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Korea Herald
3 days ago
- Politics
- Korea Herald
First female university president tapped as education minister
President Lee Jae Myung on Sunday nominated Lee Jin-sook, former president of Chungnam National University, as South Korea's new education minister. Lee, 65, is known for being the first female president of a flagship national university and is highly regarded for her leadership in higher education. A graduate of Chungnam National University's architectural engineering program, she earned a master's degree in architectural planning from the same institution and a doctorate in environmental architectural planning from Tokyo Institute of Technology. After joining her alma mater in 1989 as a professor, she then became the school's first female president in its 68-year history. Lee's nomination is seen as aligning with the administration's key pledge to develop '10 Seoul National Universities' by investing in nine regional flagship universities. As head of the initiative during the presidential campaign, she emphasized education as a tool for regional revitalization and equity.
Yomiuri Shimbun
7 days ago
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Over 300 Earthquakes Rumble in Sea Off Kagoshima Pref. Islands, Putting Residents on Alert
The sea off the Tokara Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture was hit with 336 earthquakes measuring at least a 1 on the Japanese seismic scale from Saturday to 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to a regional branch of the Japan Meteorological Agency. Six of the earthquakes measured a 4 on the Japanese seismic scale, which goes as high as 7. Experts have suggested that even larger quakes could occur, and the agency's Fukuoka regional headquarters is calling for people in the area to stay on the alert against earthquakes with strong shaking. Tremors in the sea near the islands grew more frequent after 8 p.m. on Saturday, according to the regional headquarters. The largest quake over the period struck on Sunday afternoon and registered a magnitude of 5.1. There have been as many as 15 quakes per hour. On Tuesday, at 2:23 a.m. and again at 4:04 p.m., shaking measuring a 4 on the Japanese seismic scale was felt on Akusekijima Island in the prefecture's village of Toshima. The sea near the Tokara Islands has been the source of many prior earthquakes. In December 2021, tremors measuring 1 or higher on the Japanese seismic scale struck 308 times. On Dec. 9, 2021, a quake measuring a 5 on the seismic scale hit Akusekijima Island, forcing 30 residents to evacuate to Kagoshima City and to Hisayoshi Yokose, an associate professor at Kumamoto University specializing in marine volcanology, near the islands the Philippine Sea Plate is subducted beneath another tectonic plate connected to the Asian continent. This geology tends to cause a buildup of tension that results in earthquakes. Yokose thinks the recent quakes have occurred inside the continental plate. 'Past trends show that even bigger earthquakes occur after seismic activity subsides,' he said. The area where the quakes have occurred is part of a volcanic cluster that stretches from the Kirishima mountain range, in Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, to Io-Torishima Island in Okinawa Prefecture. Junichi Nakajima, a Tokyo Institute of Technology professor in seismology, suggested that magma may have cooled when rising through the ground and water in that magma may have seeped out, making the fault prone to slippage. On Sunday, Mt. Shinmoedake, part of the Kirishima mountains, erupted for the first time in seven years. However, the volcano, which rises to a height of 1,421 meters, lies at a distance from the Tokara Islands. 'I don't think it had any effect' on the earthquakes, Nakajima said. As of Sunday, 667 residents were living on seven remote islands in Toshima. 'You never know when a big quake will come. It reminds me of the one that we had four years ago that registered a 5 on the seismic scale,' said a 34-year-old man running a minshuku bed and breakfast on Akusekijima Island. Since Monday, students have been commuting to a school on the island were wearing helmets. Some of the children have reportedly said they cannot sleep at night. 'We'll try to relieve their concerns as much as we can,' said the school's principal.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Protein Crystallization Market Report 2025: Projected $2.8 Billion Growth by 2029
The protein crystallization market is projected to grow to $2.8 billion by 2029, driven by demand for personalized medicine and biopharmaceuticals. Key trends include AI integration, automation, and next-gen X-ray tech. North America leads, with Asia-Pacific as the fastest-growing region. Protein Crystallization Market Dublin, June 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Protein Crystallization Market Report 2025" has been added to offering. The protein crystallization market is poised for significant growth, with its size expected to increase from $1.62 billion in 2024 to $2.8 billion by 2029, reflecting a robust 11.5% CAGR. This trajectory is driven by rising demand for protein-based drug development, a surge in chronic diseases, and advancements in protein-ligand interaction research. The expanding focus on high-throughput screening and