Photon Upconversion of Defect-Bound Excitons in hBN-Encapsulated MoS Monolayer.

Atomic defects associated with vacancies in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers efficiently trap charged carriers and strongly localize excitons. Defects in semiconducting monolayers are seldomly utilized for enhancing optical phenomena, although they may provide resonant intermediate states within the energy band gap for applications with multiphoton excitations, like highly efficient and thermally robust photon upconversion. In an MoS monolayer encapsulated by hBN with high defect and resident electron densities, we observe an upconversion of localized exciton (X) emission with a huge energy gain of up to 290 meV.

Activation of STAT3-mediated ciliated cell survival protects against severe infection by respiratory syncytial virus.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) selectively targets ciliated cells in human bronchial epithelium and can cause bronchiolitis and pneumonia, mostly in infants. To identify molecular targets of intervention during RSV infection in infants, we investigated how age regulates RSV interaction with the bronchial epithelium barrier. Employing precision-cut lung slices and air-liquid interface cultures generated from infant and adult human donors, we found robust RSV virus spread and extensive apoptotic cell death only in infant bronchial epithelium.

A Comparative Assessment of the Pathogenic Potential of Newly Discovered Henipaviruses.

Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies have led to the discovery of a plethora of previously unknown viruses in animal samples. Some of these newly detected viruses are closely related to human pathogens. A prime example are the henipaviruses.