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* Self-powered wearable module for diagnosing livestock health, developed by a team of Korean and Australian researchers* Joint research by Korean and Australian researchersA team of researchers led by Professor Kim Jong-hyun (Department of Applied Chemistry and Biological Engineering/Graduate Department of Molecular Science and Technology), working together with a team of Australian researchers, succeeded in developing the core technology for a self-powered wearable module for diagnosing livestock health. The technology is expected to aid in the development of a cutting-edge digital platform that allows large livestock farmers to diagnose and manage the health of their livestock in real time.The results of the research collaboration, entitled “Investigation of Low-intensity Light Performance of Kesterite CZTSe, CZTSSe, and CZTS Thin-film Solar Cells for Indoor Applications,” were published on the online issue of Journal of Materials Chemistry A (IF = 11.301, JCR top 6.7%) on July 21. The authors include researchers from Ajou University, the Green Energy Institute, Chonnam National University, and the University of New South Wales.The researchers discovered the mechanism of a CZTSSe-based solar cell that can be used in a variety of low-light settings. CZTS-based thin-film solar cells are affordable and eco-friendly light absorbers, and are expected to lead to the development of a better alternative to existing solar cells, which are expensive and made of environmentally harmful heavy metals. Although CZTS-based solar cells have been known to boast superior conversion efficiency in outdoor settings with abundant sunlight, little research has been done on how effective they are in low-light settings, such as overcast weather and indoor environments.The researchers thus set out to develop a CZTSSe film that could be used in a variety of low-light environments, and proved that such film could produce enough electricity to run Internet-of-things (IoT) sensors even in low-light settings. In other words, their CZTSSe thin-film solar cell demonstrated the capability for application to self-powered IoT sensors of various types used in either indoor or outdoor settings.Timely and accurate diagnosis and projection of livestock diseases, including swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), based on efficient monitoring is crucial to the containment of contagious animal diseases as well as the welfare of animals. Members of Professor Kim’s team have been working together on multiple projects over the years to develop effective livestock health monitoring systems through collaboration with industries and academic institutions worldwide. The team has included members from Ajou University (Professor Kim), Chonnam National University (Professor Kim Jin-hyeok), Korea Electronics Technology Institute (Dr. Kim Jin-cheol and Dr. Park No-chang), Green Energy Institute (Dr. Park Jong-seong[KHTC1]), Daeyeon C&I Inc., and University of New South Wales and University of Queensland, both in Australia.This global team has been searching for ways to create a wireless, standalone power system that can reliably supply electricity irrespective of the differences in livestock farming environments. Since developing a self-powered wearable module sensor for livestock health assessment, the researchers have been testing it in Australia.The key to making a device like this possible lies in a solar cell that can be used in both outdoor and indoor environments. To this end, the team first developed a perovskite solar cell with superior output, and published their study in Nano Energy, a widely cited academic journal, in February 2020. The team had also been researching encapsulation technology to ensure the actual applicability of the solar cell they developed, and had their findings published in Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells in December 2018.Professor Kim explained, “We have developed a wireless, self-powered, wearable sensor module based on our earlier studies, and are now testing it on cattle on a farm in Brisbane. We plan to expand our trial to include large-scale farms in other regions of Australia.”The team regularly organizes their own meetings and exchanges to facilitate better understanding of the technological demands of large livestock farms in Australia and develop solutions accordingly. A leader in advanced livestock and agricultural technologies, Australia has a significant stake in developing reliable solutions for diagnosing livestock health so as to help farmers protect and increase their income. The researchers are now planning to expand the scale of their experiment in Australia with additional support promised by the city of Narromine and its mayor, Craig Davies, in New South Wales.Professor Kim remarked, “When we succeed in developing the final product based on our wearable livestock health diagnosis module, it will very likely find a welcoming market in the Australian livestock industry. We intend to add the big data from our continuing trials and the AI-based model of analysis we are developing to our study and build diagnostic and monitoring platforms by country and livestock species.”The team’s research has been aided by the International R&D Collaboration Program (P0006857) of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology, as well as the Korea-Oceania Collaboration Infrastructure Development Program (NRF-2018K1A3A1A17081404) of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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Professor Seo Hyung-tak’s team has succeeded in developing a nerve-emulating artificial synapse, raising expectations for the creation of a high-density artificial synaptic platform that emulates the synapse, the fundamental structure for nerve signal transmission in organisms.Professor Seo (Department of Materials Science and Engineering/Graduate Department of Energy Systems, pictured) has disclosed that his team has successfully developed a nano-scale artificial synapse that simulates actual nerves, and identified its mechanism. The team’s study, entitled “Brain-like Spatiotemporal Information Processing