specialized crystallography software further bolster this growth. The growing biopharmaceutical sector significantly contributes to this expansion. Biopharmaceuticals offer targeted treatments for chronic conditions, leveraging protein crystallization for precise protein structure determination, yielding effective and stable therapeutics. Investments in R&D, such as Australia's $4.34 billion allocation in 2022-23, underline the sector's influence on market acceleration. Companies are innovating with cell-free protein crystallization to enhance efficiency and stability. The Tokyo Institute of Technology's 2022 development of this groundbreaking method exemplifies advancements, offering improved crystallization processes crucial for structural biology and drug discovery. This approach is set to refine techniques for studying complex proteins, advancing therapeutic strategies. Key players include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Corning Incorporated, and Charles River Laboratories, among others. Their innovations and strategic expansions are shaping the market, with North America leading in market size as of 2024, while Asia-Pacific emerges as the fastest-growing region, indicating a shift towards new geographical domains. This comprehensive market report provides insights into market statistics, regional shares, competitor landscapes, trends, and opportunities, offering a detailed outlook on the current and future industry scenarios. It includes services such as custom assay development, cryogenic storage, and automated crystallization platforms. End-users range from pharmaceutical companies to academic institutes, utilizing technologies like X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy. The market landscape is defined by revenues from products and services, emphasizing the tangible value of advancements in protein crystallization for structural and therapeutic applications. The Protein Crystallization Global Market Report 2025 provides crucial insights for strategists, marketers, and senior management to evaluate the rapidly expanding market. Focusing on vital trends set to dominate the next decade and beyond, the report offers a detailed guide to navigating these shifts. Scope Markets Covered: By Product: Instruments; Consumables; Software and Services By Technology: X-Ray Crystallography; Cryo-electron Microscopy; NMR Spectroscopy; Other Technologies By End-User: Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies; Academic and Research Institutes Sub Segments: By Instruments Type: X-ray Diffractometers; Liquid Handling Systems; Crystallization Imaging Systems; Microfluidic Systems; Incubators & Temperature Control Devices By Consumables Type: Crystallization Reagents; Microplates & Crystallization Plates; Screens & Buffers; Cryoprotectants; Protein Purification Kits By Software and Services Type: Crystallography Data Analysis Software; Molecular Modeling Software; AI-Based Structure Prediction Tools; Custom Crystallization Services; Training & Consulting Services Companies Featured The companies featured in this Protein Crystallization market report include: Thermo Fisher Scientific Corning Incorporated Charles River Laboratories Mettler-Toledo International Inc. Douglas Instruments Limited Bruker Corporation Tecan Group Greiner Bio-One International GmbH Rigaku Corporation Viva Biotech Formulatrix Inc. Creative Biostructure Calibre Scientific Inc. Creative Biolabs Molecular Dimensions Creative Proteomics Jena Bioscience GmbH Saromics Biostructures Art Robbins Instruments Mitegen Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 175 Forecast Period 2025 - 2029 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2025 $1.82 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 $2.8 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 11.5% Regions Covered Global Key Topics Covered: Executive Summary Protein Crystallization Market Characteristics Protein Crystallization Market Trends and Strategies Protein Crystallization Market - Macro Economic Scenario Global Protein Crystallization Growth Analysis and Strategic Analysis Framework Protein Crystallization Market Segmentation Global Protein Crystallization Market, Segmentation by Product Instruments Consumables Software and Services Global Protein Crystallization Market, Segmentation by Technology X-Ray Crystallography Cryo-electron Microscopy NMR Spectroscopy Other Technologies Global Protein Crystallization Market, Segmentation by End-User Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies Academic and Research Institutes Protein Crystallization Market Regional and Country Analysis Asia-Pacific Protein Crystallization Market China Protein Crystallization Market India Protein Crystallization Market Japan Protein Crystallization Market Australia Protein Crystallization Market Indonesia Protein Crystallization Market South Korea Protein Crystallization Market Western Europe Protein Crystallization Market UK Protein Crystallization Market Germany Protein Crystallization Market France Protein Crystallization Market Italy Protein Crystallization Market Spain Protein Crystallization Market Eastern Europe Protein Crystallization Market Russia Protein Crystallization Market North America Protein Crystallization Market USA Protein Crystallization Market Canada Protein Crystallization Market South America Protein Crystallization Market Brazil Protein Crystallization Market Middle East Protein Crystallization Market Africa Protein Crystallization Market Protein Crystallization Market Competitive Landscape and Company Profiles Protein Crystallization Market Other Major and Innovative Companies Global Protein Crystallization Market Competitive Benchmarking and Dashboard Key Mergers and Acquisitions in the Protein Crystallization Market Recent Developments in the Protein Crystallization Market Protein Crystallization Market High Potential Countries, Segments, and Strategies Protein Crystallization Market CONTACT: CONTACT: Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@ For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Mainichi
