How Chinese team's fast DNA blood test could transform pancreatic cancer detection
Known as the 'king of cancers',
pancreatic cancer is characterised by late diagnosis, rapid metastasis and limited treatment targets. It ranks as the sixth leading cause of global cancer mortality, according to the Global Cancer Observatory.
However, the 'Uni-C' single-cell 'multiomics' technology developed by the Chinese team could enable entire DNA analysis in less than a day, matching the accuracy of traditional biopsies and promising more early detection.
Lin Da, professor at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Yang Yuqin, director of the Laboratory Animal Centre at Shanghai General Hospital, led the team, which introduced Uni-C in a study published in Nature Communications on July 26.
The pathbreaking method can simultaneously decode three critical layers of genomic information from individual circulating tumour cells (CTCs) – large-scale structural variations, small-scale mutations, and 3D chromatin architecture – providing unprecedented insights for early screening, monitoring, and tailored immunotherapy.
CTCs are rare 'seeds' shed from tumours into the bloodstream, carrying the complete genomic profile of the primary tumour. Yet their scarcity – often just a few cells per millilitre (0.03 ounce) of blood – has made comprehensive analysis nearly impossible.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
8 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China's new 600Wh battery triples drone endurance. Will it shatter EV ‘range anxiety'?
Chinese researchers have set up a pilot production line for a new type of lithium battery that has twice the energy density of the most advanced electric vehicle (EV) batteries on the market. The team from Tianjin University's school of materials science explained their approach to designing and manufacturing lithium batteries in a paper published in the top journal Nature on Wednesday. This new type of battery can achieve an energy density – the amount of energy that can be stored per mass – of over 600 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg). In comparison, the energy density of Tesla's 4680 battery is around 300Wh/kg. BYD's widely used Blade Battery is only 150Wh/kg. It also surpassed Beijing's goal for EV batteries to reach 400Wh/kg under the 'Made in China 2025' plan to upgrade the country's hi-tech industries and reduce its reliance on imports. If this new battery can be put into large-scale use, it could double or even quadruple the range of electric vehicles and shatter 'range anxiety', or the fear that a car will not have enough charge to reach its destination – considered the last great barrier to EV dominance. The team's battery has shown resilience in tests against low temperatures, fire, and even nail punctures, showing superior thermal and mechanical stability.
South China Morning Post
9 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China rises up ‘elite quality' league table as AI investment booms
Thanks to its combined strengths in artificial intelligence and manufacturing, China rose two places to rank 19th out of 151 countries in the 2025 Elite Quality Index – a Swiss study that assesses the extent to which national elites create sustainable value for their nations. Advertisement Singapore topped this year's rankings, followed by the United States and Switzerland, in the annual report produced by the Foundation for Value Creation Activities in partnership with the University of St. Gallen. Asian economies performed strongly overall, with Japan maintaining fourth place and South Korea rising to fifth. In contrast, several European countries including the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland fell down the rankings this year. 'China ranks at 19th in the index, up two places from last year, maintaining its upward trend in Elite Quality and an outcome that is particularly commendable given the dramatic changes in the global economic order,' the report said. The index assessed 151 countries based on 149 indicators, which are designed to gauge the overall impact of elite business models in terms of creating positive value or engaging in negative rent-seeking behaviour. Advertisement China scored particularly highly in the AI value creation sub-index, placing fourth behind the US, Singapore and South Korea. This year's report increased the number of AI indicators from two to seven based on the industry's growing importance as a source of value creation. Zhang Jun, dean of the School of Economics at Shanghai's Fudan University, said China's rise in the rankings showed that its elite-led model of governance had been effective in promoting the country's economic development.
South China Morning Post
10 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Why this small vacuum tube can be China's big advantage in electronic warfare
In a defence tech laboratory in Beijing , a research team powers up a vacuum tube about the size of a pistol. Advertisement Inside, a stream of electrons surges through thin coiled wires, amplifying microwave pulses ranging from 8 to 18 gigahertz with more than 500 watts of output – performance metrics that until recently were only achievable in devices much bigger. It is the new heart of China's advanced radar and electronic warfare systems – a miniaturised travelling-wave tube (TWT), and a symbol of how relentless refinement of microscopic details is propelling the country to the forefront of military electronics. For decades, TWTs have powered high-end radar and electronic warfare systems, capable of amplifying broadband microwave signals with efficiency and power that solid-state amplifiers cannot match. But their size – especially their height – has long limited their integration into next-generation phased arrays, particularly in aircraft, satellites and stealth platforms where space and weight are at a premium. Advertisement Squeezing hundreds or even thousands of tubes into a radar has always been a headache, but Chinese engineers have shrunk a high-power X-Ku band TWT to just 20 millimetres (0.8 inches) in height – less than half the thickness of comparable Western models – with a boost in performance.
