. “It’s the type of integrated effort involving research, extension and education that we strive to support through the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources.”

Myers, who grew up on a farm in Illinois that uses cover crops, said the project has the potential to have an enormous impact on farmland across the U.S.

“Whether it’s cover crops or other plants, we tend to just notice the part of the plant we can see above the ground, but the roots below the ground are equally important. One challenge is that we currently don’t know a lot about how different varieties of cover crops perform with the growth of the roots because we can’t see it,” Myers said. “For this project, we will examine how different cover crop roots help put carbon in the soil, which is a helpful adaptation in the midst of climate change.”

The $10 million grant is the largest grant MU has earned from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Myers recently earned a $25 million grant — the largest federal grant ever awarded to an MU faculty member — to help Missouri farmers adopt climate-smart practices.

“Agriculture is the largest industry in Missouri, and the experts we have here at MU are not only improving farming practices throughout the Midwest, but also across the country,” said Michael Williams, chair of the UM System Board of Curators. “MU research is critical to improving the health and well-being of Missourians, and these large grants are only awarded to scientists who have demonstrated they are among the best in the country.”

Wildfires in 2021 emitted a record-breaking amount of carbon dioxide

UC Irvine-led study found northern-latitude forest fires to be the highest source

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - IRVINE

Irvine, Calif., March 2, 2023 — Carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires, which have been gradually increasing since 2000, spiked drastically to a record high in 2021, according to an international team of researchers led by Earth system scientists at the University of California, Irvine.

Nearly half a gigaton of carbon (or 1.76 billion tons of CO2) was released from burning boreal forests in North America and Eurasia in 2021, 150 percent higher than annual mean CO2 emissions between 2000 and 2020, the scientists reported in a paper in Science.

“According to our measurements, boreal fires in 2021 shattered previous records,” said senior co-author Steven Davis, UCI professor of Earth system science. “These fires are two decades of rapid warming and extreme drought in Northern Canada and Siberia coming to roost, and unfortunately even this new record may not stand for long.”

The researchers said that the worsening fires are part of a climate-fire feedback in which carbon dioxide emissions warm the planet, creating conditions that lead to more fires and more emissions.

“The escalation of wildfires in the boreal region is anticipated to accelerate the release of the large carbon storage in the permafrost soil layer, as well as contribute to the northward expansion of shrubs,” said co-author Yang Chen, a UCI research scientist in Earth system science. “These factors could potentially lead to further warming and create a more favorable climate for the occurrence of wildfires."

Davis added, “Boreal fires released nearly twice as much CO2 as global aviation in 2021. If this scale of emissions from unmanaged lands becomes a new normal, stabilizing Earth’s climate will be even more challenging than we thought.”

Analyzing the amount of carbon dioxide released during wildfires is difficult for Earth system scientists for a variety of reasons. Rugged, smoke-enshrouded terrain hampers satellite observations during a combustion event, and space-based measurements are not at a sufficiently fine resolution to reveal details of CO2 emissions. Models used to simulate fuel load, fuel consumption and fire efficiency work well under ordinary circumstances but are not robust enough to represent extreme wildfires, according to the researchers.

And there is another roadblock of our own creation. “Earth’s atmosphere already contains large amounts of carbon dioxide from human fossil fuel burning, and the existing greenhouse gas is difficult to distinguish from that produced by forest fires,” said Chen.

The team found a way around these hurdles by studying carbon monoxide expelled into the atmosphere during blazes. Combining CO readings from MOPITT – the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere satellite instrument – with existing fire emissions and wind speed datasets, the team reconstructed changes in global fire CO2 emissions from 2000-2021. Carbon monoxide has a shorter lifespan in the atmosphere than CO2, so if scientists detect an anomalous abundance of CO, that provides evidence of fires.

The researchers independently confirmed the occurrence of extreme fires in 2021 with data sets provided by NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites. 

"The inversion approach employed in this study is a complementary method to the conventional bottom-up approach, which is based on estimating the burned area, fuel load, and combustion completeness,” Chen said. “Combining these approaches can result in a more comprehensive understanding of wildfire patterns and their impacts."

The researchers said their data analysis revealed links between extensive boreal fires and climate drivers, especially increased annual mean temperatures and short-lived heat waves. They found that higher northern latitudes and areas with larger tree cover fractions were especially vulnerable.

