Researchers develop dissolvable battery using probiotics

New paper shows the potential of using probiotics — live microorganisms that offer health benefits when ingested but are otherwise harmless

Binghamton University

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Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi says the hardest part about making transient electronics is the battery. Image Credit: Provided.

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Credit: Seokheun “Sean” Choi

In the Mission: Impossible films, superspy Ethan Hunt — played by Tom Cruise — gets orders from his superiors on various devices that self-destruct in five seconds.

Could electronics disintegrate into nothing in real life? Binghamton University Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi has researched disposable “papertronics” over the past 20 years, but the hardest part about making so-called transient electronics is the battery. 

“Transient electronics can be used for biomedical and environmental applications, but they must disintegrate in a biosafe manner,” said Choi, a faculty member at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“You don’t want to have toxic residues inside your body. That type of device is called bioresorbable electronics. For transient or bioresorbable electronics, the key challenge is the power source — but most power sources, like lithium-ion batteries, include toxic material.”

Choi and his student research team took lessons from their previous research into biobatteries and applied that knowledge to a new idea: In a paper recently published in the journal Small, they show the potential of using probiotics — live microorganisms that offer health benefits when ingested but are otherwise harmless to the environment or humans.

Maedeh Mohammadifar, PhD ’20, a graduate of Choi’s Bioelectronics and Microsystems Lab, developed the original dissolvable microbial fuel cell during her time as a Binghamton student.

“We used well-known electricity-producing bacteria, which is within biosafety level 1, so it is safe — but we were not sure what would happen if these bacteria were released into nature,” Choi said. “But whenever I made presentations at conferences, people would ask: ‘So, you are using bacteria? Can we safely use that?’”

Current PhD student Maryam Rezaie led the latest research using a premade blend of 15 probiotics.

“It’s well documented that probiotics are safe and biocompatible, but we were not sure if those probiotics have electricity-producing capability,” Choi said. “There was a question, so she did a lot of experiments on that.” 

Early results proved unpromising, he added, but “we didn’t give up. We engineered in an electrode surface that might be preferable to the bacteria, using polymer and some nanoparticles to hypothetically improve the electrocatalytic behavior of probiotics and give them a boost.”

The modified electrode was porous and rough, which offered excellent conditions for bacteria to attach and grow, and that improved the microorganisms’ electrogenic capability. Coating the dissolvable paper with a low pH-sensitive polymer — meaning that it will work only in an acidic environment like a polluted area or the human digestive system — increased the voltage output and the duration that the battery operated.

Although they produced only a small amount of power, Choi looks at the experiments as a proof of concept for him and future students to build on.

“Other research must be done,” he said. “We used probiotic blends, but I want to study individually which ones have the extra electric genes, and how synergistic interactions can improve the power generation. Also, in this research we developed in a single unit of a biobattery. I want to contact them in series or parallel to improve the power.”

A porous and rough electrode offered excellent conditions for bacteria, and that improved the microorganisms’ electrogenic capability. 

Credit

Seokheun "Sean" Choi

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Journal

Small

DOI

10.1002/smll.202502633 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

Dissolvable Probiotic-Powered Biobatteries: A Safe andBiocompatible Energy Solution for Transient Applications

 

Zebrafish model for an ultra-rare genetic disease identifies potential treatments

XMEA is a recessive, genetic disease that causes progressive muscle weakness.

University of Alabama at Birmingham

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Can a small fish help identify possible treatments for an ultra-rare inherited disease found in an Alabama boy? The genetic disease is XMEA, which progressively weakens the muscles and can affect the liver and heart. As of March 2024, only 33 cases had ever been seen worldwide.

After the DNA sequence of the boy’s genome showed a mutation in the VMA21 gene, one of the known causes of XMEA, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Children’s of Alabama pediatric neurologist Michael Lopez, M.D., Ph.D., referred the family to the UAB Center for Precision Animal Modeling, or C-PAM.

At C-PAM and in collaboration with a Canadian group, research led by Matthew Alexander, Ph.D., UAB Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology, and Jim Dowling, M.D., Ph.D., Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, created a preclinical model of XMEA in zebrafish by mutating the fish gene that is analogous to VMA21. While this small, striped fish is commonly found in home aquariums, zebrafish also are a valuable animal model for human disease due to fast growth, large clutch sizes and easy genetic manipulation. They also are transparent as larvae.

