Recent years have witnessed thriving progress of flexible and portable electronics, with very high demand for cost-effective and tailor-made multifunctional devices. Here, we report on an ingenious origami hierarchical sensor array (OHSA) written with a conductive ink. Thanks to origami as a controllable hierarchical framework for loading ink material, we have demonstrated that OHSA possesses unique time-space-resolved, high-discriminative pattern recognition (TSR-HDPR) features, qualifying it as a smart sensing device for simultaneous sensing and distinguishing of complex physical and chemical stimuli, including temperature, relative humidity, light and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Of special importance, OSHA has shown very high sensitivity in differentiating between structural isomers and chiral enantiomers of VOCs – opening a door for wide variety of unique opportunities in several length scales.

Significant efforts have been reported on the development of influenza antivirals including inhibitors of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase PA N-terminal (PAN) endonuclease. Based on recently identified, highly active metal-binding pharmacophores (MBPs) for PAN endonuclease inhibition, a fragment-based drug development campaign was pursued. Guided by coordination chemistry and structure-based drug design, MBP scaffolds were elaborated to improve activity and selectivity. Structure–activity relationships were established and used to generate inhibitors of influenza endonuclease with tight-binding affinities. The activity of these inhibitors was analyzed using a fluorescence-quenching-based nuclease activity assay, and binding was validated using differential scanning fluorometry. Lead compounds were found to be highly selective for PAN endonuclease against several related dinuclear and mononuclear metalloenzymes. Combining principles of bioinorganic and medicinal chemistry in this study has resulted in some of the most active in vitro influenza PAN endonuclease inhibitors with high ligand efficiencies.

In the past decade, the use of visible light to promote organic transformations has gained intense attention. In this study, we developed a template-directed synthesis method to use homogeneous Ru and Ir photocatalysts as structure-directing templates and succeeded to prepare a series of photocatalyst-encapsulating metal−organic frameworks (photocatalyst@MOFs) with zeolite-like structures. The open channels and polyhedral cages of MOFs effectively dispersed the encapsulated photocatalysts and facilitated the transport of reactants and products, leading to boosted catalytic activity and good reusability toward important organic reactions such as aerobic oxidation reaction of benzyl halides and the cyclization of tertiary anilines and maleimides under visible light. Moreover, we also demonstrate the versatility and universality of our templating strategy. It not only can form MOFs which cannot be accessed by other synthesis methods, but also can encapsulate various commercially available homogeneous photocatalysts into MOFs. This work explores an avenue to prepare heterogeneous photocatalysts to catalyze value-added reactions.

A novel fiber-optic in-fiber integrated Michelson interferometer has been proposed and demonstrated. It consists of a segment of two-core fiber with a mirrored fiber end. The sensing characteristics based on the two-core fiber bending, corresponding to the shift of the phase of the two-core in-fiber integrated Michelson interferometer, are investigated.

The elucidation of molecular events that confer tamoxifen resistance to estrogen receptor α (ER) positive breast cancer is of major scientific and therapeutic importance. Here, we report that LEM4 overexpression renders ER+ breast cancer cells resistant to tamoxifen by activating the cyclin D-CDK4/6 axis and the ERα signaling. We show that LEM4 overexpression accelerates tumor growth. Interaction with LEM4 stabilizes CDK4 and Rb, promotes Rb phosphorylation and the G1/S phase transition. LEM4 depletion or combined tamoxifen and PD0332991 treatment significantly reverses tamoxifen resistance. Furthermore, LEM4 interacts with and stabilizes both Aurora-A and ERα, promotes Aurora-A mediated phosphorylation of ERα-Ser167, leading to increase in ERα DNA-binding and transactivation activity. Elevated levels of LEM4 correlates with poorer relapse-free survival in patients with ER+ breast cancer undergoing endocrine therapy. Thus, LEM4 represents a prognostic marker and an attractive target for breast cancer therapeutics. Functional antagonism of LEM4 could overcome tamoxifen resistance.

Dopamine-modified poly(acrylic acid) (PAA-dopa) and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVPON) was layer-by-layer (LbL) assembled to prepare thin film based on hydrogen bonding. The carboxylic group of acrylic acid and the phenolic hydroxyl group of dopamine can both act as hydrogen bond donors. The critical assembly and the critical disintegration pH values of PVPON/PAA-dopa film are enhanced compared with PVPON/PAA film. The hydrogen-bonded PVPON/PAA-dopa thin film can be cross-linked via catechol chemistry of dopamine. After cross-linking, the film can be exfoliated from the substrate in alkaline solution to get a free-standing film. Moreover, by tuning the pH value, deprotonation and protonation of PAA will make the hydrogen bond in the film break and reconstruct, which induces that the free-standing film has a reversible swelling-shrinking behavior.

Flexible sensors can be widely used in future wearable devices to monitor people's health states. However, most of the sensors are sensitive to humidity and bending effects, limiting their application in a real-world environment. A new strategy is proposed for obtaining flexible sensors with good tolerance to humidity. By integrating a hydrophobic layer on the surface of doped polyaniline, a flexible sensor that can resist water response with a concentration up to 350 ppm is developed. Good resilience against mechanical bending is also achieved in this flexible sensor. These results may trigger a renaissance in flexible sensor applications for disease diagnosing by wearable devices.

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