16-06-2025
- Business
- The Mainichi
Nearly 1/2 of nat'l universities in Japan blame job rules for weaker research capabilities
The rule allowing fixed-term academic employees to switch to indefinite employment after 10 years is a serious factor in Japan's declining research capabilities, nearly half of national universities told a recent Mainichi Shimbun survey. Universities reported that this rule -- originally intended to promote job stability -- often instead results in employment terminations just before a worker reaches 10 years under contract, leaving many academics unable to build stable, sustained research careers. Coupled with declining government funding for university operational expenses, these institutions have struggled to move away from fixed-term employment, highlighting structural problems within academia and challenging Japan's strength in research. Introduced by an amendment to the Labor Contracts Act implemented in 2013, the rule allowed regular workers who had been employed for five years on fixed-term contracts to obtain the right to convert to permanent positions. But a special exemption extended this period to 10 years for researchers whose ongoing projects often span longer timeframes. According to the education ministry, as of April 2023, some 101,602 researchers at universities and research institutions qualified for the rule's 10-year exception. At least 15,838 researchers had become eligible to switch from fixed-term employment to permanent contracts after surpassing the 10-year period, but only 982 had actually exercised their rights. It is suspected that some declined to do so after being presented with changes in employment conditions, including worse terms. Between January and February this year, the Mainichi conducted a questionnaire targeting 86 national universities (including the former Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University, which have integrated into the Institute of Science Tokyo) on the potential effects of the revised Labor Contracts Act on Japan's research capabilities. Responses were received from 74 universities (86%), with 12 institutions -- including major ones like the University of Tokyo, Hokkaido University and the University of Osaka -- opting not to answer. When asked if the revised contractual rules contributed to a decline in research strength, five universities responded they had a "significant impact," and 31 answered "some impact," totaling about half (49%) of respondents. The former Tokyo Institute of Technology, which reported a "significant impact," noted, "It has become an obstacle in researchers' career paths, raising concerns about a decline in research performance in Japan as a whole." Wakayama University, which responded "some impact," explained, "In addition to creating difficulties in developing researchers, it could lead to problems such as decreased motivation and narrowing of research areas." Meanwhile, 38 universities said there was "no impact." The backdrop driving these employment terminations is a decline in national universities' operational subsidies, which fund personnel costs. Since national universities became independent administrative entities in 2004, their operational subsidies have been gradually reduced, with total cuts amounting to over 160 billion yen (approximately $1.1 billion) across two decades. This budget squeeze has pushed universities to significantly boost fixed-term contract employment. Indeed, 21 universities (around 30%) responding to the Mainichi's survey explicitly identified "the decrease in government operational subsidies due to incorporation of national universities" as one reason making the switch to permanent staff positions difficult. The number of frequently cited scientific papers -- a major indicator of international research strength -- shows Japan's sharp decline, falling from fourth to 13th place globally over the past 20 years. Professor Masashi Yanagisawa of the University of Tsukuba, a globally renowned neuroscientist specializing in sleep studies, warned, "Currently, outstanding younger researchers with strong track records and essential technical staff who support research infrastructure on-site are facing critical situations and employment insecurity due to the effects of the Labor Contracts Act. Rather than granting autonomy, national universities have experienced intensified government oversight since incorporation, and with decreased operational funding, universities now lack resources to provide permanent positions. Their hands are largely tied. If Japan wishes to continue producing Nobel laureates, we must urgently correct these structural problems."
