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Latest News VIEW MORE

Hybrid nanomaterials bristle with potential

The dynamic molecular changes of homing

Bacteria that boost plant pumps against drought

Lighting the way to harvest water from air

Taking the lead toward witchweed control

Keeping up with sea-level rise

Tuesday, August 07, 2018

Hybrid nanomaterials bristle with potential

Triple-layered nanoarray electrode promises to boost battery performance and enhance other electrochemical processes.

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By combining multiple nanomaterials into a single structure, scientists can create hybrid materials that incorporate the best properties of each component and outperform any single substance. A controlled method for making triple-layered hollow nanostructures has now been developed at KAUST. The hybrid structures consist of a conductive organic core sandwiched between layers of electrocatalytically active metals: their potential uses range from better battery electrodes to renewable fuel production.

Although several methods exist to create two-layer materials, making three-layered structures has proven much more difficult, says Peng Wang from the Water Desalination and Reuse Center who co-led the current research with Professor Yu Han, member of the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center at KAUST. The researchers developed a new, dual-template approach, explains Sifei Zhuo, a postdoctoral member of Wang’s team.

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Sunday, August 05, 2018

The dynamic molecular changes of homing

Molecules re-organize to slow stem cells down, giving them a chance to adhere to and eventually cross the inner lining of blood vessels into the bone marrow.

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A new microscopic technique allows researchers to observe the initial nanoscale changes that are part of the complex process of transplanted stem cells homing in on, and specifically settling in, the bone marrow. Understanding the details of this process can improve the success of stem-cell transplantations for treating leukemia.

KAUST microscopist, Satoshi Habuchi, and colleagues developed their microfluidics-based super-resolution microscopy platform to improve the ability of researchers to visualize the dynamic nanoscale changes that happen to stem cells as they move in blood. Current techniques only enable researchers to identify the molecules involved in stem cell homing—a phenomenon that allows cells to migrate to their organ of origin—but not what is happening at the nanoscale or over time.

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Image: HSPC homing occurs through complicated interactions between HSPCs and endothelial cells in the blood stream, which begins with selectin-ligand interactions.
© 2018 Sergiy Zhukovskyy / Alamy Stock Photo

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Bacteria that boost plant pumps against drought

Adding certain types of bacteria to soil could help protect plants against drought by activating a proton pump in root cells.

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Two types of bacteria known for their growth-promoting properties improved chili plant resistance to drought. They do this partially through their role in over-activating a pump present in the vacuolar membrane of root cells that ultimately facilitates water uptake from soil.

Microbial ecologist, Daniele Daffonchio, and colleagues at KAUST and in Italy investigated whether bacteria that can confer drought resistance in plants have an effect on a cellular vacuolar proton pump that helps roots take up more water from the soil.

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Image: The chili plants inoculated with the two bacteria (right top and bottom) grew well under drought conditions compared to noninoculated plants.
Reproduced with permission from reference 1 © 2018 Ramona Marasco

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Lighting the way to harvest water from air

A low-cost method for collecting water from the atmosphere could be used to provide potable water to dry, inland regions.

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Commonly available salts and sunlight can harvest water vapor from the air to provide potable water to arid and land-locked regions of the world.

Many parts of the world, such as the sub-Saharan countries of Africa, have little or no access to surface water or ground-water supplies and often have to rely on the transportation of fresh water over long distances, which is costly and inefficient.

Yet even in the driest desert regions there is an abundance of water in the atmosphere, consisting of water vapor and water droplets. The atmosphere has been estimated to contain as much as six times more water as all the rivers on Earth and around 10 percent of all the fresh water in lakes.

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Image: Peng Wang (left) and Ph.D student Renyuan Li have investigated the effectiveness of commonly available salts that capture water vapor from the air at night, and when placed under sunlight, release drinking water.
© 2018 KAUST

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Taking the lead toward witchweed control

A compound that binds to and inhibits a crucial receptor protein offers a new route for controlling a parasitic plant.

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The first specific inhibitor for an uncontrollable plant pest, the witchweed Striga hermonthica, has been discovered through collaboration between two groups at KAUST, led by plant biochemist Salim Al-Babili and structural biologist Stefan Arold.

Witchweed is a parasitic plant that attaches to the roots of cereal plants, stealing their water and nutrients. It affects more than 60 percent of farmland in sub-Saharan Africa, and is spreading across other areas, including Asia, Southeast Europe and Saudi Arabia. Commercial losses for sub-Saharan Africa alone exceed 7 billion US dollars.

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Image: Umar Hameed (front) and Imran Haider work on protein purification in the lab.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Keeping up with sea-level rise

Maintaining a balance between rising sea levels and soil accumulation will rely on careful management of coastal regions.

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Soil accumulation in coastal ecosystems could mitigate rising sea levels around the Arabian Peninsula, according to new research from KAUST. However, this mitigation will require efforts to preserve and restore these ecosystems.

Human-driven climate change is raising sea levels around the world at increasing rates, threatening hundreds of millions of people living in coastal areas. Researchers at KAUST’s Red Sea Research Center worked with colleagues at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals to determine whether this increase could be mitigated by soil accretion in coastal ecosystems.

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Graduate Programs

BESE offers four degree granting programs. In all programs students are offered modules consisting of lectures, seminars, and laboratory classes, and are expected to conduct independent research. BESE boasts state-of-the-art facilities and resources, including some of the most advanced equipment in the world for genomics, proteomics, imaging/characterization, nanofarication, and capability to explore global marine environments.

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BIOSCIENCE

The Bioscience Program provides an introduction to living systems with courses in cell and molecular biology and biophysics. The program is comprised of two tracks of self-contained courses consisting of lectures, seminars and laboratory classes. Each course provides an in-depth review of the subject and examples of current research in the field.

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MARINE SCIENCE

The goal of the Marine Science Program is to develop an integrated understanding of the Red Sea’s ecosystem as well as marine ecosystems in general, including fundamental biology at the molecular and genomic levels, symbiosis with algae and prokaryotes (Bacteria and Archaea), associated communities of fish and corals and the physical and chemical environment that impacts and shapes them. This understanding could have an impact on global carbon cycling, endangered species and how we manage the harvesting of resources from the Oceans.

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PLANT SCIENCE

The goal of the Plant Science Program is to develop a thorough understanding of plant growth and function under challenging environmental conditions, such as those found in Saudi Arabia. The fundamental biology of plants is studied at a range of levels (e.g. genomic, proteomic, metabolomics), and the interactions of plants with their environment, both abiotic (heat, salt, and drought) and biotic (pathogens and symbionts) are investigated. Application of this knowledge will allow development of plants with enhanced tolerance to environmental stresses and help to establish sustainable agriculture systems in arid regions of the world.

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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

The Environmental Science and Engineering Program (EnSE) prepares students to work on many of the world’s most pressing challenges. There is a worldwide concern with the availability of clean water; EnSE examines methods to purify and reuse water, as well as to reduce contamination of existing reserves. The focus of the program is on examining the impact of humans on our environment through resource exploitation; including over-consumption, land degradation, and pollution of water. The results of these efforts may offer solutions to water scarcity, soil contamination.

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FACULTY COMMUNITIES

Research at the BESE Division brings students, faculty, and researchers together to push the frontiers of science through collaborative inquiry into issues of global and regional significance.

The Faculty at BESE belong to one of two communities: Bioscience and Biological Engineering or Environmental Science Engineering. Those communities cover the following Research Areas.