In a study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, Alexander and Dowling now show that their mutant zebrafish have weakened muscles and other symptoms that mirror human XMEA disease. With this simple model, they were able to test 30 clinically tested drugs and identify two that significantly improved XMEA symptoms in the zebrafish. They now are studying the VMA21 mutation in a mammalian model, the mouse, to further push research toward a possible clinical treatment.

“We have established the first preclinical animal model of XMEA, and we have determined that this model faithfully recapitulates most features of the human disease,” Alexander said. “It thus is ideally suited for establishing disease pathomechanisms and identifying therapies.”

Researchers used CRISPR-Cas9, often called molecular scissors for DNA, to create two mutants: a frameshift mutation caused by a one-base pair deletion, and a premature stop codon created during deletion of 14 base pairs and insertion of 21. Both loss-of-function mutations reduced VMA21 protein levels.

Both mutants showed changes consistent with altered muscle structure and function, such as shorter body length and non-inflated swim bladders. They had reduced ability to swim away from a stimulus, and they spent less time swimming and traveled less distance compared to wildtype zebrafish.

The key cellular change in human XMEA is impairment of autophagy, the cell’s recycling system. Autophagy takes place in cell organelles called lysosomes, and these need to be acidic to activate proteases that degrade proteins for recycling into new proteins. Like human XMEA, the mutant fish lysosomes showed a failure to acidify, and the muscle cells had characteristic vacuoles — fluid-filled enclosed structures. Like human XMEA patients, the fish also showed liver and heart pathologies.

Unlike human XMEA, which can vary from mild to moderate symptoms as a progressive disease, the mutant fish showed severe reductions in life span, presumably due to a more complete loss of VMA function compared to human patients.

Since the fish had impaired autophagy and since there are no therapies for XMEA patients, the researchers tested 30 clinically tested autophagy inhibitory compounds from the Selleckchem drug library on the XMEA fish.

Screening of clutches for changed muscle birefringence, a change in the refraction of polarized light that indicates reduced muscle organization, the team identified nine compounds that both reduced abnormal birefringence and prolonged fish survival. Long-term testing of the nine for improvements in survival and swimming showed that edaravone and LY294002 had the greatest therapeutic effects.

“Excitingly, we found that several autophagy antagonists could ameliorate aspects of the VMA21 zebrafish phenotype, and two compounds in particular improved the phenotype across multiple domains of birefringence, motor function and survival,” Alexander said. “The fact that multiple autophagy modulators ameliorated aspects of the phenotype supports an important role for autophagy in the disease process and lends confidence to the validity and potential translatability of the findings to patients.”

Co-authors with Alexander and Dowling in the study “X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy: characterization and therapy testing in a zebrafish model,” are Lily Huang, Rebecca Simonian and Lacramioara Fabian, Hospital for Sick Children; and Michael A. Lopez, Muthukumar Karuppasamy, Veronica M. Sanders and Katherine G. English, UAB Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology.

At UAB, Pediatrics is a department in the Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine.

XMEA stands for X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy.

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Journal

EMBO Molecular Medicine

DOI

10.1038/s44321-025-00204-8 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy: characterization and therapy testing in a zebrafish model

 

Masking, distancing and quarantines keep chimps safe from human disease, study shows

University of Arizona

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Long before COVID-19 forced most of the world behind masks and into isolation, viral diseases had been persistently jumping from humans to primate species, with drastic consequences.

The problem became particularly stark on Dec. 31, 2016, when a viral outbreak was detected at a field site for research on chimpanzees, called Ngogo, in Uganda's Kibale National Park. The outbreak, from a virus that originated in humans, ultimately killed 25 of the nearly 200 Ngogo chimps, which researchers have studied for 30 years.

A new study led by a University of Arizona primatologist, published in the journal Biological Conservation, provides clear evidence that protocols such as quarantining, masking and more – those that became familiar during the pandemic – can help prevent outbreaks like the one at Ngogo.

The research could shape best practices to help keep chimps and other ape species safe – not only at research sites like Ngogo, but also at conservation sites that welcome swaths of tourists, said Jacob Negrey, an assistant professor of anthropology in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the study's lead author. And healthy chimps that humans can continue to study and appreciate, Negrey said, can ultimately lead to a better understanding of humans.