“Wildfire carbon emissions globally were relatively stable at about 2 gigatons per year for the first two decades of the 21st century, but 2021 was the year when emissions really took off,” David said. “About 80 percent of these CO2 emissions will be recovered through vegetation regrowth, but 20 percent are lost to the atmosphere in an almost irreversible way, so humans are going to have to find some way to remove that carbon from the air or substantially cut our own production of atmospheric carbon dioxide.”

Joining UCI’s Davis and Chen on this project was an international team of researchers from Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, China; China’s State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Sources and Control of Air Pollution Complex in Beijing; the University of Paris-Saclay; Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry; the Netherlands Institute for Space Research; Vrije University in Amsterdam; Harbin Institute of Technology in China.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.

NOTE TO EDITORS: PHOTO AVAILABLE AT
https://news.uci.edu/2023/03/02/wildfires-in-2021-emitted-a-record-breaking-amount-of-carbon-dioxide

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JOURNAL

Science

ARTICLE TITLE

Record-high CO2 emissions from boreal fires in 2021

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Mar-2023

NFL players who experienced concussion symptoms during careers show reduced cognitive performance decades after retirement

Using data from the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, study led by Mass General Brigham investigators contributes further evidence elucidating the impact of a playing career on long-term cognitive function.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM

Former professional football players who reported experiencing concussion symptoms during their playing careers were found to perform worse on a battery of cognitive tests than non-players, according to a study led by Mass General Brigham investigators from McLean Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. Results of the study are published March 2nd in Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology.[JR1] 

Of the more than 350 former National Football League (NFL) players who were studied an average of 29 years after their playing career ended, those who reported experiencing concussion symptoms during their careers scored worse on assessments of episodic memory, sustained attention, processing speed and vocabulary. However, the number of concussions diagnosed by a medical professional or length of playing career had no observed effect on cognition.

A follow-up analysis compared the former players to more than 5,000 male volunteers in the general population who did not play professional football, which found that cognitive performance was generally worse for former players than nonplayers. While younger former players outperformed nonplayers on some tests, older retired players more likely to perform worse than controls on cognitive tasks.

The researchers who led the study said that their results underline the importance of tracking concussion symptoms as opposed to diagnosed concussions in research. This work also adds evidence to the impact a professional football career can have on accelerating cognitive aging. 

“It is well-established that in the hours and days after a concussion, people experience some cognitive impairment. However, when you look decades out, the data on the long-term impact have been mixed,” said study senior author Laura Germine, PhD, director of the Laboratory for Brain and Cognitive Health Technology at McLean Hospital  and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “These new findings from the largest study of its kind show that professional football players can still experience cognitive difficulties associated with head injuries decades after they have retired from the sport.”

Concussion Symptoms Linked to Cognitive Performance

For the study, 353 retired NFL players completed hour-long neuropsychological tests through an online platform called TestMyBrain, which is supported by McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Players were fully remote and completed tests on a laptop or desktop that included assessments that measured processing speed, visual-spatial and working memory, and aspects of short- and long-term memory and vocabulary. 

Recollected concussion symptoms were measured by asking the players the number of times they experienced any one of the following symptoms following a blow to the head during play or practice: headaches, nausea, dizziness, loss of consciousness, memory problems, disorientation, confusion, seizure, visual problems or feeling unsteady on their feet. They were also asked whether they lost consciousness during their careers, and whether they were ever diagnosed with a concussion by a medical professional.

The results showed that the former players’ cognitive performance (for example, on memory tasks) was associated with recalled football concussion symptoms. For example, differences observed in visual memory scores between former players with the highest and lowest reported concussion symptoms were equivalent to the differences in cognitive performance between a typical 35-year-old and 60-year-old.

However, poor cognitive performance was not associated with diagnosed concussions, years of professional play or age of first football exposure. The researchers noted that many head injuries or sub-concussive blows may not have been diagnosed as concussions due to a lack of awareness at the time or underreporting of symptoms by players. 

When comparing the retired players to a group of 5,086 men who did not play football, cognitive performance was generally worse for former players. On two tests of processing speed, age-related differences in cognitive performance were larger among the former player group than the nonplayer group, with older players performing worse.

These comparison data suggest that football exposure might accelerate age-related cognitive declines and produce greater disadvantages at older ages, according to the researchers, who added that more studies are needed to track cognitive performance in former players as they age. Another possibility is that improved awareness and management of head injuries may have spared younger retired players more than older ones. The researchers also noted that this comparative finding is limited by a lack of data on cognition prior to head injuries, and that more research is needed that closely matches former players and nonplayers and measures their cognitive performances across their lifetimes.