with Nanosized Second-order Synaptic Emulators: ‘Solid-state Memory Visualizer’,” was published on June 27 on the online edition of Nano Energy (IF = 16.602). The team included Professor Park Ji-yong (Department of Physics), Professor Kim Sang-wan (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering), and Dr. Mohit Kumar. The synapse, which forms the basic unit of the brain, connects neurons to enable the transmission of signals between them. Nerve cells are able to communicate because synapses exchange neurotransmitters. In recent years, research on the development of artificial synapses using various new materials has been growing.The von Neumann architecture, which has been frequently used in research of this kind, has been found wanting in terms of energy efficiency and speed. The architecture transmits information from the memory to the central processing unit (CPU) for sequential information processing. As a result, the memory becomes prone to bottlenecks, slowing down the processing speed, increasing energy demand, and complicating the differentiated retrieval of information reflecting different intensities of spatiotemporal information.Unsurprisingly, there has been much demand for a nanosized artificial neural network capable, like synapses, of processing information with little electricity, controlling short- and long-term memory in response to the strength and duration of the given stimuli, and integrating memories in high density. Developing such a device, of course, requires an accurate understanding of how individual synapses function.Professor Seo’s team attempted to develop an artificial neural network using a heterogeneous-structured artificial synapse that combines nickel oxide (NiO) and zinc oxide (ZnO). The conjoined surface of these compounds controls the chemical effects of the materials and emulates the ion-based neurotransmission of actual nerves. Using this mechanism, the team successfully created a deliberate surfactant defect to serve as a receptor of electrons, allowing them to store and control, in the defect, electrons moved by external stimuli to emulate the short- and long-term memory of human synapses.Professor Seo explained, “While our method is similar to how non-volatile flash memory devices, widely used today, store information, our product is distinct in that it can control the stored information in response to the intensity or duration of input signals.” He went on to add, “This technology allows us to emulate all the typical properties of actual synapses and neural networks.”Furthermore, by making effective use of the homogenous resistant switching movements of their artificial synapse, the team has proven that the size of an artificial synapse can be reduced to 40 nanometers (1 nanometer = 1x10-9 meters) with the help of conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM). This size is similar to that of an actual synapse.The team has also confirmed that their artificial synapse is capable of not only functioning stably, but also supporting the parallel connection of innumerable artificial synapses to enable multi-stage signal processing and real-time learning rules (Bienenstock, Cooper, and Munro rules), which are crucial to artificial intelligence, at the nanoscale.Professor Seo said, “A human brain is a bundle of nearly 100 trillion synapses connected in a parallel circuit. To develop an AI system with artificial synapses, each individual synapse must be capable of emulating the human brain’s mechanism for learning and processing multi-stage signals.”He also remarked, “Our latest finding successfully identifies how artificial synapses, using nanoscale oxides, can emulate the functioning of actual synapses. We expect that this discovery will contribute to the development of a high-density AI platform.”The team’s research was conducted with support from the Future New Material and Original Technology Development Program and the Basic Research Support Program for Experienced Researchers, provided by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and National Research Foundation of Korea.
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A team of researchers led by Professor Seo Hyeong-tak of Ajou University has developed an artificial synapse for tactile perception. The new device, which emulates tactile perceptions involving touch and nerves, features a hetero-junction of oxides. Expected applications include skin-attached electronics and artificial intelligence (AI) sensors.Prof. Seo (Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering / Graduate Dept. of Energy Systems, pictured) and his team’s work was published under the title, “An artificial piezotronics synapse for tactile perception,” in an online issue of Nano Energy on April 15, 2020. Also on the team from Ajou University were Prof. Kim Sang-wan (Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Dr. Mohit Kumar (researcher, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering). Of the five senses humans have at their disposal, tactile perception involves the signals stimulated by a touch traveling from the stimulus receptor at the terminal of the skin to cranial nerves via the neural network. Humans are able to discern an incredibly wide range of touches on their skin. Combined with emotions of varying depths, these tactile perceptions can become part of human memory.An artificial synapse that emulates the human tactile perception therefore epitomizes a highly sophisticated technology capable of detecting the wide variety of touches exerted from the outside world with finesse and precision, saving perceptions thereof, and retrieving them in a memory-like fashion.Prof. Seo’s team achieved such an advanced artificial synapse, featuring a hetero-junction of nickel and zinc oxides (NiO and ZnO) that emulates tactile stimulation of nerves. Specifically, the synapse was designed to emulate how hair detects changes in external pressure using a vertically structured sensor featuring the hetero-junction of oxides. It is this sensor that produces changes in the current-voltage curve in response to changing intensity and directions of pressure in a fashion similar to how the human body perceives touch.