"We have really good reasons to think that chimpanzees that are visited regularly by tourists are at even greater risk of this sort of transmission because they're exposed to a wider range of people on a daily basis," said Negrey, who is co-director of the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, the nonprofit organization that runs the research site in western Uganda. "The kind of trends we're documenting here are really relevant to all of these human-chimpanzee interactions, not just ones related to research."

Research at Ngogo began in 1994. The area is now a leading site for chimp research thanks to the size of the chimp population and its isolated location deep in the rainforest. The site is featured in media often, notably in Netflix's 2023 documentary series "Chimp Empire."

Negrey has done fieldwork at Ngogo for 12 years, studying the factors that affect chimps' health, especially age-related diseases and viruses. His work typically involves rising before dawn at a campsite in the rainforest before venturing out to find the chimps, observe their behavior and collect samples of their biological waste. 

"You can be wandering through the forest and then there's rustling and you realize you've almost walked into a herd of elephants," Negrey said. "You have to really love the chimps and love the work that you're doing because there's a good chance you're going to be peed on."

The waste researchers collect is analyzed in labs, and the health data born out in the samples is logged for later study.

Long-standing conservation questions

How to keep chimps – and other animals – safe from human disease has been a long-standing question for conservation researchers, Negrey said.

Long before the outbreak on the eve of 2017, researchers at Ngogo adopted protocols from the International Union for Conservation of Nature intended to keep the chimps safe from human disease. They included a requirement for humans to stay at least 15 feet away from the chimps, more strictly discouraging researchers from leaving their own biological waste in the forest – or burying it if they had to leave it behind – and discouraging researchers from working when they showed symptoms of infection.

"But there was never any systematic study showing that they were effective," Negrey said of the protocols. "There was just such an urgency to this problem that it was like the solution needed to be put out before we even had evidence of its efficacy."

The outbreak was contained by Feb. 8, 2017, and researchers then added a slate of new health protocols: Researchers with any symptoms were prohibited from entering the forest until they were healthy. Those working in the forest were required to stay about 20 feet from the chimps, with a preferred distance closer to 30 feet. They also had to wear masks and regularly sanitize their hands when in the presence of chimps and wore different sets of clothes in the forest than those they wore at camp.

And at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, researchers who traveled to the forest from abroad had to be quarantined for a week before going inside to work. 

All the stricter protocols, including the quarantine procedure, remain in place today, Negrey said.

Negrey's latest study relied on data from nearly 70 samples of chimp waste, collected between 2015 and 2019, to show changes from before, during and after the outbreak, as health protocols became increasingly strict. Lab analysis helped researchers find DNA in the samples from viruses that came from humans.

There was a clear decrease in the amount of viral shedding from the chimps in the data collected after the stricter protocols were implemented in early 2017, Negrey said. Researchers also observed fewer instances of chimps with persistent coughs: Chimps coughed 1.73% of the time before the protocols, but only 0.356% afterward. Following the weeklong quarantine protocol in 2022, the coughing rate dropped to 0.075%. 

"We're really excited about this study because it actually does show – for the first time, as far as I'm aware – that these protocols work," Negrey said.

Understanding chimps to understand humans

Negrey, who joined the U of A in 2023, became fascinated with primates as a kid, first obsessing over gorillas at the zoo. After starting his undergraduate studies at Miami University in Ohio as a journalism major, a chance encounter with a primatologist nudged him toward anthropology. He's since honed his research focus to understanding the factors that impact chimps' health. 

As one of the human species' closest living relatives, chimps, Negrey said, are important to study to get a better understanding of humans.

"They're so special, they're so weird, and they're really unlike anything else on the planet," he said. "It's to our great benefit to protect them for future generations so we can continue to be awed by them and continue to learn from them."

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Journal

Biological Conservation

DOI

10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111225 

 

New study reveals global warming accelerates antibiotic resistance in soils

Durham University

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A new international study involving researchers from Durham University has revealed that climate change is accelerating the rate of development and global abundances of antibiotic resistance bacteria in soils.

 

The findings, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, highlight a new and deeply concerning less seen consequence of global warming to public health.

 

The study shows that rising global temperatures are significantly increasing the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factors in soil microbial communities.

 

These genes can make bacteria less susceptible to the effects of antibiotics, increasing the probability of acquiring antibiotic resistant infections, including from dangerous pathogens.

