Category: Chemistry

From caffeine to penicillin, natural products have become a mainstay in modern society, and are used for numerous applications, such as medicine and pesticides. There are tens of thousands of untapped natural products, but identifying new compounds with bioactivity can be difficult, especially when produced in low quantities.

To overcome this, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed FAST-NPS, a new method to accelerate the discovery and scale up of bioactive natural products found in Streptomyces. The work is published in the journal Cell Systems.

Natural products are chemicals produced by living organisms that are either essential for the organism to survive or provide secondary functions such as protection from infection or predators. The discovery of natural products derived from bacteria, fungi, and plants has been particularly advantageous for the development of lifesaving medicines, including antibiotics like erythromycin, daptomycin, and vancomycin, which have been isolated from Streptomyces.

With advancements in computational technology and genomic sequencing, researchers can use microbial genome mining to more efficiently discover new natural products, compared to traditional methods that require isolation directly from organisms. But there are still improvements that can be made to these processes, because not all natural products demonstrate bioactive properties and many are produced in low quantities, making them hard to detect.

Natural products are structurally diverse, coming in a variety of shapes and sizes that can often be too complex for chemists to synthesize. However, nature proves to be the best chemist, using numerous enzymes to build these natural products in microorganisms. The genes that encode the required enzymes are often located together in the genome to form so-called biosynthetic gene clusters, BGCs. Using bioinformatics and machine learning techniques, researchers can identify BGCs in microbial genomes to discover new natural products.

“In this work, we try to address two challenges in natural product discovery. The first challenge is how we can efficiently identify new compounds that are bioactive,” said Huimin Zhao, the Steven L. Miller Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BSD theme leader/CABBI/CGD/MMG). “The second challenge is how we can scale up our CAPTURE method using our robotic system.”

To tackle the first challenge, the research study, led by postdoctoral researcher and first author of the paper Yujie Yuan, leveraged self-resistance genes.

“We are using the self-resistance genes as markers to prioritize BGCs of natural products with bioactivity,” Yuan said.

Self-resistance genes are an evolutionary response to shield organisms from any negative effects that could be caused by their own natural products. So the self-resistance genes in the BGCs serve as a predictor of the bioactivity of the corresponding natural products, therefore improving the efficiency of the discovery process by narrowing the pool of BGCs to further pursue and test.

After identifying a target BGC using the Antibiotic Resistant Target Seeker tool, ARTS, its genes are captured from the microbial genome and inserted into bacteria that can synthesize the natural product. Zhao’s group had previously reported a high-efficiency direct cloning method coupled with heterologous expression to accomplish this.

“In the past, we developed the CAPTURE method, which allows us to clone large biosynthetic gene clusters from microbial genomes with high efficiency. Although the process is very efficient, it is tedious and involves a lot of manual work,” Zhao said.

The team adapted their CAPTURE and heterologous expression methods into a fully automated, scalable, high-throughput platform, called FAST-NPS, for discovering bioactive natural products in Streptomyces. FAST-NPS integrates seamlessly with the ARTS tool.

By fully automating this process using the Illinois Biological Foundry for Advanced Biomanufacturing, iBioFAB, they are able to eliminate this tedious manual labor and increase the number of BCGs they can pursue in parallel. In a process that takes almost a month from start to finish, automation increases the capability to clone and express BGCs from about ten at a time to several hundred at a time.

“We spent a lot of time and effort to develop the automation workflow. This was a big challenge because we had to develop each component, from PCR and RNA transcription to bacterial transformation and heterologous expression,” Yuan said. “I am very proud of our CAPTURE method and am excited to report this more powerful version for the discovery of bioactive compounds.”

The team’s efforts paid off because the proof-of-concept demonstrated a 95% success rate when they cloned 105 BGCs from 11 Streptomyces strains. Further, they identified five promising BGCs, and all five proved to produce bioactive compounds.

But moving forward, Zhao says that there is still room for improvement. “While we had a 100% success rate for discovering bioactive compounds, five is a small number because we still need to improve the success rate of the heterologous expression. We cloned more than 100 biosynthetic gene clusters, and only 12 were functionally expressed. So, this is a challenge that we will try to address.”

