Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV, CD26) is a multifunctional serine protease enzyme with key roles in the control of endocrine and immune function, cell metabolism, growth and adhesion. It is a famous therapeutic target for the treatment of type-2 diabetes. DPP-IV also exhibits co-stimulatory role in T-cell activation, adhesion to extracellular matrix proteins, and serves as the functional receptor for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection.
　　DPP-IV now has becoming the center of attention as a novel molecular marker or a potential therapeutic target for cancer. Furthermore, increasing evidence has demonstrated that the abnormal presence or altered level of DPP-IV in plasma can serve as a potential biomarker for early diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of many diseases. Thus, the accurate measurement of DPP-IV in complex biological samples, especially in plasma, is of great importance for disease diagnosis, drug discovery and clinical practice.
　　The Pharmaceutical Resource Discovery Group led by Prof. GE Guangbo and Prof. YANG Ling in DICP developed a highly specific ratiometric two-photon fluorescent probe GP-BAN. It was successfully used for detection of dipeptidyl peptidase IV in plasma and two-photon imaging of endogenous DPP-IV in living cells and tissues.
　　 
　　Figure. Proposed response mechanism of the GP-BAN/BAN system for DPP-IV detection (Imaged by ZOU Liwei)
　　In this study, Gly-Pro-BAN (GP-BAN) was designed on the basis of the catalytic properties and substrate preference of DPP-IV. It could be readily hydrolyzed upon addition of DPP-IV under physiological conditions. GP-BAN displayed good reactivity and high selectivity towards DPP-IV over other human serine hydrolases including FAP, DPP-VIII, and DPP-IX. It was evidenced by both reaction phenotyping and inhibition assays. Furthermore, GP-BAN was successfully used to monitor the real activities of DPP-IV in complex biological systems including tissue preparations, plasma and living cells.
　　Meanwhile, GP-BAN could serve as a promising tool for high-throughput screening of DPP-IV inhibitors by using human plasma and tissue preparations as enzyme source. This is the first report to screen DPP-IV inhibitors by using readily available human plasma as enzyme source. GP-BAN was also successfully used for two-photon imaging of endogenous DPP-IV in living cells and tissues, and showed low cytotoxicity, high ratiometric imaging resolution and deep-tissue penetration ability. Thus, the fluorescent probe GP-BAN could serve as a promising imaging tool to explore the biological functions and physiological roles of this key enzyme in living systems.
　　The related results were published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. (DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2016.11.068).This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China and National Basic Research Program of China. (Text and Imaged by ZOU Liwei)
　　Dr. LU Xinyi
　　Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
　　457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116023, China,
　　Tel: 86-411-84379201,
　　E-mail: luxinyi@dicp.ac.cn 
　　

　　Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV, CD26) is a multifunctional serine protease enzyme with key roles in the control of endocrine and immune function, cell metabolism, growth and adhesion. It is a famous therapeutic target for the treatment of type-2 diabetes. DPP-IV also exhibits co-stimulatory role in T-cell activation, adhesion to extracellular matrix proteins, and serves as the functional receptor for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection.
　　DPP-IV now has becoming the center of attention as a novel molecular marker or a potential therapeutic target for cancer. Furthermore, increasing evidence has demonstrated that the abnormal presence or altered level of DPP-IV in plasma can serve as a potential biomarker for early diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of many diseases. Thus, the accurate measurement of DPP-IV in complex biological samples, especially in plasma, is of great importance for disease diagnosis, drug discovery and clinical practice.
　　The Pharmaceutical Resource Discovery Group led by Prof. GE Guangbo and Prof. YANG Ling in DICP developed a highly specific ratiometric two-photon fluorescent probe GP-BAN. It was successfully used for detection of dipeptidyl peptidase IV in plasma and two-photon imaging of endogenous DPP-IV in living cells and tissues.
　　 
　　Figure. Proposed response mechanism of the GP-BAN/BAN system for DPP-IV detection (Imaged by ZOU Liwei)
　　In this study, Gly-Pro-BAN (GP-BAN) was designed on the basis of the catalytic properties and substrate preference of DPP-IV. It could be readily hydrolyzed upon addition of DPP-IV under physiological conditions. GP-BAN displayed good reactivity and high selectivity towards DPP-IV over other human serine hydrolases including FAP, DPP-VIII, and DPP-IX. It was evidenced by both reaction phenotyping and inhibition assays. Furthermore, GP-BAN was successfully used to monitor the real activities of DPP-IV in complex biological systems including tissue preparations, plasma and living cells.
　　Meanwhile, GP-BAN could serve as a promising tool for high-throughput screening of DPP-IV inhibitors by using human plasma and tissue preparations as enzyme source. This is the first report to screen DPP-IV inhibitors by using readily available human plasma as enzyme source. GP-BAN was also successfully used for two-photon imaging of endogenous DPP-IV in living cells and tissues, and showed low cytotoxicity, high ratiometric imaging resolution and deep-tissue penetration ability. Thus, the fluorescent probe GP-BAN could serve as a promising imaging tool to explore the biological functions and physiological roles of this key enzyme in living systems.
　　The related results were published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. (DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2016.11.068).This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China and National Basic Research Program of China. (Text and Imaged by ZOU Liwei)
　　Dr. LU Xinyi
　　Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
　　457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116023, China,
　　Tel: 86-411-84379201,
　　E-mail: luxinyi@dicp.ac.cn 
　　