 

The research, which integrates field data, metagenomic analysis, and laboratory experiments, provides compelling evidence that warmer conditions will favour the survival and evolution of pathogenic and other bacteria that are resistant to therapeutic treatment – bacteria that often originate in the natural environment.

 

Professor David W. Graham of Durham University, co-author of this study, a water engineer and expert in antibiotic resistance, says “the study exemplifies how closely connected human health is with environmental change.”

 

This research provides compelling evidence that climate change is more than an environmental crisis, it also is impacting global antibiotic resistance due to warming.

 

This research forms part of a growing body of evidence that environmental factors, including global warming, are playing a crucial role in the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

 

It underscores the importance of a ‘One Health’ approach that recognises the interconnected nature of human, animal, and environmental health.

 

Professor Graham said: “Most people do not realise that most of the pathogens that cause infectious disease humans actually originate from the environment.

 

“Therefore, increasing resistance in soils will almost certainly translate into increased levels of untreatable infections in human and veterinary practice. This is why One Health solutions are important”.   

 

The study found that the impact of warming will be more pronounced in colder regions. In the past, colder temperatures normally kill off bacteria, especially human pathogens, but as temperatures increases, such strains will survive longer, which this study shows.

 

As temperatures rise, bacteria also appear to changing on an evolutionary level, with an increased probability of genetic changes and the appearance of ‘new’ pathogens to which no antibiotic options exist.

 

Professor Graham said: “The relationship between climate and antibiotic resistance was predicted in the 2023 United Nations report: Bracing for Superbugs: Strengthening environmental action in the One Health response to antimicrobial resistance and the new work here provides concrete evidence for that prediction.”

 

The research team found that even modest increases in temperature can trigger significant rises in the abundance of ARGs, particularly in bacterial groups such as Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, which are known carriers of resistance and virulence genes.

 

Laboratory experiments with Escherichia coli confirmed that elevated temperatures lead to increased expression of antibiotic resistance genes, including those involved in efflux pumps and stress response proteins, which are key mechanisms in bacterial defence.

 

Moreover, machine learning models used in the study project that, under high-emission climate scenarios, global levels of soil ARGs could rise by up to 23 percent by the end of this century.

 

The researchers warn that climate-driven changes to microbial communities could undermine efforts to control antibiotic resistance and may lead to greater risks of infection from previous antibiotic-susceptable bacteria from soils and, more importantly, an increased probability new pathogen ‘jumping’ from environmental sources to human health systems, as exemplified by SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

ENDS

 

Media Information

 

Professor David W. Graham from Durham University is available for interview and can be contacted on david.w.graham@durham.ac.uk.  

 

Alternatively, please contact Durham University Communications Office for interview requests on communications.team@durham.ac.uk or +44 (0)191 334 8623.

 

Source

 

‘Climate warning fuels the global antibiotic resistome by altering soil bacterial, (2025), D. Lin, S. Du, Z. Zhao, T. Zhang, L. Wang, Q. Zhang, S. Zhou, D. W. Graham, D. Tissue, D. Zhu, Y. Zhu, J. Penuelas and P. Reich, Nature Ecology & Evolution.

 

An embargoed copy of the paper is available from Durham University Communications Office. Please email communications.team@durham.ac.uk.

 

This study was a collaboration between institutions in China, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, and the United States. Durham University researchers contributed to the analysis of bacterial community dynamics, the modelling of resistance risks, and the interpretation of global soil data.

 

Graphics

 

Associated images are available via the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/rppoyc5q2u116gwylfxxf/ACAFz59Q1wYStxLt1b4ytHc?rlkey=6k48n1wyzso7tgydb2mdzgpc3&st=c2zjywyh&dl=0

 

About Durham University

 

Durham University is a globally outstanding centre of teaching and research based in historic Durham City in the UK.

 

We are a collegiate university committed to inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham and in the world.

 

We conduct research that improves lives globally and we are ranked as a world top 100 university with an international reputation in research and education (QS World University Rankings 2025).

 

We are a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive UK universities and we are consistently ranked as a top 10 university in national league tables (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, Guardian University Guide and The Complete University Guide).

 

For more information about Durham University visit: www.durham.ac.uk/about/

 

END OF MEDIA RELEASE – issued by Durham University Communications Office.