“For both former players and researchers, we can glean some important takeaways from this study,” said principal investigator of the Football Players Health Study, Ross Zafonte, DO. “Former players can support their cognitive health as they age by taking proactive steps, and continuing to consult with their providers and educate themselves on symptoms of head injury. For researchers and providers, these findings support efforts to develop ways to enhance diagnosis and define long-term sequalae of concussion.” Zafonte is president of Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, a Mass General Brigham sports medicine physician, and the Earle P. and Ida S. Charlton Professor and Chair of the Harvard Medical School Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

“The Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach taken in this study is where this field is heading,” said Germine. “We are grateful to the players and how much they have taught us. It would not have been possible to do a study like this without engaging and deeply involving their community.”

Research Driven by Input from Former NFL Players

The Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, launched in 2014, is a comprehensive research program dedicated to examining the multifactorial causes that impact the health of former NFL players. The research has been informed by the players themselves, who have provided input on the health concerns and conditions they face after a career in football. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Harvard University and Harvard Medical School and its affiliated teaching hospitals, including those in the Mass General Brigham system, conduct research from neurology, cardiology, sports medicine, rehabilitation medicine, chronic pain and public health. While concussion and head injury are of paramount concern, the study examines all aspects of player health across the life span. Former players can find important resources to support their health in this section of the study’s website.

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This work was supported by the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, which is funded by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors, and does not necessarily represent the official views of Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, and its affiliated academic healthcare centers. The NFLPA had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

In addition to Drs. Germine and Zafonte, other investigators on the study included Roger W. Strong, PhD, Rachel Grashow, PhD, MS, Andrea L. Roberts, PhD, Eliza Passell, BA, Luke Scheuer, BA, Douglas P. Terry, PhD, Sarah Cohan, PMP, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD and Marc G. Weisskopf PhD, ScD.

Paper cited: Strong RW et al. “Association of retrospectively reported concussion symptoms with objective cognitive performance in former American-style football players” Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acad008.

About Mass General Brigham

Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic healthcare system, uniting great minds in medicine to make life-changing impact for patients in our communities and people around the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a non-profit organization that is committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations and a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information, please visit massgeneralbrigham.org.

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 [JR1]Article link once embargo lifts: https://academic.oup.com/acn/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/arclin/acad008

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JOURNAL

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology

DOI

10.1093/arclin/acad008 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Association of Retrospectively Reported Concussion Symptoms with Objective Cognitive Performance in Former American-Style Football Players

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Mar-2023

COI STATEMENT

Laura Thi Germine, PhD, is President and Director of the 501c3 nonprofit Many Brains Project, Inc., that supports open source cognitive tests for research. She previously served as Scientific Advisor to Sage Bionetworks, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit that supports research studies. Douglas Terry, PhD, serves as a scientific advisor for HitIQ. He previously consulted for REACT Neuro, Inc. He has a consulting practice in forensic neuropsychology, including expert testimony, involving individuals who have sustained mild TBIs (including former athletes).

Gene editing technique highlighted as possible ‘savior’ for climate change threatened rice crops

A review of gene editing techniques suggests that the CRISPR/Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas) method could be a possible ‘saviour’ for rice crops threatened by climate change and high food demand.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CABI

 

IMAGE: A SCIENTIST INSPECTS RICE IN CHINA view more 

CREDIT: CABI

A review of gene editing techniques suggests that the CRISPR/Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas) method could be a possible ‘saviour’ for rice crops threatened by climate change and high food demand.

The study, published in CABI Reviews, highlights that while rice is one of the most consumed cereals worldwide and feeds about three billion people, climate-induced abiotic and biotic stresses have affected the production and quality of rice crops.

Dr Antonio Costa de Oliveira, lead author of the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil, and a team of fellow scientists found that the CRISPR/Cas tool was efficient in gene editing in studies related to yield, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses and rice grain quality.

However, the review, which sought to describe the different gene editing techniques and their respective applications in rice breeding, argues that the impact of the CRISPR/Cas approach in breeding programmes depends upon the cultivation of the edited plants on a large scale in the field.

Dr Costa de Oliveira said, “The development of new, higher yielding cultivars is necessary to ensure global food security.

“Although great progress has already been achieved by conventional breeding, biotechnological tools, such as transgenics and genome editing, can aid in meeting future demands.

