ISSUE 11 / SPRING SEMESTER 2021

A S W EEPING
CL IM AT E
MODEL OF
T HE R ED S E A
P.8

GENE T IC
G A IN S F OR
BE T T ER
GR A IN S
P.56

PEER ING UNDER

T HE “HOOD” OF
S A R S- C O V-2
P.66
ADAPTING
T O C L I M AT E
C H A N G E P. 37
 A LETTER
FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESE ARCH
Dear Reader,
As I am sure we all vividly remember,
COVID-19 was recognized as a global
pandemic about one year ago. We quickly
adapted our lifestyles to stop the spread of
the virus. A year later, we now think of life
in pre- and post-COVID terms, as we con-
stantly adjust to a new “normal.”
The pandemic has, however, brought science
and research news to the daily headlines, which
has helped to make science more accessible to
the general public and, I hope, more inspiring
“We l e a rn e d
to young people who as a result may choose to
GET
pursue education and careers in science.
Over the past year, we learned to carry a
mask everywhere we go, to frequently sanitize
SOCIAL our hands, to socially distance and to optimize
how to work from home. As we continue to
WITH
adapt to our new environment, let us recognize
the resilience of humanity but also the stresses
and strains that have accompanied such dra-
KAUST
matic and rapid changes to our daily lives.
At KAUST, we adapted as we prepared to
participate in November’s G20 Summit hosted
follow us on
by Saudi Arabia and as we played a leadership
role in organizing and developing the S20
social media
engagement group summit and its commu-
nique, “Foresight: Science for Navigating Criti-
cal Transitions.” We learned in a very practical
way that at no time are foresight and adaptabil-
KAUST Research ity more important than during a pandemic.
The need for us to continue adapting to
@KaustResearch
other dramatic changes in our environment
was the inspiration for the feature item of this
kaust_research issue of KAUST Discovery—“Adapting to cli-
KAUST
mate change is business unusual.” Stories in
our feature tell how KAUST is using science
and technology to adapt our food, water and
energy needs for a changing environment, and
our infographic illustrates some of the chal-
lenges we face and how we can contribute to
preventing disaster by further adaptation.
As always, in addition to the feature, we
have included stories that cover many other
areas of KAUST research, which aim to
discovery.kaust.edu.sa provide practical solutions specifically for
Saudi Arabia as well as globally. Our story
“A sweeping climate model of the Red Sea”
explains how the modeling system that a
KAUST research group has developed pro-
vides essential information about the Red
Sea to academia, government and industry in
Saudi Arabia. This has proven of great inter-
est to Saudi National Agencies in relation to
monitoring and responding to oil leaks from
tankers plying the Red Sea shipping lanes
en route to the Suez Canal and in helping to
select the most appropriate sites for deploying
renewable energy generation via solar panels
and wind turbines.
Saudi Arabia’s water scarcity is a major con-
cern for its food security and the continued use
i n a ve r y of ancient groundwater stored in aquifers is not
pra c t i c a l
a sustainable practice. Desalination of sea water
could provide another source of fresh water for
agriculture but the energy and capital costs at
this time are too high for general agricultural
way t h at at use. An alternative approach is to breed crops
that can be grown using brackish or diluted
no time is
salt water or to domesticate species that are
naturally more tolerant to arid conditions. In
the story “Genetic gains for better grains,” we
fo re s i gh t learn how KAUST plant scientists are taking
cues from the plant fonio to develop new crops
and
that thrive in sandy soils at high temperatures
and with minimal irrigation.
Unfortunately, the pandemic doggedly per-
a da pt a bi l i t y sists into 2021, necessitating that we continue
to adapt to and manage the virus. As such, one
m o re
KAUST group has used available data to render
3D models of the virus in exquisite detail. You
