In U.S. Pacific Northwest coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), stormwater exposure annually causes unexplained acute mortality when adult salmon migrate to urban creeks to reproduce. By investigating this phenomenon, we identified a highly toxic quinone transformation product of N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N′-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD), a globally ubiquitous tire rubber antioxidant. Retrospective analysis of representative roadway runoff and stormwater-affected creeks of the U.S. West Coast indicated widespread occurrence of 6PPD-quinone (<0.3 to 19 micrograms per liter) at toxic concentrations (median lethal concentration of 0.8 ± 0.16 micrograms per liter). These results reveal unanticipated risks of 6PPD antioxidants to an aquatic species and imply toxicological relevance for dissipated tire rubber residues.

Wearable and implantable bioelectronics are receiving a great deal of attention because they offer huge promise in personalized healthcare. Currently available bioelectronics generally rely on external aids to form an attachment to the human body, which leads to unstable performance in practical applications. Self‐adhesive bioelectronics are highly desirable for ameliorating these concerns by offering reliable and conformal contact with tissue, and stability and fidelity in the signal detection. However, achieving adequate and long‐term self‐adhesion to soft and wet biological tissues has been a daunting challenge. Recently, mussel‐inspired hydrogels have emerged as promising candidates for the design of self‐adhesive bioelectronics. In addition to self‐adhesiveness, the mussel‐inspired chemistry offers a unique pathway for integrating multiple functional properties to all‐in‐one bioelectronic devices, which have great implications for healthcare applications. In this report, the recent progress in the area of mussel‐inspired self‐adhesive bioelectronics is highlighted by specifically discussing: 1) adhesion mechanism of mussels, 2) mussel‐inspired hydrogels with long‐term and repeatable adhesion, 3) the recent advance in development of hydrogel bioelectronics by reconciling self‐adhesiveness and additional properties including conductivity, toughness, transparency, self‐healing, antibacterial properties, and tolerance to extreme environment, and 4) the challenges and prospects for the future design of the mussel‐inspired self‐adhesive bioelectronics.

Owing to their excellent photoluminescence (PL) properties, good biocompatibility, and low toxicity, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are widely applied in bioimaging, biosensing, and so forth. However, further development of GQDs is limited by their synthetic methodology and unclear PL mechanism. Therefore, it is urgent to find efficient and universal methods for the synthesis of GQDs with high stability, controllable surface properties, and tunable PL emission wavelength. By coating with polyethyleneimine (PEI) of different molecular weights, blue-, yellow-, and red-emitting GQDs were successfully prepared. By transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and dynamic light scattering, the characterization of size and morphology revealed that blue-emitting PEI GQDs were monocoated, like jelly beans, and red-emitting PEI GQDs were multicoated, like capsules. The amidation reaction between carboxyl and amide functional groups played an important role in the coating process, as evidenced by IR spectroscopy and theoretical calculation with density functional theory B3LYP/6-31G*. The PL-tunable GQDs exhibited an excellent chemical stability and extremely low cytotoxicity, and they had been shown to be feasible for bioimaging, making these GQDs highly attractive for a wide variety of applications, including multicolor imaging and bioanalysis.

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Mitochondria have recently emerged as novel targets for cancer therapy due to its important roles in fundamental cellular function. Discovery of new chemotherapeutic agents that allow for simultaneous treatment and visualization of cancer is urgent. Herein, we demonstrate a novel bifunctional mitochondria-targeted anticancer agent (FPB), exhibiting both imaging capability and anticancer activity. It can selectively accumulate in mitochondria and induce cell apoptosis. Notably, it results in much higher toxicity toward cancer cells owing to much higher uptake by cancer cells. These features make it highly attractive in cancer imaging and treatment.

Greater than 400‐fold selectivity for glucose over galactose, mannose, and fructose has been achieved with a receptor designed by the computer program CAVEAT. The receptor has precisely positioned boronic acid groups for cyclic boronate formation with the 1,2‐ and 4,6‐hydroxy groups of α‐D‐glucopyranose (see picture) and exhibits a 50 % decrease in fluorescence upon glucose binding.