Climate Warming Mitigation from Nationally Determined Contributions

Individual countries are requested to submit nationally determined contributions(NDCs)to alleviate global warming in the Paris Agreement.However,the global climate effects and regional contributions are not explicitly considered in the countries’decision-making process.In this study,we evaluate the global temperature slowdown of the NDC scenario(ΔT=0.6°C)and attribute the global temperature slowdown to certain regions of the world with a compact earth system model.Considering reductions in CO_(2),CH_(4),N_(2)O,BC,and SO_(2),the R5OECD(the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1990)and R5ASIA(Asian countries)are the top two contributors to global warming mitigation,accounting for 39.3%and 36.8%,respectively.R5LAM(Latin America and the Caribbean)and R5MAF(the Middle East and Africa)followed behind,with contributions of 11.5%and 8.9%,respectively.The remaining 3.5%is attributed to R5REF(the Reforming Economies).Carbon Dioxide emission reduction is the decisive factor of regional contributions,but not the only one.Other greenhouse gases are also important,especially for R5MAF.The contribution of short-lived aerosols is small but significant,notably SO_(2)reduction in R5ASIA.We argue that additional species beyond CO_(2)need to be considered,including short-lived pollutants,when planning a route to mitigate climate change.It needs to be emphasized that there is still a gap to achieve the Paris Agreement 2-degree target with current NDC efforts,let alone the ambitious 1.5-degree target.All countries need to pursue stricter reduction policies for a more sustainable world.

Engineering natural molecule-triggered genetic control systems for tunable gene-and cell-based therapies

The ability to precisely control activities of engineered designer cells provides a novel strategy for modern precision medicine.Dynamically adjustable gene-and cell-based precision therapies are recognized as next generation medicines.However,the translation of these controllable therapeutics into clinical practice is severely hampered by the lack of safe and highly specific genetic switches controlled by triggers that are nontoxic and side-effect free.Recently,natural products derived from plants have been extensively explored as trigger molecules to control genetic switches and synthetic gene networks for multiple applications.These controlled genetic switches could be further introduced into mammalian cells to obtain synthetic designer cells for adjustable and fine tunable cell-based precision therapy.In this review,we introduce various available natural molecules that were engineered to control genetic switches for controllable transgene expression,complex logic computation,and therapeutic drug delivery to achieve precision therapy.We also discuss current challenges and prospects in translating these natural molecule-controlled genetic switches developed for biomedical applications from the laboratory to the clinic.