More information: Yujie Yuan et al, Self-resistance-gene-guided, high-throughput automated genome mining of bioactive natural products from Streptomyces, Cell Systems (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101237

Journal information: Cell Systems 

Provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Much of cell behavior is governed by the actions of biomolecular condensates: building block molecules that glom together and scatter apart as needed. Biomolecular condensates constantly shift their phase, sometimes becoming solid, sometimes like little droplets of oil in vinegar, and other phases in between.

Understanding the electrochemical properties of such slippery molecules has been a recent focus for researchers at Washington University in St. Louis.

In research published in Nature Chemistry, Yifan Dai, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, shares the rules involving the intracellular electrochemical properties that affect movement and chemical activities inside the cell and how that might impact cell processes as a condensate ages. The research can inform the development of treatments for diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or cancer.

Extracellular flow—the movement of ions between cell membrane channels—is well studied, but little was known about those same electrochemical fields at play inside the cell.

“In the past century, people have learned a lot regarding electrochemical effects caused by extracellular environmental perturbances. However, in the intracellular world, we do not know much yet,” said Dai.

This work is one of the very first steps to writing those rules. Dai and collaborators from Stanford University, including Professors Guosong Hong and Richard N. Zare, show that condensation and the non-equilibrium process after condensation is itself a way to regulate the electrochemical dynamics of the environments.

Imagine a giant conference hall with lots of little groups of people looking at posters, constantly shifting in and out to different exhibits. Some of those people might want others to follow them to another exhibit or call attention to a different subject and bring others with them.

This is how condensates work, going where they stick, affecting the movements of other condensates with their electrical potentials, and changes to the pH of the surrounding environment. Playing with the surface of those condensates can also affect the electrical potentials, as Dai and colleagues found.

They determined that electrochemical potential is also regulated by “aging-associated intermolecular interactions and interfacial effects.”

Think about that conference hall of people. Over the course of a full day, those interactions are less optimal as the individuals get tired and experience stress.

“The surface of the condensate is going to change during the aging process,” Dai said.

Back in the molecular realm, these “aging-associated” interactions can lead to dysfunction and diseases like ALS and Alzheimer’s, so understanding how to potentially interrupt that could yield medical treatments.

They were able to adjust electrical potentials by modifying the surface of a condensate. By measuring the alignment of the molecule, they could also determine its surface potential for ion flow, and most importantly, find ways to manipulate those surface signals to push healthy biological reactions.

“Hopefully, this work can shed light on the concept that condensate is not just about biomolecules,” Dai said.

More information: Wen Yu et al, Aging-dependent evolving electrochemical potentials of biomolecular condensates regulate their physicochemical activities, Nature Chemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41557-025-01762-7

Journal information: Nature Chemistry 

Provided by Washington University in St. Louis 

Tryptamine psychoactive substances, such as α-methyltryptamine (AMT), are monoamine alkaloids characterized by an indole ring structure. Rapid, highly sensitive, and specific identification of trace amounts of AMT is crucial for maintaining social stability and ensuring public safety. However, accurately detecting AMT using specific fluorescent methods is challenging due to the presence of similar amine groups and benzene rings in various other amines.

To address this challenge, a research team led by Prof. Dou Xincun from the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a novel molecular probe strategy to enhance detection sensitivity and selectivity for AMT.

Their findings, published in Analytical Chemistry, emphasize tuning the electron-withdrawing strength of the π-conjugate bridge to improve the reactivity of Schiff base-based fluorescence probes with amines.

In this study, researchers developed three tricyanofuran (TCF)-based probes with different π-conjugated bridges—benzene, benzothiadiazole, and 2,5-dibromobenzene—tailored for amine-containing analytes. Among these, the aldehyde group in the probe with −C₆H₂Br₂ as the π-conjugate bridge, denoted as BrFS-TCF, showed the highest electrostatic potential, making it the most effective for AMT detection due to its superior reactivity.

The optimized probe demonstrated remarkable performance, achieving a fluorescent detection limit of 13 nM, a colorimetric detection limit of 132 nM, and a response time of less than 0.1 seconds. Additionally, the integration of a convolutional neural network algorithm enabled the probe to distinguish AMT from other primary amines, further enhancing its specificity.

Moreover, the probe’s reliability was validated through the detection of trace AMT in artificial saliva and solid residues, showcasing its potential for real-world applications.

This innovative probe design and regulation strategy not only provides a new approach for the specific identification and discrimination of primary amine-containing drugs but also advances the development of methodologies for detecting trace hazards and illicit substances.