will see one of their images and be able to read
i m po r t a n t how their work can be used to develop a better
understanding of the virus’s structure to hasten
than
drug discovery for treatment in the story “Peer-
ing under the ‘hood’ of SARS-CoV-2.”
I hope that you enjoy this issue of KAUST
du ri n g a Discovery and that you continue to visit the
website for weekly story and video updates of
pa n de m i c .”
our research news.
Sincerely,
Professor Donal Bradley
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 1
ener
gy.
S P OT L I G H T
© NOMADD
ON KSA
KAUST scientists are supporting the energy sector to
mitigate and adapt to climate change to ensure energy 6 WIND FORECASTS
POWER-UP FOR RELIABLE
supply is reliable and secure. ENERGY PRODUCTION
Prediction of wind speed and
direction up to several hours in
advance improves Saudi Arabia’s
wind energy potential.
8 A SWEEPING CLIMATE
MODEL OF THE RED SEA
An all-inclusive climate model
for the entire Red Sea region is
supporting Saudi Arabia’s plans for
a sustainable future.
10 TRIGGERFISH LEARNS
TO CATCH MORE DIVERSE
FOOD
In probably the first observation of
its kind, a tricky triggerfish is seen
beaching itself before attacking a
crab walking along the shoreline.
12 CLEAR SKIES FOR SAUDI
ARABIA’S “NEW FUTURE”
PROJECT
A high-resolution atmospheric
assessment for the northern Red
Sea coast in Saudi Arabia shows
the region has some of the best air
quality in the kingdom.
13 A DIFFERENT
SLANT OF LIGHT
Giant clams manipulate light to
assist their symbiotic partner.
AU TO N O M O US
T EC H N O L O GY
15 BROADENING HORIZONS
FOR PEOPLE WITH
QUADRIPLEGIA
An assistive technology uses
magnetic skin to support freedom
of movement for people with
quadriplegia.
16 DIAGNOSING INDIVIDUAL
TREES FROM ABOVE
Models based on images from
unmanned aerial vehicles and
satellites can help farmers to
monitor the health of individual
trees.
18 UNLEASHING THE
POTENTIAL OF TETHERED
DRONES
Wire-connected drones may
complement or replace the
fixed-base stations of cellular
communications networks.
CONTENTS /SPRING SEMESTER 2021
NEW
M AT ER I A L S SOL AR
28 THIN-SKINNED SOLAR
PANELS PRINTED WITH
INKJET
Efficient yet exceptionally light
organic solar cells created
entirely by inkjet printing.
30 SHEDDING LIGHT ON
EFFICIENCY LOSS IN
ORGANIC SOLAR CELLS
20 MOLECULAR A deeper understanding of
PORES FOR THOUGHT efficiency-limiting processes
Ultrathin porous films provides design rules for organic
that can pluck out specific solar cell materials.
nanoscopic molecules could
32 TANDEM DEVICES FEEL
refine oil purification and drug
THE HEAT
development.
Researchers develop a better
understanding of how novel solar
22 A STAR IS BORN
cells developed in the lab will
Unique star-shaped polymers
operate under real conditions.
have highly tunable properties
that will open up a range of new
33 A BLAST OF GAS FOR
applications. BETTER SOLAR CELLS
Treating silicon with carbon
24 NEXT-GEN
dioxide gas in plasma processing
SMARTPHONES TO KEEP
THEIR COOL brings simplicity and control to a
key step for making solar cells.
Multilayered carbon material
could be the perfect fit for heat
34 PEEL-APART SURFACES
management in electronic devices.
DRIVE TRANSISTORS TO
THE LEDGE
25 MICROSCOPE LENS
Surfaces featuring atomic-scale
INSPIRED BY
ledges and steps can act as
LIGHTHOUSE LENSES
reusable templates for producing
Custom-fabricated lenses
nanoelectronic components.
make it easy to attach high-tech
microscopes directly to cell
incubators.
26 THINKING OUTSIDE
THE CAGE
A reverse form of host-guest
chemistry could upend the way
the chemical industry approaches
challenging, energy-intensive
molecular separations.
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 3
CONTENTS / SPRING SEMESTER 2021
F E AT U R E
37 ADAPTING TO CLIMATE
CHANGE IS BUSINESS
UNUSUAL
As the world seeks to mitigate
greenhouse gases, there exists
a growing need to adapt to the
impacts of climate change that
are already occurring. KAUST
is developing a suite of options
to support adaptation in an
arid country.
40 SEA CHANGE IN THE RED
SEA
The Red Sea plays an important