“Gene editing is characterized by cutting and modifying target genes. Among the genome editing techniques, CRISPR/Cas has been proposed because of its ease of manipulation.

“Variants such as multiple Cas proteins, base editing and prime editing, which aim to increase editing efficiency have also been proposed. Edited plants are also more accepted because they are transgene free.”

The study outlines that a 50% increase in the current consumption of rice is projected for 2050 – which would mean a demand as high as 1.125 billion tonnes.

But the occurrence of biotic stresses (diseases – viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, pests and weeds) coupled with abiotic stresses (drought, submergence, salinity, heat, cold and heavy metals) is a limiting factor for rice production. 

Climate change also influences the frequency, intensity and duration of these stresses, the scientists say. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new rice cultivars with tolerance to stress and higher yield potential, since the expansion of the cultivated area is limited.

Dr Costa de Oliveira added, “The high potential of CRISPR/Cas9 editing, for instance, has aided in the development of broad-spectrum resistance against bacteria, fungi and viruses by silencing susceptibility genes and the insertion of resistance genes.

“In this sense, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing has made it possible to introduce mutations in three promoters of the SWEET gene that resulted in rice lines with broad-spectrum resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae.”

The researchers conclude by stating that although conventional breeding has been decisive so far, there is still a long way to go in order to meet future demands and face the challenges of rice cultivation.

“plants improved from genome editing and conventional breeding are similar in terms of risks to the environment and human health, which are practically non-existent,” Dr Costa de Oliveira said. “Therefore, it is expected that edited plants, in addition to meeting the demands, have good acceptance among consumers.”

 

Additional information

Main image: A scientist inspects rice in China (Credit: CABI).

Full paper reference

Nizolli, Valeria de Oliveira; Oliveira, Victoria Freitas de; Maia, Luciano Carlos da; Pegorario, Camila; de Oliveira, A. C. ‘Gene editing techniques in rice: new paths for an old crop,’ CABI Reviews, 3 March (2023). DOI: 10.1079/cabireviews.2023.0008

The paper can be read open access from 00:01hrs UK time 3 March, 2023, here: https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabireviews.2023.0008

Media enquiries

For more information and an advance copy of the paper contact:

Dr Antonio Costa de Oliveira, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil – email: acostol@gmail.com

Wayne Coles, Senior PR Manager, CABI – email: w.coles@cabi.org

About CABI Reviews

CABI Reviews is a reviews journal covering agriculture, global health, nutrition, natural resources and veterinary science.

About CABI

CABI is an international not-for-profit organization that improves people’s lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.

Through knowledge sharing and science, CABI helps address issues of global concern such as improving global food security and safeguarding the environment. We do this by helping farmers grow more and lose less of what they produce, combating threats to agriculture and the environment from pests and diseases, protecting biodiversity from invasive species, and improving access to agricultural and environmental scientific knowledge. Our 49-member countries guide and influence our core areas of work, which include development and research projects, scientific publishing and microbial services.

We gratefully acknowledge the core financial support from our member countries (and lead agencies) including the United Kingdom (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), China (Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Australia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Netherlands (Directorate-General for International Cooperation, and Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). Other sources of funding include programme/project funding from development agencies, the fees paid by our member countries and profits from our publishing activities which enable CABI to support rural development and scientific research around the world.

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JOURNAL

CABI Reviews

DOI

10.1079/cabireviews.2023.0008 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Gene editing techniques in rice: new paths for an old crop

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Mar-2023

Fighting friction to protect machinery

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

VIDEO: COMBINATION OF AI AND CONTACT POSITION CONTROL SYSTEM FOR COMPLETE CONTACT AVOIDANCE. view more 

CREDIT: MOTOYUKI MURASHIMA

Mechanical systems in which moving parts come into regular contact are prone to damage due to the effects of friction. Researchers at Tohoku University have developed a contact control system, driven by artificial intelligence, to greatly reduce contact with damaged areas. Although currently tested only in lab experiments, they believe it could eventually help many types of machinery run more smoothly. 

"This could shift the design strategy of mechanical systems away from the traditional approach of developing new and superior materials to developing surfaces that can actively adapt to reduce the damage," says Professor Motoyuki Murashima. 

The work was a collaboration between Murashima at Tohoku University's Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering and colleagues at Nagoya University and the Korea Photonics Technology Institute in South Korea. 