BBC News
28-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
What your earwax can reveal about your health
From Alzheimer's to cancer, earwax can contain valuable indicators to a person's health. Now scientists are analysing its chemistry in the hope of finding new ways of diagnosing diseases. It's orange, it's sticky, and it's probably the last thing you want to talk about in polite conversation. Yet earwax is increasingly attracting the attention of scientists, who want to use it to learn more about diseases and conditions like cancer, heart disease, and metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes. The proper name for the gloopy stuff is cerumen, and it's a mix of secretions from two types of glands that line the outer ear canal; the ceruminous and sebaceous glands. The resulting goo is mixed with hair, dead skin flakes, and other bodily debris until it reaches the waxy consistency we all know and try our best not to think about. Once formed in the ear canal, the substance is transported by a kind of conveyer belt mechanism, clinging on to skin cells as they travel from the inside of the ear to the outside – which they do at a speed of approximately one 20th of a millimetre every day. The primary purpose of earwax is debated, but the most likely function is to keep the ear canal clean and lubricated. However, it also serves as an effective trap, preventing bacteria, fungi and other unwelcome guests such as insects from finding their way into our heads. So far, so gross. And yet, possibly due to its unpalatable appearance, earwax has been somewhat overlooked by researchers when it comes to bodily secretions. That's now starting to change, however, thanks to a slew of surprising scientific discoveries. The first is that a person's earwax can actually convey a surprising amount of information about them – both trivial and important. For example, the vast majority of people of European or African descent have wet earwax, which is yellow or orange in colour and sticky. However, 95% of East Asian people have dry earwax, which is grey and non-sticky. The gene responsible for producing either wet or dry earwax is called ABCC11, which also happens to be responsible for whether a person has smelly armpits. Around 2% of people – mostly those in the dry earwax category – have a version of this gene which means their armpits have no odour. However, perhaps the most useful earwax-related discoveries relate to what the sticky stuff in our ears can reveal about our health. Important clues In 1971, Nicholas L Petrakis, a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, found that Caucasian, African-American and German women in the USA, who all had "wet earwax", had an approximately four-fold higher chance of dying from breast cancer than Japanese and Taiwanese women with "dry" earwax. More recently in 2010, researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology took blood samples from 270 female patients with invasive breast cancer, and 273 female volunteers who acted as controls. They found that Japanese women with breast cancer were up to 77% more likely to have the gene coding for wet earwax than healthy volunteers. Nevertheless, the finding remains controversial, and large scale studies in Germany, Australia and Italy have found no difference in breast cancer risk between people with wet and dry earwax, although the number of people in these countries with dry ear wax is very small. What is more established is the link between some systemic illnesses and the substances found in earwax. Take maple syrup urine disease, a rare genetic disorder that prevents the body from breaking down certain amino acids found in food. This leads to a buildup of volatile compounds in the blood and urine, giving urine the distinctive odour of maple syrup. The molecule responsible for the sweet-smelling wee is sotolone, and it can be found in the earwax of people with the condition. This means the condition could be diagnosed through simply swabbing someone's ears, a much simpler and cheaper process than doing a genetic test. Although such a test may not even be necessary. "The earwax literally smells like maple syrup, so within 12 hours of the birth of the baby, when you smell this distinct and lovely smell it tells you that they have this inborn error of metabolism," says Rabi Ann Musah, an environmental chemist at Louisiana State University. Covid-19 can also sometimes be detected in earwax, and a person's earwax can also tell you whether they have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Early work has suggested that you can tell if someone has a certain form of heart disease from their earwax, although it's still easier to diagnose this condition from blood tests. There's also Ménière's disease, an inner ear condition that causes people to experience vertigo and hearing loss. "The symptoms can be very debilitating," says Musah. "They include severe nausea and vertigo. It becomes impossible to drive, or to go places accompanied. You eventually suffer complete hearing loss in the ear that is afflicted." Musah recently led a team which discovered that the earwax of patients with Ménière's disease has lower levels of three fatty acids than that of healthy controls. This is the first time anyone has found a biomarker for the condition, which is usually diagnosed by excluding everything else – a process which can take years. The finding raises the hope that doctors could use earwax to diagnose this condition more quickly in the future. "Our interest in earwax as a reporter of disease is directed at those illnesses that are very difficult to diagnose using typical biological fluids like blood and urine or cerebral spinal fluid, and which take a long time to diagnose because they're rare," says Musah. But what is it about earwax that makes it such a treasure trove of health information? The key, it turns out, is down to the waxy secretions' ability to reflect the inner chemical reactions taking place inside the body – a person's