role in Saudi Arabia’s climate
and is vulnerable to climate
change, which will have significant
environmental, economic and
societal impacts in the region.
42 G20 LEADS IN CLIMATE
CHANGE TRANSITION
POST-COVID
Specializing in developing
transition paths for more
sustainable economies, Noura
Y. Mansouri considers the G20’s
crucial role for achieving climate
and sustainable energy goals.
43 BETTER
COMMUNICATION HELPS
TRANSLATE MOLECULAR
TOOLS
Multistakeholder collaboration is
key for the adoption of molecular
approaches that can facilitate
accurate, cheaper and faster
monitoring of marine ecosystems.
4 S p r i n g 2 0 21
44 VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
HAVE A BIGGER IMPACT IN
SUMMER
Modeling shows that volcanic
eruptions can cause changes in
global climate, if the timing is right.
46 LOCKDOWNS UNLOCK
ECOLOGY RESEARCH
POTENTIAL
National lockdowns have provided
a unique opportunity to assess
the effects of human activity on
wildlife, which could translate into
new attitudes and better policies.
48 NEW SPIN BRINGS RAPID
RESCUE FROM OIL SPILLS
High-capacity oil-adsorbing mats
could be deployed in oil spill
emergencies to limit ecological
damage.
50 RED SEA TURTLE
HATCHLINGS ARE FEELING
THE HEAT
The balance of the sexes in marine
turtle hatchlings may be disrupted
by high sand temperatures at
nesting sites around the Red Sea.
52 CLOUD SIMULATIONS
GET A DOSE OF REALISM
A focus on the fundamental
physics of cloud formation leads
to highly realistic simulations of
different types of clouds.
53 CAULIFLOWER CORAL
GENOME SEQUENCED
A newly sequenced coral genome
offers tools to understand
environmental adaptation.
B I O S C IEN C E
55 ENZYME BIOFACTORIES
TO ENHANCE CORD BLOOD
TRANSPLANTS
Stem cell trafficking to the
bone marrow is improved by
an enzyme manufactured in
silkworms and yeast
56 GENETIC GAIN FOR
BETTER GRAINS
A nutritious millet crop grown
mainly in West Africa could be
genetically improved for large-
scale agriculture in Saudi Arabia.
58 FINDING A HANDLE TO
BAG THE RIGHT PROTEINS
A method that lights up tags
attached to selected proteins can
help to purify the proteins from a
mixed protein pool.
59 BARCODING LONG
DNA QUANTIFIES CRISPR
EFFECTS
A sequencing approach can home
in on a rare mutation within a
large number of cells, revealing
implications for CRISPR genome
editing and early cancer detection.
60 COPYCAT PLANT
BOOSTER IMPROVES ON
NATURE
A molecular mimic designed to
promote plant growth and limit
witchweed infestation shows
promise in initial trials.
HUMAN
H E A LT H
62 BRAINWAVES FROM
NEURAL NETWORKS
The statistics used to understand
social networks reveal the
diversity of functional connections
in the brain.
63 QUIETER WIND BENEATH
THE WINGS
The ability to efficiently simulate
the noise generated by wings and
propellers promises to accelerate
the development of quieter aircraft
and turbines.
64 NO SMOKE, BUT STILL
HAZARDOUS
A more sensitive technique shows
a cigarette alternative seems
to emit more chemicals than
manufacturer testing revealed.
65 MEMBRANE MAKEOVER
MAKES FACE MASK
REUSABLE
A polyimide membrane with
regularly sized and spaced pores
turns the N95 respirator into a
reusable mask for protection
against COVID-19.
66 PEERING UNDER THE
“HOOD” OF SARS-COV-2
Microscope and protein data are
incorporated into an easy-to-use-
and-update tool that can model an
organism’s 3D appearance.
CONTENTS /SPRING SEMESTER 2021
ABOUT THE COVER
Fluorescent pigments in corals absorb
damaging wavelengths of light to protect the
single-celled organisms that live symbiotically
inside them. Certain reef-building corals,
such as some species of Acropora like that
shown on the cover, emit green fluorescence
to attract the essential symbiotic algae after
a bleaching event. This mechanism is one
of several adaptations that particular corals
can use to survive as the oceans warm and
bleaching events become more common.
Cover created by Ivan Gromicho
If you would like to update your information, send us an email at discovery@kaust.edu.sa.
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE MANAGING EDITOR KAUST DISCOVERY
