The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that antimicrobial resistance causes more than 1 million deaths every year and contributes to over 35 million additional illnesses. Gram-positive pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus can cause severe hospital-acquired and community-acquired infections, making the development of effective treatments a pressing concern.

Researchers have recently discovered a synthetic compound called infuzide that shows promise against antimicrobial resistant strains of S. aureus and Enterococcus in laboratory and mouse tests. Infuzide was synthesized as part of a decade-long project by interdisciplinary researchers looking for ways to create compounds that could act against pathogens in ways similar to known pharmaceuticals.

“We started the project as a collaboration, looking for ways to synthesize compounds and connecting them with compounds that might have biological activities,” said medicinal chemist Michel Baltas, Ph.D., from the Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination at the University of Toulouse in France. Baltas co-led the new work, along with Sidharth Chopra, Ph.D., from the CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow, India.

The researchers found that infuzide specifically attacks bacterial cells and is more effective than the standard antibiotic vancomycin in reducing the size of bacterial colonies in lab tests. In tests of resistant S. aureus infections on the skin of mice, the compound effectively reduced the bacterial population, with an even higher reduction when combined with linezolid.

While infuzide did not show significant activity against gram-negative pathogens, the researchers are exploring small changes to expand its antimicrobial activity. The simplicity of the chemical reactions involved in synthesizing infuzide also makes it easy to scale up production for new treatments.

In addition to its potential against multidrug resistance, the group has been investigating the effects of synthesized compounds on other infectious diseases, including tuberculosis. “We have many other candidates to make antimicrobial compounds,” Baltas said.

With the world’s population growing at an unprecedented rate, urban expansion has reached new heights, putting immense pressure on natural resources and the environment. The construction industry, in particular, is facing significant challenges in reducing its carbon footprint while meeting the demand for infrastructure development.

Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) remains a cornerstone of modern-day infrastructure, despite being a major contributor to global carbon emissions. To address this issue, scientists from Japan have developed a game-changing solution: a high-performance geopolymer-based soil solidifier made from Siding Cut Powder (SCP), a construction waste byproduct, and Earth Silica (ES), sourced from recycled glass.

This breakthrough innovation offers an alternative to reducing cement dependence while transforming construction waste into valuable construction resources. The combination of SCP and ES forms a geopolymer-based solidifier capable of enhancing soil-compressive strength beyond construction-grade thresholds of 160 kN/m2.

The thermal treatment process, which involves heating SCP at 110 °C and 200 °C, significantly improves its reactivity and reduces material use without sacrificing performance. This solution not only meets industry standards but also helps address the dual challenges of construction waste and carbon emissions.

A noteworthy aspect of this research is the approach to environmental safety. Initially, concerns were raised regarding arsenic leaching from recycled glass content in ES. However, scientists demonstrated that incorporating calcium hydroxide effectively mitigated this issue through the formation of stable calcium arsenate compounds, ensuring full environmental compliance.

The implications of this solution are vast and far-reaching. In urban infrastructure development, it can stabilize weak soils beneath roads, buildings, and bridges without relying on carbon-intensive Portland cement. This is particularly valuable in areas with problematic clay soils where conventional stabilization methods are costly and environmentally burdensome.

Disaster-prone regions could benefit from rapid soil stabilization using these materials, which have demonstrated good workability and setting times compatible with emergency response needs. Additionally, rural infrastructure projects in developing regions could utilize these materials to create stabilized soil blocks for construction, providing a low-carbon alternative to fired bricks or concrete.

The geopolymer solidifier offers numerous practical applications across industries. For the construction sector, which faces increasing pressure to decarbonize, this solution provides an alternative that exceeds traditional methods without heavy carbon footprints. For geotechnical engineering firms, its proven durability under sulfate attack, chloride ingress, and freeze-thaw cycles allow its use in demanding and aggressive environments.

By lowering Portland cement usage, this technology supports construction projects aiming to meet green building certifications and carbon reduction targets. It may also allow developers to qualify for environmental incentives in countries where carbon pricing mechanisms are in place, further enhancing its economic viability.

The vision behind this work is broader than just developing a sustainable engineering solution – it’s redefining how we value industrial byproducts in a resource-constrained world. These findings point to a transformative shift in sustainable construction practices, potentially transforming millions of tons of construction waste into valuable resources while reducing the carbon footprint associated with cement production.

SAVANA is a groundbreaking algorithm that uses machine learning to accurately identify structural variants and copy number aberrations in cancer genomes. This innovative tool has been developed to overcome the limitations of existing analysis tools, which often fall short when analyzing long-read sequencing data. The complex structure of cancer genomes means that standard analysis tools can lead to false-positive results and unreliable interpretations of the data.

Researchers at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the R&D laboratory of Genomics England have developed SAVANA in collaboration with clinical partners at University College London (UCL), the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, and Boston Children’s Hospital. The algorithm was tested across 99 human tumour samples and has shown remarkable accuracy in distinguishing between true cancer-related genomic alterations and sequencing artefacts.

“SAVANA changes the game,” said Isidro Cortes-Ciriano, Group Leader at EMBL-EBI. “By training the algorithm directly on long-read sequencing data from cancer samples, we created a new method that can tell the difference between true cancer-related genomic alterations and sequencing artefacts, thereby enabling us to elucidate the mutational processes underlying cancer using long-read sequencing with unprecedented resolution.”

The team’s focus was clear: create a tool sophisticated enough to characterise complex cancer genomes but practical enough for clinical use. SAVANA can accurately distinguish somatic structural variants, copy number aberrations, tumour purity, and ploidy – all key to understanding tumour biology and guiding clinical treatment decisions.

Its rapid analysis and robust error correction make SAVANA well suited for clinical use. The method was recently applied to study osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive bone cancer that mostly affects young people, where it helped researchers uncover new genomic rearrangements, providing novel insights into how osteosarcoma evolves and progresses.

“The capability to accurately detect structural variants is transformative for clinical diagnostics,” said Adrienne Flanagan, Professor at UCL, Consultant Histopathologist at RNOH. “SAVANA could help us confidently identify genomic alterations relevant for diagnosis and prognosis. Ultimately, this means we would be better placed to deliver personalised treatments for cancer patients.”

The UK is investing significantly in genomic sequencing technologies as part of the NHS Genomic Medicine Service. This initiative aims to improve diagnostic accuracy and support personalised cancer treatments. However, investments in clinical genomics will only achieve their intended impact if genomic data are interpreted accurately.

“Using SAVANA will ensure clinicians receive accurate and reliable genomic data, enabling them to confidently integrate advanced genomic sequencing methods such as long-read sequencing into routine patient care,” said Greg Elgar, Director of Sequencing R&D at Genomics England.

SAVANA is being deployed as part of nationwide initiatives, such as the UK Stratified Medicine Paediatrics project funded by Cancer Research UK and Children With Cancer UK, and co-led by Cortes-Ciriano. This project aims to develop more efficacious and less toxic treatments for childhood cancers using advanced sequencing technologies to better understand tumour biology and monitor disease recurrence.

Additionally, SAVANA is being used in Societal, Ancestry, Molecular and Biological Analyses of Inequalities (SAMBAI), a Cancer Grand Challenges funded project aimed at addressing cancer disparities in recent African heritage populations.