The research is focused on the potential of innovative materials possessing 'morphing surfaces', which can be changed depending on the environment they operate in. These materials are being developed by several research groups to mimic a common flexibility found in living systems, such as leaf surfaces that change in response to variations in humidity. One example in engineering, previously developed by Murashima and colleagues, is a surface composed of a diaphragm supported by hard substrate, with changes in stress pressure altering the surface morphologies. 

The team developed an artificial intelligence procedure in which sensors analyse the friction between two surfaces. Having detected where damage is occurring, the procedure can then use the 'morphing' capacity of the surface to minimize the frictional contact with damaged regions. 

"This is the first research in the world to use artificial intelligence to control the shape of morphing surfaces and successfully detect the position of damage on interacting surfaces," says Murashima. 

As the analysis and adjustment proceeded in simulated test cases, the researchers were able to achieve a steady reduction in the fluctuated friction caused by contact between affected parts of the material under investigation. 

The proof-of-concept system used discs spinning within a cylinder. The crucial next step will be to move closer to situations in which the procedure could be applied to real engineering challenges, such as industrial machinery. The ultimate aim is to allow a wide range of machinery to operate with less routine wear and damage, achieving longer useful lifespans and cost savings due to less frequent part replacements. 

"An important next step is to develop more sophisticated learning and control algorithms that will reduce the time needed to learn the characteristics of the analysed surfaces and therefore achieve more refined and speedier control that prevents damage," says Murashima. 

How to avoid contact with damaged position using morphing surfaces.

The friction stabilizes as AI learning progresses.

CREDIT

Motoyuki Murashima

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JOURNAL

Tribology International

DOI

10.1016/j.triboint.2023.108280 

ARTICLE TITLE

Novel friction stabilization technology for surface damage conditions using machine learning

Experts share insights on evolving global vaccine landscape including mRNA trends

Novotech, the leading Asia Pacific centred biotech CRO with extensive experience in vaccine trials, is convening an expert panel webinar with Endpoints News covering the evolving landscape in vaccine development. (Register here)

Meeting Announcement

DIGITAL MANTRA GROUP

 

IMAGE: NOVOTECH AND ENDPOINTS WEBINAR, KEEPING PACE WITH THE EVOLVING GLOBAL LANDSCAPE IN VACCINE DEVELOPMENT view more 

CREDIT: ENDPOINTS

Novotech, the leading Asia Pacific centred biotech CRO with extensive experience in vaccine trials, is convening an expert panel webinar with Endpoints News covering the evolving landscape in vaccine development. (Register here)

 

Novotech research data shows between 2017 and 2021, there were close to 1,400 industry-sponsored single-country vaccine-based clinical trials globally, with the Asia Pacific involved in over 45% of the trials. Mainland China, India, Japan, Australia and South Korea were the frequently involved locations in the region.

 

During this period the top 3 regions including the US (369), EU7 (162) and APAC5 (541) together contributed over 1,000 vaccine trials with Asia-Pacific contributing more than 50% of the global share of trials.

 

Download our latest data report here: Vaccines – Asia Pacific Clinical Trial Landscape

 

Novotech offers biotechs a unique and unparalleled suite of early to late-phase CRO services across Europe and the US, with a focus on Asia Pacific where the company has built a reputation for delivering high-quality expedited clinical trials.

 

The Endpoints webinar, Keeping pace with the evolving global landscape in vaccine development, will hear from a panel of life science experts on the latest advancements and innovative modalities paving the way in the global vaccine development space including:

 

• The COVID-19 impact on drug development and the regulatory landscape including mRNA vaccines.
• Key factors contributing to Asia Pacific being recognised as the hub for vaccine development and opportunities for biotech’s to leverage.
• Key considerations for pre-clinical and clinical planning to accelerate vaccine development, supporting a robust global strategy.

 

Date/Time: March 09 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EST

Register here

 

Panelists:

 

SUSHANT SAHASTRABUDDHE

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL VACCINE INSTITUTE (IVI)

Dr. Sushant Sahastrabuddhe, Associate Director General at the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), joined in July 2010, leading the clinical trials of IVI’s typhoid vaccine and process to achieve its licensure, the global clinical development of and licensure of SK bioscience’s COVID-19 vaccines and Phase 1 and 2 trials of Bharat Biotech’s Chikungunya vaccine. As a vaccine enthusiast with more than 17 years of experience in multiple countries across diverse projects, he continues to lead collaborative efforts with companies and partners in Korea, India and globally to get these vaccines through early- to late-stages of their clinical development. Dr. Sahastrabuddhe is also the Associate Editor for Vaccines for tropical diseases and associated with Yonsei University as Research Professor and with Universite Claude Bernanrd, Lyon France as Research Fellow. In 2021, Dr. Sahastrabuddhe was named an ‘Honorary Citizen of Seoul’ for his contributions to the joint efforts with Korean companies and international partners to develop vaccines against COVID-19 and other diseases.