Samir Hamdan Carolyn Unck is published with King
Dean, Biological and Abdullah University of
Environmental Science and SCIENTIFIC EDITOR Science and Technology
Engineering Division Michael Cusack (KAUST) by the Partnership
and Custom Media Unit
Omar Knio GRAPHICS CONSULTANT of Nature Research, part
Dean, Computer, Electrical Xavier Pita of Springer Nature.
Connect with us
and Mathematical Sciences
and Engineering Division ILLUSTRATIONS AND
King Abdullah University
of Science and Technology
PHOTOGRAPHY
Ravindra Samtaney (KAUST) Thuwal 23955-
Ivan Gromicho 6900 – Kingdom of
Dean, Physical Sciences and Heno Hwang
Saudi Arabia.
Engineering Division Anastasia Khrenova
Email: discovery@kaust.edu.sa
Xavier Pita
O N T HE C OV ER
08 56 66
A SWEEPING GENETIC GAINS PEERING UNDER
CLIMATE MODEL FOR BETTER THE “HOOD” OF
OF THE RED SEA GRAINS SARS-COV-2
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 5
SPOTLIGHT ON KSA
WIND FORECASTS
POWER-UP FOR
RELIABLE ENERGY
PRODUCTION
Prediction of wind speed and direction up to several
hours in advance improves Saudi Arabia’s wind
energy potential.
Optimizing the integration of wind energy
into a country’s power network requires
reliable forecasts of how wind speed and
direction are likely to vary in time and
space over the pending few hours. KAUST
researchers have now developed a statisti-
cal model that provides the best forecasts
yet for wind conditions across Saudi Ara-
bia.
“Saudi Arabia is aiming to diversify its
energy mix and has set targets to signifi-
cantly increase the amount of renewable
energy in the grid, starting with wind
A statistical model provides
the best forecasts for wind
conditions across Saudi
Arabia and will help with new
renewable energy projects.
6 Spring 2021
and solar,” says former KAUST postdoc
Amanda Lenzi.
To reach the goal of 9 gigawatts of
installed wind energy by 2030 requires
reliable models and advanced forecasting
methodologies for wind conditions across
the kingdom. This will help underpin
investment certainty and is also needed
for the efficient integration of wind energy
into existing power grids.
Using hourly observations from 28
wind stations across the country, Lenzi
and group leader Marc Genton set out to
SPOTLIGHT ON KSA
develop a reliable forecasting model using
advanced statistical approaches for dealing
several hours ahead with minimal com-
putational time,” says Lenzi. “The model
with environmental data. also provides an accurate measure of the
“Our main innovation with this uncertainty in these predictions, which
approach is the joint modeling of both is necessary for planning wind farms that
wind speed and direction, which are nor-
mally treated individually,” says Lenzi.
operate at maximum efficiency.”
Designed to be run using the latest wind
“This approach shows improved predic- data, the team expect that this model will
tion performance at time scales from a few aid in the efficient implementation of wind
minutes to hours ahead and from a single energy in Saudi Arabia.
JOIN
site to a whole continental area, based on
only a few wind monitoring stations.” Lenzi, A. & Genton, M. Spatio-temporal
Although wind is inherently variable, probabilistic wind vector forecasting over
there is often a trend for stronger winds Saudi Arabia. Annals of Applied Statistics 14,
OUR
to come from certain directions. Relying 1359-1378 (2020). | article
solely on wind speed can therefore intro-
duce a systematic error into wind energy
TEAM
forecasts. Lenzi and Genton addressed
this by building a spatio-temporal model
© 2020 NATURE; YOUSSEF KHALIL
of wind speed using west-east and north-
south directional components and an
efficient representation of the space- and
time-varying statistics to make the model
computationally efficient.
A P P LY N OW !
“Using this approach, we are able to
compute a full forecast distribution from
just a few monitoring locations and con-
struct maps of wind speed for all of Saudi kaust.edu.sa
Arabia at high spatial resolution for up to
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 7
SPOTLIGHT ON KSA