　　The hydrogen separation and purification technology is significantly important for the applications of hydrogen in various fields. Compared to other methods for hydrogen separation, inorganic dense hydrogen-permeable membranes exhibit 100% permeation selectivity for hydrogen. So they are regarded as one of the most promising methods for high-purity hydrogen production. However, the state-of-art Pd-based metallic membranes are limited by the scarce resource of Pd and low stability under H2S-containing atmosphere. In addition, another type of inorganic dense hydrogen-permeable membranes, i.e. proton conducting membranes, exhibit low hydrogen permeability and are also easily poisoned by H2S.
　　To solve above problems, Prof. YANG Weishen and Prof. ZHU Xuefeng from State Key Laboratory of Catalysis in Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics developed a new method for hydrogen separation by using an oxygen-permeable ceramic membrane. It's successfully demonstrated by experiments with excellent performance. The hydrogen separation rate is high up to 16.3 mL·cm-2·min-1 with separation factor up to >10,000. This separation rate is 2-3 magnitudes higher than the proton conducting membranes, and comparable to Pd-based metallic membranes. Besides, no performance degradation was observed in a long-term operation with the feeding 200 ppm H2S containing gas. The experiment results indicate that the membranes exhibit high selectivity, high hydrogen separation rate and stability under H2S-containing atmosphere. It could be used to produce high-purity or ultra-high-purity hydrogen for fuel cells, semiconductor manufacturing, photovoltaic cells production, etc.
　　The concept of hydrogen separation by using the oxygen-permeable ceramic membrane (Imaged by LI Wenping)
　　The figure shows the concept of hydrogen separation by using the oxygen-permeable ceramic membrane. The low-purity hydrogen is fed to one side of the membrane (Side I) and the steam is fed to the other side of the membrane (Side II). On the Side II, water is spited into hydrogen and oxygen ions at elevated temperature. And then oxygen ions diffuse to the Side I and react with hydrogen to produce water. Therefore, the high-purity hydrogen is acquired after condensation and drying of the outlet gas from Side II. The amount of hydrogen produced from Side II is equivalent to that consumed on Side I. As a whole, there is no net chemical reaction occurring, but a mass exchange is achieved between the two sides. Thus, it is reasonable to regard this process as a hydrogen separation process with the help of steam.
　　The related results were published in Energy Environ. Sci. (DOI: 10.1039/C6EE02967A). This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China，Chinese Academy of Sciences and DICP DMTO project. (Text and Imaged by LI Wenping)
　　Dr. LU Xinyi
　　Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
　　457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116023, China,
　　Tel: 86-411-84379201,
　　E-mail: luxinyi@dicp.ac.cn 

