Publications by authors named "Zemin Zhang"

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors. Tumor immune microenvironment (TIME), angiogenesis, epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT), invasion, metastasis, metabolism, and drug resistance are the main factors affecting the development and treatment of tumors. MiRNAs play crucial roles in almost all major cellular biological processes.

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Therapeutics targeting tumor endothelial cells (TECs) have been explored for decades, with only suboptimal efficacy achieved, partly due to an insufficient understanding of the TEC heterogeneity across cancer patients. We integrated single-cell RNA-seq data of 575 cancer patients from 19 solid tumor types, comprehensively charting the TEC phenotypic diversities. Our analyses uncovered underappreciated compositional and functional heterogeneity in TECs from a pan-cancer perspective.

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  • This study analyzes fibroblast cells from 517 human samples across 11 tissue types, revealing different fibroblast subpopulations that change in response to inflammation and cancer.
  • Researchers identified four distinct myofibroblast subpopulations, noting that some, like LRRC15 and MMP1, promote tumor growth while others, such as PI16, might have anti-tumor effects.
  • The findings improve our understanding of fibroblast roles in tumors and hint at new therapeutic strategies targeting specific fibroblast types to enhance cancer treatment outcomes.
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  • The tumor microenvironment (TME) significantly affects the progression and treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), yet there's limited research on how individual variations in TME influence CRC outcomes.
  • By analyzing single-cell transcriptomic data from about 200 patients, the study identified unique tumor-specific endothelial cells that can recruit T cells and categorized patients based on their TME diversity, revealing various immune evasion strategies used by cancer cells.
  • The findings also linked specific stromal cells to genetic susceptibility in CRC, offering insights into disease mechanisms and potential avenues for tailored immune therapies.
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  • Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) stabilization through molecular glues is vital in drug discovery, but it comes with challenges that this study aims to address.
  • The researchers apply a dual-site targeting strategy using molecular dynamics simulations to enhance the stabilization of the CDK12-DDB1 complex, leading to increased degradation of cyclin K.
  • The developed molecular glue, LL-K12-18, shows drastic improvements in inhibiting gene transcription and has potent anti-tumor effects in specific breast cancer cell lines compared to its precursor, highlighting the potential of this approach in cancer treatment.
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  • A comprehensive analysis of tumor-infiltrating B cells (TIBs) was conducted using single-cell RNA sequencing from 649 patients across 19 different cancer types.
  • The study reveals significant variation in the abundance and types of B cells present, highlighting notable B cell subpopulations with potential implications for cancer prognosis.
  • Among these, tumor-associated atypical B cells (TAABs) were identified as promising indicators of immunotherapy response due to their high clonal expansion and interaction with T cells.
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Abdominal trauma is common in daily life, but a traumatic abdominal wall hernia (TAWH) in children is rare. A TAWH is caused by a huge external force that leads to subcutaneous muscle and fascia rupture, while the skin remains intact. As abdominal pressure increases, the abdominal contents protrude, forming a lump.

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  • Antimony (Sb) and arsenic (As) are significant pollutants from nonferrous metal mining and processing, negatively impacting soil microbial communities, yet their ecological effects remain largely unexamined.* * Utilizing methods like high-throughput 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing, researchers assessed soil pollution in different areas, revealing Sb and As's varying chemical forms and identifying the smelting area as the most polluted compared to mining and contrast areas.* * The study found that Proteobacteria was the dominant bacterial phylum in contaminated sites, and specific microbial genera were correlated with Sb and As concentrations, highlighting these metals' strong influence on soil microbial diversity and health.*
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  • * Analyzes single-cell samples from 22 CRC patients to reveal that certain T cell populations (exhausted T cells and tumor-reactive-like T cells) play key roles in treatment efficacy and show changes post-PD-1 blockade.
  • * Suggests that a higher presence of specific blood-associated T cells and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II signatures in CD8 T cells are associated with better treatment outcomes, offering insights into immune dynamics.
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Precise electrochemical synthesis of commodity chemicals and fuels from CO building blocks provides a promising route to close the anthropogenic carbon cycle, in which renewable but intermittent electricity could be stored within the greenhouse gas molecules. Here, we report state-of-the-art CO-to-HCOOH valorization performance over a multiscale optimized Cu-Bi cathodic architecture, delivering a formate Faradaic efficiency exceeding 95% within an aqueous electrolyzer, a C-basis HCOOH purity above 99.8% within a solid-state electrolyzer operated at 100 mA cm for 200 h and an energy efficiency of 39.