A SWEEPING
CLIMATE
MODEL OF THE
RED SEA
An all-inclusive climate model for the entire Red
Sea region is supporting Saudi Arabia’s plans for
a sustainable future.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL
CONDITIONS OF THE RED SEA
MAKE IT A GOOD LABORATORY
FOR STUDYING HOW FUTURE
OCEANS MAY RESPOND TO
CLIMATE CHANGE.

Projections of atmospheric and oceanic processes in the

Red Sea are informing the design of sustainable mega­
cities being planned and built along its shores.
The Red Sea is a vital natural and economic resource
both for the region and the world. Rapid population and
industrial growth along its coast, along with the rising
threats of global warming, have highlighted the need to
build sustainable cities and maintain a healthy marine The system, which was built on a supercomputer at
“We w e r e s u r ­p r i s e d example, the group’s reconstruction of extreme wave

© 2020 KAUST; SUSANN ROSSBACH

ecosystem. Saudi Arabia generates nearly one-fifth of its
income from tourism, shipping, agriculture and fishing
in the Red Sea, and it gets 90 percent of its fresh water
from desalinated seawater. These industries all rely upon
atmospheric and oceanic conditions, which form part of a
complex climate system about which very little was previ-
ously known.
An international team led by Ibrahim Hoteit, pro-
fessor of earth sciences and engineering at KAUST, has
combined expertise in weather, oceans, waves, air pollu-
tion, marine ecosystems and data visualization to create
KAUST, has generated the first high-resolution oceanic
and atmospheric analyses of the region for the past 40
years, which has revealed how natural processes in the
Red Sea connect with the earth’s climate. “We were sur-
prised to see the Indian monsoon’s role in seasonally
reversing the overturning circulation in the Red Sea,” says
Hoteit. “It has helped explain unusual summer chloro-
phyll blooms in the southern Red Sea.”
The modeling system can predict numerous processes,
including ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns,
marine ecosystem behavior, the spread of air pollution
to see the Indian
m o n s o o n’s r o l e i n
seasonally reversing
the overturning
heights along the shoreline guided the design of the
sea wall that will protect the newly built King Abdul-
lah Economic City.
Hoteit’s team continue to enhance the system’s
performance and expand its capabilities, with a par-
ticular focus on forecasting at the seasonal timescale
and high spatial resolution simulations of urban envi-
ronments. “We want to turn this into an easy-to-use
online visualization tool to support local authorities
and industry in solving environmental problems in
the region,” he says.

an all-in-one climate modeling system for the Red Sea
region, using satellite and surface observations to refine
the output. “By building expertise in a region instead of
a discipline, we can understand circulation, ecosystems
and climate in the Red Sea like never before,” says Hoteit.
circulation in the
and the potential path of an oil spill. This is already pro-
viding essential information to academia, government Hoteit, I. et al. Towards an end-to-end analysis and
and industry in Saudi Arabia, supporting research into prediction system for weather, climate, and marine
Red Sea biodiversity hotspots, environmental policymak-
ing, renewable energy projects and flood protection. For
Re d S e a .” applications in the Red Sea. Bulletin of American
Meteorology, 102, E99-E122 (2021). | article

8 S p r i n g 2 0 21 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 9

SPOTLIGHT ON KSA SPOTLIGHT ON KSA

“T h e t r i g g e r f i s h prey,” says Tietbohl. “They will jet water from their

TRIGGERFISH
mouths to uncover invertebrate food buried in the
sand and flip rocks and break coral to get at prey.
partially beached Given this diverse range of feeding behaviors, it is not

LEARNS TO CATCH itself in shallow

too surprising that they have found a way of catching
semiterrestrial prey too.”