　　The hydrogen separation and purification technology is significantly important for the applications of hydrogen in various fields. Compared to other methods for hydrogen separation, inorganic dense hydrogen-permeable membranes exhibit 100% permeation selectivity for hydrogen. So they are regarded as one of the most promising methods for high-purity hydrogen production. However, the state-of-art Pd-based metallic membranes are limited by the scarce resource of Pd and low stability under H2S-containing atmosphere. In addition, another type of inorganic dense hydrogen-permeable membranes, i.e. proton conducting membranes, exhibit low hydrogen permeability and are also easily poisoned by H2S.
　　To solve above problems, Prof. YANG Weishen and Prof. ZHU Xuefeng from State Key Laboratory of Catalysis in Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics developed a new method for hydrogen separation by using an oxygen-permeable ceramic membrane. It's successfully demonstrated by experiments with excellent performance. The hydrogen separation rate is high up to 16.3 mL·cm-2·min-1 with separation factor up to >10,000. This separation rate is 2-3 magnitudes higher than the proton conducting membranes, and comparable to Pd-based metallic membranes. Besides, no performance degradation was observed in a long-term operation with the feeding 200 ppm H2S containing gas. The experiment results indicate that the membranes exhibit high selectivity, high hydrogen separation rate and stability under H2S-containing atmosphere. It could be used to produce high-purity or ultra-high-purity hydrogen for fuel cells, semiconductor manufacturing, photovoltaic cells production, etc.
　　The concept of hydrogen separation by using the oxygen-permeable ceramic membrane (Imaged by LI Wenping)
　　The figure shows the concept of hydrogen separation by using the oxygen-permeable ceramic membrane. The low-purity hydrogen is fed to one side of the membrane (Side I) and the steam is fed to the other side of the membrane (Side II). On the Side II, water is spited into hydrogen and oxygen ions at elevated temperature. And then oxygen ions diffuse to the Side I and react with hydrogen to produce water. Therefore, the high-purity hydrogen is acquired after condensation and drying of the outlet gas from Side II. The amount of hydrogen produced from Side II is equivalent to that consumed on Side I. As a whole, there is no net chemical reaction occurring, but a mass exchange is achieved between the two sides. Thus, it is reasonable to regard this process as a hydrogen separation process with the help of steam.
　　The related results were published in Energy Environ. Sci. (DOI: 10.1039/C6EE02967A). This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China，Chinese Academy of Sciences and DICP DMTO project. (Text and Imaged by LI Wenping)
　　Dr. LU Xinyi
　　Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
　　457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116023, China,
　　Tel: 86-411-84379201,
　　E-mail: luxinyi@dicp.ac.cn 

　　On November 30th 2016, the kick-off meeting for the Chinese-Japanese Research Cooperative Program "Efficient utilization of heat and electric power from renewable energy in urban areas mediated by hydrogen energy" has been held successfully in DICP. The meeting was hosted by Prof. CHEN Ping, PI of Chinese research team from DICP. Prof. YANG Xueming, the deputy director of DICP, together with Prof. Etsuo Akiba, Assoc. Prof. LI Haiwen from Kyushu University, and researchers from Chinese team were present at the meeting.
　　Prof. CHEN Ping and Prof. Etsuo Akiba introduced the background, plans, objectives and research teams of the Sino-Japan collaborative research project, respectively. Prof. YANG Xueming gave a high appraisal to this collaborative research project. He pointed out that the renewable energy is being developed rapidly worldwide, and DICP has been putting great efforts to build Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy. He encouraged the team to strengthen the collaboration, aiming to solve the key scientific and technological issues in the fields of hydrogen storage, hydrogen purification, solid oxide fuel cell and system integration. The researchers from both sides presented their project schemes, research achievements and future research plans then after.
　　After the meeting, Etsuo Akiba and LI Haiwen visited the laboratories of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Group (DNL0302) and New Materials and Processes for Highly Efficient Conversion of Methane Group (DNL1902). (Text and Imaged by JU Xiaohua)
　　

　　On November 30th 2016, the kick-off meeting for the Chinese-Japanese Research Cooperative Program "Efficient utilization of heat and electric power from renewable energy in urban areas mediated by hydrogen energy" has been held successfully in DICP. The meeting was hosted by Prof. CHEN Ping, PI of Chinese research team from DICP. Prof. YANG Xueming, the deputy director of DICP, together with Prof. Etsuo Akiba, Assoc. Prof. LI Haiwen from Kyushu University, and researchers from Chinese team were present at the meeting.
　　Prof. CHEN Ping and Prof. Etsuo Akiba introduced the background, plans, objectives and research teams of the Sino-Japan collaborative research project, respectively. Prof. YANG Xueming gave a high appraisal to this collaborative research project. He pointed out that the renewable energy is being developed rapidly worldwide, and DICP has been putting great efforts to build Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy. He encouraged the team to strengthen the collaboration, aiming to solve the key scientific and technological issues in the fields of hydrogen storage, hydrogen purification, solid oxide fuel cell and system integration. The researchers from both sides presented their project schemes, research achievements and future research plans then after.
　　After the meeting, Etsuo Akiba and LI Haiwen visited the laboratories of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Group (DNL0302) and New Materials and Processes for Highly Efficient Conversion of Methane Group (DNL1902). (Text and Imaged by JU Xiaohua)