 

PAUL GRIFFIN

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, INFECTIOUS DISEASES PHYSICIAN, MICROBIOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

An Infectious Diseases Physician and Microbiologist, Dr. Paul Griffin was appointed as the Director of Infectious Diseases at Mater Health Services in 2013 and continues an appointment as an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland Medical School. Additionally, Dr. Griffin chairs the Advanced Training Committee in Infectious Diseases with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the committee that oversees the training of Infectious Diseases specialists in Australia.

Previously, Dr. Griffin was the Principal Investigator (PI) and Medical Director at Nucleus Network, a contract research organization specializing in infectious diseases trials, which included a PI role on in excess of 125 clinical trials predominantly in Infectious Diseases including novel vaccines and COVID-19 vaccines. With fellowships in Infectious Diseases from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, in Clinical Microbiology from the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and from the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine, Dr. Griffin has an active interest in vaccine education and advocacy and has become a trusted media authority and spokesperson across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 

BABAJI YADAV

SENIOR CONSULTANT, NOVOTECH DRUG DEVELOPMENT CONSULTING

Babaji Yadav is a Senior Consultant with over eight years of academic experience in pre-clinical oncology drug development and eight years of industry experience in drug development. Babaji has a strong background in pharmaceutical sciences with a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Previously he has worked as a Research Project Manager to oversee IND-enabling toxicology studies for lead oncology drugs and, prior to joining Novotech, was a Clinical Project Manager for early-phase oncology trials. Babaji is a UK Registered Toxicologist and at Novotech he is focused on providing technical toxicology advice and product development strategies to facilitate the entry of client’s compounds into clinical trials. Babaji has experience in small molecules, combination products, and biologicals including vaccines, proteins, monoclonal antibodies, and advanced cell and gene therapies.

 

JENNIFER ARELLANO

DIRECTOR OF CLINICAL SERVICES (PHILIPPINES), NOVOTECH

Jennifer Arellano is the Director of Clinical Services in the Philippines with over 25 years of technical and leadership experience in managing clinical trial operations for sponsors and CROs. With a Bachelor of Industrial Pharmacy from the University of the Philippines and a Pharmacist license, Jennifer’s research operations experience includes monitoring, auditing, project leadership, feasibility, study start-up, driving inspection readiness and hosting regulatory inspection, client engagement and business development, learning & development and organization SOP development/review. Jennifer has contributed to the transformation of the Philippine clinical research industry – bringing improvement to the local clinical research regulations and practices and is the founding President of a non-profit organization, the Philippine Clinical Research Professionals Inc, with more than 400 members from pharmaceutical and CROs and has, more recently, volunteered pro-bono services during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide trial management consultancy to the Philippine DOH-funded trials such as WHO Solidarity COVID-19 Treatment and Vaccine trials, Avigan COVID-19 treatment trial, and Philippine Heart Association funded cardiovascular outcome study.

Novotech has recently acquired EastHORN a European CRO with clinical, medical and regulatory expertise in multiple strategically important locations across the continent. The acquisition is part of Novotech’s global expansion program in Europe and the US.

Novotech has been benchmarked as a top 10 CRO among the world’s leading CROs, is the recipient of the Asia Pacific Cell & Gene Therapy Clinical Trials Excellence award and the Asia-Pacific Contract Research Organization Company of the Year Award, and has signed 45 Leading Site Partnership agreements over the last 3 years.

About Novotech Novotech-CRO.com

 

Novotech is the leading Asia Pacific centred biotech CRO with global execution capabilities. Novotech is a clinical CRO with labs, phase I facilities, drug development consulting services and FDA regulatory expertise and has experience in over 5,000 clinical projects, including Phase I to Phase IV clinical trials and bioequivalence studies. Novotech is positioned to serve biotech clients conducting clinical trials in Asia Pacific, the US and Europe. Novotech has over 3,000 staff globally and 33 office locations across the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.

 

For more information visit https://novotech-cro.com/contact