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Journal

Nature Ecology & Evolution

 

A turning point in the Bronze Age: the diet was changed and the society was transformed

Around 1500 BC, radical changes occurred in people’s lives: they ate and lived differently, and the social system was also reorganized

THE BRONZE AGE WAS THE AGE OF CHANGE (FIRE)

Eötvös Loránd University

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image: 

Tiszafüred Majoroshalom B54. sír (MNMKK MNM AD HaGy Kovács Tibor hagyatéka). A hivatkozás hozzá: Kovács 1995, Abb. 1/A, 2-3 és Dani János et al. 2025
Kovács, T (1995) Auf Mitteleuropa weisende Beziehungen einiger Waffenfunde aus dem östlichen Karpatenbecken. In Hänsel, B (Hrsg.), Handel, Tausch und Verker im bronze- und früheisenzeitlichen Südosteuropa. Prähistorische Archäologie in Südosteuropa 11. Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, München-Berlin, 173–185. és Dani J, Horváth A, Gémes A, Fülöp K, Szeniczey T, Tarbay JG, et al. New radiocarbon dates from the Bronze Age Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom site (Eastern Hungary). Radiocarbon. 2025;67(2):428–40. doi:10.1017/RDC.2024.123

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Credit: Kovács 1995, Abb. 1/A, 2-3 és Dani János et al. 2025

The bioarchaeological investigation of the Bronze Age cemetery of Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom has shed new light on an important period in Central European history. An international research team – led by Tamás Hajdu, associate professor at the Department of Anthropology at ELTE and Claudio Cavazzuti, senior assistant professor at the University of Bologna, has shown that around 1500 BC, radical changes occurred in people’s lives: they ate and lived differently, and the social system was also reorganized.

The multidisciplinary research was based on the Bronze Age cemetery excavated at Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom, which was used both in the Middle Bronze Age (Füzesabony culture) and in the Late Bronze Age (Tumulus culture). These finds allowed the researchers to compare the subsistence strategies before and after the change of era.

The research team, led by Tamás Hajdu and supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office, sought to answer whether the spread of the Tumulus culture meant the arrival of new groups, or whether the autochtonous people continued their lives, and only the material culture changed. In addition, they also examined whether the archaeologically observed settlement changes around 1500 BC indicate a change in lifestyle: whether people began to follow a lifestyle involving mainly animal husbandry and frequent migration instead of settled farming.

The most important results of the research:

Diet changed: According to nitrogen stable isotope studies, people's food consumption was much more diverse during the Middle Bronze Age, and differences within society were also more evident in their diet - especially in access to animal proteins. This difference decreased in the Late Bronze Age, and the diet became more uniform but poorer.

Broomcorn millet was introduced: According to carbon isotope analyses, the consumption of millet, a plant that can be grown quickly and has a high energy content, began at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. The data from the Tiszafüred Bronze Age cemetery indicate the earliest known consumption of millet in Europe.

Mobility decreased: According to the results of strontium isotope investigations, the populations of the Middle and Late Bronze Age Tiszafüred had different mobility patterns. In the Late Bronze Age, fewer immigrants were identified and they arrived from different migration source than before. While in the Middle Bronze Age, beside the locals, several immigrants were observed among the people living in Tiszafüred, and they most likely did not come from too far away (e.g. the Upper Tisza region, the northern part of the Carpathians), while in the Late Bronze Age, the settlers may have come from other geographical regions (e.g. Transdanubia or the Southern Carpathians). Based on radiocarbon dating, immigration began as early as the 1500s BC, which supports that the communities living further west had indeed reached the Great Hungarian Plain at the time of the appearance of the Tumulus culture.

Social relations changed: At the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the long time-used tell-settlements were abandoned and people lived in less centralized settlement networks. This change created a looser, less structured social system – which is also reflected in dietary habits. According to microremains found in dental calculi and the aforementioned isotopic analyses, significantly less animal protein was consumed during this period than before, which contradicts the previous idea that people belonging to the Tumulus culture were mainly engaged in animal husbandry.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, clearly refutes the previous idea that Tumulus culture people were mostly pastoralists. The research results show that the changes associated with the emergence of the Tumulus culture (around 1500 BC) – such as the observed differences in people's lifestyles, burial customs and settlements – can only be truly understood if traditional archaeological and anthropological studies are combined with modern bioarchaeological analyses.

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Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-025-01113-z 

Article Title

Isotope and archaeobotanical analysis reveal radical changes in mobility, diet and inequalities around 1500 BCE at the core of Europe