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Diurnal flower-opening time (DFOT), the time of spikelet opening during the day, is an important trait for hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.) seed production. Hybrids between indica and japonica rice varieties have strong heterosis, but the parental lines usually have different, nonoverlapping DFOTs.

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  • The study evaluates the effectiveness of neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy in patients with localized EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) through a phase 2 trial involving 18 participants.
  • Interim results show that while many patients had positive radiological responses, only 44% reached major pathological response, and there were no cases of complete response.
  • The research indicates that certain T cell populations are linked to resistance against immunotherapy and suggests that monitoring circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) could help identify patients less likely to respond to such treatments.
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Improving the drought resistance of rice is of great significance for expanding the planting area and improving the stable yield of rice. In our previous work, we found that () protein promoted enhanced tolerance to drought stress by eliminating reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and triggering the abscisic acid (ABA) response. However, the mechanism through which REL1 regulates drought tolerance by removing ROS is unclear.

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The formation of an asymmetric junction is key to graphene-based photodetectors of high-sensitive photodetectability, because such a junction can not only facilitate the diffusion or drift of photogenerated carriers but also realize a self-powered operation. Here, a monolayer-multilayer graphene junction photodetector is accomplished by selectively thinning part of a multilayer graphene to a high-quality monolayer. Benefiting from the large photoabsorption cross section of multilayer graphene and strong asymmetry caused by the significant differences in optoelectronic properties between monolayer and multilayer graphene, the monolayer-multilayer graphene junction shows a 7-fold increase in short-circuit photocurrent as compared with that at the monolayer graphene-metal contact in scanning photocurrent images.

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  • The study explored how carbonization temperature (300-700 °C) and time (0.5-1.5 hours) affect the characteristics of products made from carbonized municipal sludge.
  • It found that increasing temperature and time led to more complete carbonization, altering the material’s structure, reducing organic content, and changing its physical properties significantly.
  • Key outcomes included a reduction in conductivity, decreased natural water absorption, and a lower higher calorific value, while heavy metals became more concentrated but remained largely unavailable.
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The selective functionalization of remote C-H bonds in free primary amines holds significant promise for the late-stage diversification of pharmaceuticals. However, to date, the direct functionalization of the position of amine substrates lacking additional directing groups remains underexplored. In this Letter, we present a successful -C-H arylation of free primary amine derivatives using aryl iodides, resulting in synthetically valuable yields.

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RNA splicing shapes the gene regulatory programs that underlie various physiological and disease processes. Here, we present the SCASL (single-cell clustering based on alternative splicing landscapes) method for interrogating the heterogeneity of RNA splicing with single-cell RNA-seq data. SCASL resolves the issue of biased and sparse data coverage on single-cell RNA splicing and provides a new scheme for classifications of cell identities.

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T follicular helper (Tfh) cells, essential for germinal center reactions, are not identical, with different phenotypes reported. Whether, when, and how they generate memory cells is still poorly understood. Here, through single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis of CXCR5+Bcl6+ Tfh cells generated under different conditions, we discovered, in addition to PD-1hi effector Tfh cells, a CD62L+PD1low subpopulation.

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Computational deconvolution with single-cell RNA sequencing data as reference is pivotal to interpreting spatial transcriptomics data, but the current methods are limited to cell-type resolution. Here we present Redeconve, an algorithm to deconvolute spatial transcriptomics data at single-cell resolution, enabling interpretation of spatial transcriptomics data with thousands of nuanced cell states. We benchmark Redeconve with the state-of-the-art algorithms on diverse spatial transcriptomics platforms and datasets and demonstrate the superiority of Redeconve in terms of accuracy, resolution, robustness, and speed.

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