More information: Zhenzhen Cai et al, Precise Electron-Withdrawing Strength Regulation of π-Conjugate Bridge-Boosted Specific Detection toward α-Methyltryptamine, Analytical Chemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c05950

Journal information: Analytical Chemistry 

Provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences 

by Li Yali, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Synthetic cannabinoids, a class of new psychoactive substances, bind to cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 much more strongly than tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), raising public health concerns due to their toxicity and addiction risk.

Current detection methods mainly use advanced techniques like high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which are accurate but time-consuming and require complex equipment.

In contrast, visual detection methods such as colorimetry and fluorescence are quicker and easier to interpret, making them better for on-site use. However, there is still a need for visual detection techniques specifically targeting MDMB-CA series synthetic cannabinoids.

To address this challenge, researchers from the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed an innovative zinc(II)-enhanced excimer fluorescence probe. Utilizing a conjugation modulation and metal-bridging strategy, the probe achieves highly specific recognition of MDMB-CA series synthetic cannabinoids through multiple non-covalent interactions.

Theoretical analysis revealed that the ratiometric fluorescence emission results from a transition from excimer emission to fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based emission, elucidating the optical response mechanism.

The work is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Experimental results demonstrate that the probe can specifically detect multiple MDMB-CA series synthetic cannabinoids within five seconds, with no interference from 14 potentially confounding substances. The team further developed a portable detection chip integrating extraction and enrichment functions, enabling accurate detection of synthetic cannabinoids in complex matrices such as e-cigarette oil and tobacco leaves. Additionally, the probe is capable of detecting synthetic cannabinoids and their metabolites in urine samples.

This study introduces a novel excimer fluorescence probe based on conjugation modulation and metal-bridging strategies, offering a new approach for the detection and identification of synthetic cannabinoids. Beyond advancing the field of synthetic cannabinoid detection, this research also contributes to the broader development of sensing probes and provides new insights for accurately detecting structurally diverse and weakly reactive chemical substances.

More information: Yihang Wang et al, Zinc(II)‐Enhanced Excimer Probe for Recognition of MDMB‐CA Synthetic Cannabinoids, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2025). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202423576

Journal information: Angewandte Chemie International Edition 

Provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences 

A Jilin University team has reported a novel strategy using pressure engineering to identify the organic–inorganic interaction sites in non-hydrogen-bonded hybrid metal perovskites. This approach offers valuable guidance for designing materials with targeted optical properties and provides new insights into the photophysical mechanisms in hybrid perovskites.

“Previous research has primarily focused on the impact of hydrogen bonding interactions in hybrid perovskites on the material’s photophysical properties,” said Guanjun Xiao, a professor of the State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials at Jilin University, who led the research. “The lack of exploration into interaction mechanisms in non-hydrogen-bonded hybrid perovskites has impeded materials precise design with targeted properties.”

As high-pressure engineering provides a potent means to address the debates under environmental conditions, Xiao and his team sought to investigate the specific sites in non-hydrogen-bonded hybrid perovskite, (DBU)PbBr₃, by invoking high pressure. Their research revealed that the spatial arrangement of the nearest Br-N atomic pairs is the major factor on the organic–inorganic interactions.

The study was published in the journal Research.

In this study, the team successfully synthesized microrod (DBU)PbBr₃ using the hot injection method and subsequently conducted a systematic investigation of their high-pressure optical and structural properties. The researchers initially discovered that the material’s emission exhibited an enhancement and blue shift under pressure, with a calculated photoluminescence quantum yield of 86.6% under 5.0 GPa. Furthermore, photoluminescence lifetime measurements confirmed that non-radiative recombination was suppressed under pressure.

Researchers also observed an abnormally enhanced Raman mode in the pressure range where emission enhancement occurs. “This suggests a potential connection between the two phenomena,” Xiao said. They further analyzed the origin of the Raman mode and identified it as corresponding to organic–inorganic interactions, possibly related to N-Br interaction.

The team further analyzed the structural evolution under pressure and conducted first principles calculations, confirming the primary factors influencing interaction strength was the spatial arrangement of N and Br atoms, including their distance and dihedral angle. The isostructural phase transition occurring at 5.5 GPa marked a turning point in the evolutionary trend, Xiao noted. The change in the primary compression direction initially increased the organic–inorganic interaction strength, which then decreased, aligning with the evolution of optical properties.