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A team of Ajou University researchers led by Prof. Yoon Tae-jong has succeeded in developing a treatment for colorectal cancer using gene editing. The cure is specifically meant for colorectal cancer patients with gene mutations on whom other more common therapies do not work.Prof. Yoon (College of Pharmacy) teamed up with Prof. Cho Young-seok of the Catholic University (Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine) to develop a gene editing technique that involves mounting a gene-editing structure onto a nano-size carrier to edit genetic mutations that complicate colorectal cancer treatment. The result of their collaboration was published in an online issue of Nano Research, a widely recognized international journal, on April 4, 2020, with the title, “Gene editing particle system as a therapeutic approach for drug-resistant colorectal cancer.”Cetuximab is a widely used treatment for colorectal cancer, but there are also a significant number of patients whose KRAS gene mutation renders them resistant to the drug.The number of patients newly diagnosed with colorectal cancer is on the rise worldwide due to the increase in modern and unhealthy diets. Finding effective cures to this particular cancer is therefore a popular and important topic of pharmaceutical research, with much of the current research focusing on antibodies. The conventional approach to treatment is to introduce a drug that binds to the EGFR receptor to inhibit the growth and survival of cancerous cells. Nearly 60 percent of colorectal cancer patients, however, are genetically resistant to this type of treatment. The prognosis for these patients with the KRAS gene mutation is rather dim.Although a growing number of researchers focus on finding alternative cures for patients with the KRAS gene mutation, that particular genetic mutation facilitates patient relapse, raising the demand for a more fundamental therapeutic approach. Although scientists have speculated that gene editing could pave the way to a useful alternative, they have been struggling to overcome the resulting inefficiency, as these protein-based genetic editing techniques turn quite volatile in vivo. Prof. Yoon’s team thus introduced this breakthrough, whereby they demonstrated that mounting the gene-editing protein onto a nano-size carrier could effectively treat colorectal cancer. The team applied a nano-liposome structure as a carrier for the gene-editing technique that can get to and remove the mutated KRAS gene. By inserting a cancer-targeting antibody into the surface of this nano-structure, the researchers were able to maximize stability and efficacy of the gene editing. In an in-vivo test, the gene-editing structure had an efficiency of 60 percent in targeting cancerous tissues. The technique had a definitively more therapeutic effect on targeted animals as compared to the control group.Prof. Yoon explained: “Existing gene editing techniques rely on viral carriers that require adaptation in vivo before their effects appear. This meant low efficiency and increased risk of off-target editing. Although protein-based gene editing techniques have emerged as an alternative, the fact that these protein carriers were broken down in vivo by enzymes meant the targeting efficiency was inevitably compromised as well.”His team therefore came up with a nano-structure capable of in-vivo adaptation to enhance gene editing stability and efficiency, thereby significantly improving the overall therapeutic value of the gene editing technology in cancer treatment.Prof. Yoon commented: “At present, gene editing in the context of cancer treatment is mostly used to regulate the activity of immune cells in vitro. With our discovery, we expect the medical community to be able to inject gene-editing structures directly into patients’ bodies to maximize the effect of treatment.”The KRAS gene mutation accounts for complications in treatment beyond colorectal cancer, to include treatment for pancreatic, lung, ovarian and other types of cancer. Nano-gene editing is therefore desperately needed to enable cancer patients to receive the life-saving treatment they need.Prof. Yoon has been researching nano-materials capable of effectively delivering diverse biomaterials into cells and tissues for the last two decades. In recent years, he has concentrated on adapting nano-technology to gene editing so as to enhance the latter’s in-vivo stability and cell permeability and also to facilitate localized treatment. Prof. Yoon is also the CEO of Moogene Medi Inc., part of N4U Tech Holdings Inc., which leads Ajou University’s industrial-academic collaboration programs. He intends to have Moogene Medi organize the clinical trials for his team’s groundbreaking discovery.
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