Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key step in development, wound healing, and cancer development. It involves cooperation of signaling pathways, such as transformation growth factor-β (TGF-β), Sonic Hedgehog (SHH), and WNT pathways. These signaling pathways crosstalk to each other and converge to key transcription factors (e.g., SNAIL1) to initialize and maintain the process of EMT. The functional roles of multi-signaling pathway crosstalks in EMT are sophisticated and, thus, remain to be explored. In this review, we focused on three major signal transduction pathways that promote or regulate EMT in carcinoma. We discussed the network structures, and provided a brief overview of the current therapy strategies and drug development targeted to these three signal transduction pathways. Finally, we highlighted systems biology approaches that can accelerate the process of deconstructing complex networks and drug discovery.

Besides genome editing, CRISPR-Cas12a has recently been used for DNA detection applications with attomolar sensitivity but, to our knowledge, it has not been used for the detection of small molecules. Bacterial allosteric transcription factors (aTFs) have evolved to sense and respond sensitively to a variety of small molecules to benefit bacterial survival. By combining the single-stranded DNA cleavage ability of CRISPR-Cas12a and the competitive binding activities of aTFs for small molecules and double-stranded DNA, here we develop a simple, supersensitive, fast and high-throughput platform for the detection of small molecules, designated CaT-SMelor ( C RISPR-Cas12a- and aT F-mediated s mall m ol e cu l e detect or ). CaT-SMelor is successfully evaluated by detecting nanomolar levels of various small molecules, including uric acid and p -hydroxybenzoic acid among their structurally similar analogues. We also demonstrate that our CaT-SMelor directly measured the uric acid concentration in clinical human blood samples, indicating a great potential of CaT-SMelor in the detection of small molecules.

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Organic rechargeable batteries have attracted extensive attention as a potential alternative for the current lithium-ion batteries. However, most of the reports are limited to organic macromolecules or modified small organic molecules which exhibit low reversible capacity, poor rate capability, and very limited cycle life. Herein, a small organic compound, maleic acid, is adopted as the anode for lithium ion batteries without any modification. It exhibits an ultrahigh reversible capacity of ca. 1500 mAh g −1 at 46.2 mA g −1 current density. Even at a high current density of 46.2 A g −1 , the electrode still delivers a capacity of 570.8 mAh g −1 . When cycled at 2.31 A g −1 , a capacity retention of 98.1% is obtained after 500 cycles. The excellent performance of the maleic acid organic anode is ascribed to its small volume effect and unique lithium-ion storage mechanisms. This new type of organic anode material may have a great opportunity for large-scale energy-storage systems with high-power properties.

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