“These findings fill the gap in the mechanism of organic–inorganic interaction in non-hydrogen-bonded hybrid halides, providing worthwhile guidelines for materials design with targeted optical performance,” Xiao said.

More information: Ming Cong et al, Identifying Organic–Inorganic Interaction Sites Toward Emission Enhancement in Non-Hydrogen-Bonded Hybrid Perovskite via Pressure Engineering, Research (2024). DOI: 10.34133/research.0476

Journal information: Research 

Recently, a research group led by Prof. Wang Zhenyang and Zhang Shudong from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed a new type of ceramic fiber aerogel, SiC@SiO₂, featuring highly anisotropic thermal conductivity and extreme thermal stability through directional bio-inspired design.

The work was published in Advanced Science.

In nature, many biological structures—such as wood’s vascular systems or the layered architecture of silkworm cocoons—demonstrate directional heat management thanks to their well-organized internal structures.

Inspired by these natural designs, the team applied a bio-inspired fabrication strategy to create aerogels with similarly ordered architecture. They used electrospinning and freeze-drying techniques to fabricate a highly ordered structure.

First, thermally stable SiC nanofibers with excellent chemical stability were synthesized as basic units, followed by the construction of an amorphous SiO₂ shell on their surfaces. This SiO₂ coating acts as a phonon barrier, enabling both intra-layered alignment and inter-layered stacking to form a highly oriented SiC@SiO₂ ceramic fiber aerogel.

The anisotropic aerogel demonstrates remarkable properties: Ultralow cross-plane thermal conductivity is as low as 0.018 W/m·K, and an anisotropy coefficient is as high as 5.08, which is significantly better than that of similar materials.

In addition to thermal performance, the aerogel shows excellent mechanical resilience, with radial elastic deformation over 60% and axial specific modulus reaching 5.72 kN·m/kg.

Most impressively, it maintains structural and functional stability across an ultra-wide temperature range from -196°C to 1300°C, making it a promising candidate for applications in aerospace, energy systems, and other extreme environments where advanced thermal insulation is critical.

This work offers a new pathway for developing ultralight, high-performance insulation materials for demanding applications, according to the team.

More information: Zheng Zhang et al, Highly Oriented SiC@SiO₂ Ceramic Fiber Aerogels with Good Anisotropy of the Thermal Conductivity and High‐Temperature Resistance, Advanced Science (2025). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202416740

Journal information: Advanced Science 

Provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences 

by Liu Cui and Zhao Weiwei, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Many people will soon load up Easter baskets with chocolate candy for children and adults to enjoy. On its own, dark chocolate has health benefits, such as antioxidants that neutralize damaging free radicals. And a report in ACS Food Science & Technology suggests that packing the sweet treat with pre- and probiotics could make it more healthful. Flavoring agents, however, can affect many properties, including moisture level and protein content of the chocolate product.

Probiotics, found in fermented foods such as yogurt and kimchi, are living microbes that improve the gut microbiome, shifting the balance toward beneficial bacteria and yeasts. They can also ease digestive issues and reduce inflammation. These active cultures need food and protection to survive harsh gut conditions, so prebiotics—substances like dietary fibers and oligosaccharides—are sometimes added to probiotic-containing products to create synbiotic foods.

Because chocolate is a treat that many people enjoy, researchers have used it to test various combinations of pre- and probiotics. Some methods for including prebiotics are laborious, so Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh explored prebiotics that would not require extensive processing—corn and honey—in chocolate fortified with probiotics.

The team developed five chocolates for their study. One contained only basic chocolate ingredients, including cocoa butter, cocoa powder and milk powder. Four different synbiotic test samples also contained prebiotics (corn and honey), one probiotic (either Lactobacillus acidophilus La-14 or Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG) and one flavor additive (either cinnamon or orange).

When the researchers examined several properties of the chocolate samples, they found that fat levels, which influence texture and mouthfeel, were consistent among all five samples. However, there were differences:

• Flavorings impacted some characteristics of the synbiotic chocolates. For example, orange flavorings decreased pH, increased moisture and enhanced protein levels compared to all the other samples.
• The four synbiotic samples had higher antioxidant levels than the control.
• Synbiotic samples had less “snap” compared to the control, suggesting that the additional ingredients disrupted the structure of the chocolate.