MORE DIVERSE
Tietbohl believes that their discovery highlights the

wa t e r f o r t h e f i r s t
importance of observational studies as a means for

© KAUST; MATTHEW TIETBOHL

investigating marine life. He and his colleagues suggest

FOOD
that triggerfish could serve as model systems for study-
a t t a c k .” ing learning and cognition in coral reef fish.

In what is likely the first observation of its kind, a tricky Tietbohl, M.D., Hardenstine, R.S., Tanabe, L.K., Hulver, A.M.
& Berumen, M.L. Intentional partial beaching in a coral
triggerfish is seen beaching itself before attacking a reef fish: A newly recorded hunting behaviour for titan
crab walking along the shoreline. triggerfish, Balistoides viridescens. Journal of Fish Biology
97, 1569-1572 (2020). | article

Tietbohl and his colleagues were on Mar Mar island

TRIGGERFISH GET in the south-central Red Sea looking for signs of turtle
THEIR NAME FROM nesting when they saw a titan triggerfish come up on
THE SPINES ON
THEIR DORSAL FINS,
to the shoreline and attack, and eventually grab, a Red
WHICH CAN BE USED Sea ghost crab. Most interesting was that the trigger-
TO DEFEND AGAINST fish partially beached itself in shallow water for the first
PREDATORS.
attack, a hunting behavior that has not been previously
reported in any fish belonging to the order Tetraodonti-
formes, which comprises 350 coral reef species, includ- A Red Sea
Any Red Sea diver will have encountered color- ing triggerfish. Several subsequent attacks ensued in ghost crab
sits on the
ful triggerfish along coral reefs, and some divers very shallow water, without beaching, with the fish shoreline.
will have experienced the painful bite of their huge slowly approaching the crab and then rushing at it
teeth if they get too close to their nesting grounds. horizontally. The fish finally grabbed the crab in several
Now, Ph.D. student Matthew Tietbohl and col- centimeters of water and dragged it into deeper water,
leagues at KAUST report a peculiar feeding strategy where it was eaten.
by a titan triggerfish that highlights their innate “Triggerfish seem to be particularly adept at
ability to learn and adapt. a wide variety of feeding behaviors to catch their