metabolism. "Many diseases in living organisms are metabolic," says Nelson Roberto Antoniosi Filho, a professor of chemistry at the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil, who lists diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's disease as examples. "In these cases, mitochondria – the cell organelles responsible for converting lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins into energy – begin to function differently to those in healthy cells. They start to produce different chemical substances and may even stop producing others." Antoniosi Filho's lab have discovered that earwax concentrates this great diversity of substances more than other biological fluids such as blood, urine, sweat, and tears. "It makes a lot of sense because there's not a lot of turnover in earwax," says Bruce Kimball, a chemical ecologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre, a research institute based in Philadelphia. "It kind of builds up, and so there's certainly a reason to think that it might be a good place to capture long-term snapshots of changes in metabolism." Tricky diagnoses With this in mind, Antoniosi Filho and his team are developing the "cerumenogram" – a diagnostic tool they claim can accurately predict whether a person has certain forms of cancer based on their earwax. In a 2019 study, Antoniosi Filho's team collected earwax samples from 52 cancer patients who had been diagnosed with either lymphoma, carcinoma, or leukaemia. The researchers also took earwax from 50 healthy subjects. They then analysed the samples using a method which can accurately detect the presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – chemicals that evaporate easily in air. The researchers identified 27 compounds in earwax that served as a kind of "fingerprint" for cancer diagnosis. In other words, the team could predict with 100% accuracy whether someone had cancer (either lymphoma, carcinoma, or leukaemia) based on the concentrations of these 27 molecules. Interestingly, the test could not distinguish between different types of cancer, suggesting that the molecules are produced either by, or as a response to, cancer cells from all these types of cancer. "Although cancer consists of hundreds of diseases, from a metabolic point of view, cancer is a single biochemical process, which can be detected at any stage through the evaluation of specific VOCs," says Antoniosi Filho. While in 2019 the team identified 27 VOCs, they are currently focusing on a small number of these that are exclusively produced by cancer cells as part of their unique metabolism. In as-yet unpublished work, Antoniosi Filho says they have also shown that the cerumenogram is able to detect the metabolic disturbances that occur in pre-cancerous stages, where cells exhibit abnormal changes that could potentially lead to cancer, but are not yet cancerous. "Considering that medicine indicates that most cancers diagnosed at stage 1 have up to a 90% cure rate, it is conceivable that the success in treatment will be much higher with the diagnosis of pre-cancer stages," says Antoniosi Filho. The research group is also studying whether the metabolic changes caused by the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's could also be picked up by such a device, although this work is in the early stages. "In the future, we hope that the cerumenogram will become a routine clinical examination, preferably every six months, that allows, with a small portion of earwax, to simultaneously diagnose diseases such as diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's, as well as evaluate metabolic changes resulting from other health conditions," says Antoniosi Filho. In Brazil, the Amaral Carvalho Hospital has recently adopted the cerumenogram as a diagnostic and monitoring technique for cancer treatment, says Antoniosi Filho. Musah is also hopeful that her research will one day help people suffering from Ménière's disease, a condition for which there is currently no cure. She first hopes to validate her test on a larger sample of patients in the clinic, before producing a diagnostic test that could be used by clinicians in their offices. "We are currently working on developing a test kit very similar to what you would see in over-the-counter types of kits that you can buy for Covid-19 testing," says Musah. Understanding earwax Just the observation that three fatty acids are very low compared to normal earwax may also provide some clues that can be further investigated, Musah explains. "It might help us understand what causes the disease, or perhaps even suggest ways in which it can be treated," she says. Musah says that a lot of foundational work is still needed to understand the chemical profile of normal, healthy earwax – and how this changes in different disease states. But she hopes that one day it may be routinely analysed in hospitals to diagnose diseases, in much the same way as blood. "Earwax is a really wonderful matrix to use because it is very lipid rich, and there are lots of diseases that are a consequence of dysregulation of lipid metabolism," says Musah. Perdita Barran, a chemist and professor of mass spectrometry at the University of Manchester in the UK, doesn't study earwax specifically, but does analyse biological molecules and investigate if they could be used to diagnose diseases. She agrees that, theoretically at least, it makes sense that this substance would be a good place to look for signs of illness. "The compounds that you find in blood tend to be water soluble, whereas earwax is a very lipid-rich substance, and lipids don't like water," says Barran. "So if you only study blood, you only get half the picture. Lipids are the canary in the coal mine molecules. They're the ones that really start changing first." -- For trusted insights into better health and wellbeing rooted in science, sign up to the Health Fix newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights. For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