The total microbial counts of the synbiotic chocolate samples decreased during storage, but the probiotic microbes still exhibited viability after 125 days. This time period is longer than other researchers have reported when using different bacteria and prebiotics in chocolates. Finally, when Gaur and Singh exposed the synbiotic chocolates to simulated gastrointestinal conditions, the probiotics in the samples maintained substantial viability for more than 5 hours.

The researchers also snuck a taste of the confections. “Personally, we enjoyed the orange-flavored chocolates the most, where the vibrant citrus notes complemented the rich cocoa, and it had a slightly softer texture that made each bite feel more luxurious,” says Gaur.

“In the future, we are excited to explore additional health benefits of these chocolates while thoroughly investigating their sensory and nutritional profiles, with the goal of creating an even more wholesome and enjoyable treat.”

More information: Shubhi Singh et al, Novel Formulations of Cinnamon- and Orange-Flavored Synbiotic Corn Chocolates with Enhanced Functional Properties and Probiotic Survival Rates, ACS Food Science & Technology (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741

Provided by American Chemical Society 

UCLA doctoral student Yilin Wong noticed that some tiny dots had appeared on one of her samples, which had been accidentally left out overnight. The layered sample consisted of a germanium wafer topped with evaporated metal films in contact with a drop of water. On a whim, she looked at the dots under a microscope and couldn’t believe her eyes. Beautiful spiral patterns had been etched into the germanium surface by a chemical reaction.

Wong’s curiosity led her on a journey to discover what no one had seen before: Hundreds of near-identical spiral patterns can spontaneously form on a centimeter square germanium chip. Moreover, small changes in experiment parameters, such as the thickness of the metal film, generated different patterns, including Archimedean spirals, logarithmic spirals, lotus flower shapes, radially symmetric patterns and more.

The discovery, published in Physical Review Materials, occurred fortuitously when Wong made a small mistake while attempting to bind DNA to the metal film.

“I was trying to develop a measurement technique to categorize biomolecules on a surface through breaking and reforming of the chemical bonds,” Wong said. “Fixing DNA molecules on a solid substrate is pretty common. I guess nobody who made the same mistake I did happened to look under the microscope.”

To learn more about how the patterns formed, Wong and co-author Giovanni Zocchi, a UCLA physics professor, investigated a system that involved evaporating a 10-nanometer thick layer of chromium on the surface of a germanium wafer, followed by a 4-nanometer layer of gold. Next, the researchers placed a drop of mild etching solution onto the surface and dried it overnight, then washed and re-incubated the chip with the same etching solution in a wet chamber to prevent evaporation.

“The system basically forms an electrolytic capacitor,” Zocchi said.

Over the course of 24–48 hours, a chemical reaction catalyzed by the metal film etched remarkable patterns on the germanium surface. Investigation of the process revealed that the chromium and gold films were under stress and had delaminated from the germanium as the catalytic reaction proceeded. The resulting stress created wrinkles in the metal film that—under further catalysis—etched the amazing patterns the researchers had seen.

“The thickness of the metal layer, the initial state of mechanical stress of the sample, and the composition of the etching solution all play a role in determining the type of pattern that develops,” Zocchi said.

One of the most exciting findings in this study is that the patterns are not purely chemical, but are influenced by residual stress in the metal film. The research suggests that the metal’s preexisting tension or compression determines the shapes that emerge. Thus, two processes, one chemical and one mechanical, worked together to yield the patterns.

This type of coupling, formed between catalysis-driven deformations of an interface and the underlying chemical reactions, is unusual in laboratory experiments but common in nature. Enzymes catalyze growth in nature, which deforms cells and tissue. It’s this mechanical instability that makes tissue grow into particular shapes, some of which resemble the ones seen in Wong’s experiments.

“In the biological world, this kind of coupling is actually ubiquitous,” Zocchi said. “We just don’t think of it in laboratory experiments because most laboratory experiments about pattern formation are done in liquids. That’s what makes this discovery so exciting. It gives us a non-living laboratory system in which to study this kind of coupling and its incredible pattern-forming ability.”

The study of pattern formation in chemical reactions began in 1951 when the Soviet chemist Boris Belousov accidentally discovered a chemical system that could spontaneously oscillate in time, which inaugurated the new fields of chemical pattern formation and nonequilibrium thermodynamics.

At the same time and independently, the British mathematician Alan Turing discovered that chemical systems, later termed “reaction-diffusion systems,” could spontaneously form patterns in space, such as stripes or polka dots. The reaction-diffusion dynamics observed in Wong’s experiments mirrored the theoretical ones posited by Turing.

Although the field of complex systems in physics and pattern formation enjoyed a time in the spotlight during the 1980s and 90s, to this day, the experimental systems used to study chemical pattern formation in the laboratory are essentially variants of ones introduced in the 1950s. The Wong-Zocchi system represents a major advance in the experimental study of chemical pattern formation.

More information: Yilin Wong et al, Metal-assisted chemical etching patterns at a Ge/Cr/Au interface modulated by the Euler instability, Physical Review Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.9.035201

Provided by University of California, Los Angeles 

With artificial photosynthesis, mankind could utilize solar energy to bind carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen. Chemists from Würzburg and Seoul have taken this one step further: They have synthesized a stack of dyes that comes very close to the photosynthetic apparatus of plants. It absorbs light energy, uses it to separate charge carriers and transfers them quickly and efficiently in the stack.

Photosynthesis is a marvelous process: plants use it to produce sugar molecules and oxygen from the simple starting materials carbon dioxide and water. They draw the energy they need for this complex process from sunlight.

If humans could imitate photosynthesis, it would have many advantages. The free energy from the sun could be used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to build carbohydrates and other useful substances. It would also be possible to produce hydrogen, as photosynthesis splits water into its components oxygen and hydrogen.

Photosynthesis: A complex process with many participants

So it’s no wonder that many researchers are working on artificial photosynthesis. This is not easy, because photosynthesis is an extremely complex process: it takes place in the cells of plants in many individual steps and involves numerous dyes, proteins and other molecules. However, science is constantly making new advances.

One of the leading researchers in the field of artificial photosynthesis is chemist Professor Frank Würthner from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany. His team has now succeeded in imitating one of the first steps of natural photosynthesis with a sophisticated arrangement of artificial dyes and analyzing it more precisely.

The results were obtained in collaboration with Professor Dongho Kim’s group at Yonsei University in Seoul (Korea). They have been published in Nature Chemistry.

The researchers have succeeded in synthesizing a stack of dyes that is very similar to the photosynthetic apparatus in plant cells—it absorbs light energy at one end, uses it to separate charge carriers and transfers them step by step to the other end via the transport of electrons. The structure consists of four stacked dye molecules from the perylene bisimide class.

“We can specifically trigger the charge transport in this structure with light and have analyzed it in detail. It is efficient and fast. This is an important step towards the development of artificial photosynthesis,” says JMU Ph.D. student Leander Ernst, who synthesized the stacked structure.

Next, the JMU research team wants to expand the nanosystem of stacked dye molecules from four to more components—with the aim of ultimately creating a kind of supramolecular wire that absorbs light energy and transports it quickly and efficiently over longer distances. This would be a further step towards novel photofunctional materials that can be used for artificial photosynthesis.

More information: Photoinduced stepwise charge hopping in π-stacked perylene bisimide donor-bridge-acceptor arrays., Nature Chemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41557-025-01770-7

Journal information: Nature Chemistry 

Provided by University of Würzburg 

A new Yale study aims to settle a longstanding question about photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into fuel, with oxygen as a byproduct.

For 40 years, scientists have debated about a mechanism relating to Mn₄Ca, a manganese “cofactor” within photosynthesis that acts like a high-performance solar battery. In that time, two schools of thought have emerged: those who think Mn₄Ca’s storage mechanism works via a low-valence paradigm (LVP) and those who think it occurs via a high-valence paradigm (HVP). (Valence refers to an atom’s capacity to combine with other atoms.)

The distinction is important, researchers say, because it may affect how engineers try to mimic photosynthesis in solar technologies.

Jimin Wang, a research scientist in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry in FAS, lands definitively on the LVP side. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Wang conducted a Cryo-EM (cryogenic electron microscopy) analysis of proteins that contain Mn₄Ca—an approach that Wang said gives a more accurate picture than other analytic techniques.

“Resolving the longstanding LVP/HVP controversy could help chemists and engineers to design biology-inspired solar capture devices with greatly improved efficiency,” Wang said.

More information: Jimin Wang, Cryo-EM meets crystallography: A model-independent view of the heteronuclear Mn₄Ca cluster structure of photosystem II, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2423012122

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

Provided by Yale University