10 Spring 2021 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 11

SPOTLIGHT ON KSA
CLEAR SKIES FOR
SAUDI ARABIA’S
“NEW FUTURE”
PROJECT
A high-resolution atmospheric assessment for the
northern Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia shows the region
has some of the best air quality in the kingdom.
On a picturesque stretch of the Red Sea
coast, Saudi Arabia is planning a new fully
automated megacity called NEOM. The new
city is a futuristic global hub for education,
healthcare, culture, business and technol-
ogy based on renewable energy and green
infrastructure. KAUST researchers have now
completed the first comprehensive, high-
resolution assessment of air quality for the
region, and the results are promising.
Short for Neo-Mustaqbal, meaning “new
future,” NEOM is a 500 billion USD initia-
tive, dubbed “the world’s most ambitious
project.” It is located in northwestern Saudi
Arabia near the borders with Jordan and
Egypt. Understanding the air quality and
meteorological conditions over the NEOM
development area is crucial for effectively
monitoring and controlling air pollution for
the megaproject.
Air quality is affected by many factors,
including wind direction and variability,
sources of pollution and dust and atmos-
pheric conditions. However, in regions with
sparse air quality measurements, such as
the northern Red Sea coast, it is challenging
to model air quality and develop an under-
standing of the processes by which airborne
pollutants are accumulated and dispersed.
“The availability of reliable meteorolog-
ical data and air pollutant concentrations
over the NEOM region was the main chal-
lenge we faced in conducting our analysis,”
says research scientist Hari Dasari. “For
this study, we conducted a four-month
air-quality monitoring campaign across
five locations in 2018, and then we per-
formed numerical model simulations at
very high resolution using grid cells of just
600 meters. This required enormous com-
putational resources, for which we were
12 S p r i n g 2 0 21
fortunate to be able to rely on KAUST’s
SHAHEEN high-performance computa-
tional facility.”
By running the model with known
regional pollution sources over a simu-
lated three-year period and comparing the
model results with observational data, the
researchers could derive the meteorological
conditions across the project area and the
principal drivers of pollution dispersion.
“We found that the air quality over
NEOM is generally very good although
natural dust storms can occur in summer,”
says Dasari.
Led by Ibrahim Hoteit, the research
“T h e a i r q u a l i t y team also found that differential heating
over land and sea drives changes in wind
direction, generating land and sea breezes
over NEOM is that play a major role in dispersing pollut-
ants in the NEOM region.
g e n e ra l l y v e r y “As the first study of air quality in the
NEOM region, our work provides valu-
able information on air quality and mete-
good although orological conditions that will be used by
NEOM’s planners and designers to mini-
n a t u ra l d u s t mize the accumulation of pollutants and
the formation of heat islands and local
storms can
wind jets,” says Hoteit.
Dasari, H.P., Desamsetti, S., Langodan,
occur in S., Karumuri, R.K., Singh, S. & Hoteit, I.
Atmospheric conditions and air quality
s u m m e r.” assessment over NEOM, Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia. Atmospheric Environment
230, 117489 (2020). | article
© KAUST; KYLE LAUERSEN
KAUST researchers have now completed the first comprehensive, high-resolution
assessment of air quality for the new fully automated megacity called NEOM.
The photoprotective effect enables giant clams to live in very shallow tropical waters where there is
enough light for photosynthesis but also potentially harmful UV radiation levels.
A DIFFERENT
SLANT OF LIGHT
Giant clams manipulate light to assist their
symbiotic partner.
Special cells in giant clams shift the
wavelength of light to provide protection
from UV radiation and increase the
photosynthetic activity of their symbionts,
shows research from KAUST that was
originally intended as a photonics
investigation.
Like corals, giant clams are important
players in reef ecosystems and live
in symbiosis with photosynthetic
Symbiodiniaceae algae. The clams also
have special cells, known as iridocytes,
that can manipulate light via layers of
nanoreflectors within each cell. Earlier
work has shown that these iridocytes
scatter and reflect light to increase
the photosynthetic efficiency of the
Symbiodiniaceae algae.
Now, a team of marine scientists and
electrical engineers have discovered
another way that iridocytes help the
symbiont to photosynthesize. The
researchers studied the morphology
and optical characteristics of iridocytes
in the giant clam Tridacna maxima and
found that they absorb UV radiation and
re-emit it as longer wavelengths that are
photosynthetically useful.
Ram Chandra Subedi, one of the study’s
authors, explains that the iridocytes
contain alternating layers of high refractive
index guanine crystal and lower refractive
index cytoplasm. Compressing and
relaxing these layers enables the cell to
tune its effect on light. As a result, “the
guanine palettes not only reflect harmful
UV radiation but also absorb it and emit
light at higher wavelengths that are safe
and useful for photosynthesis,” he explains.
This increases the amount of
photosynthetically active radiation
available to the algal symbiont and also
helps protect both the clams and algae
from UV radiation. This photoprotective
effect enables giant clams to live in very
shallow tropical waters where there is
K AUST DISCOVERY
enough light for photosynthesis but also
© 2020 KAUST; SUSANN ROSSBACH
potentially harmful UV radiation levels.
This may also explain the mantle
colors of giant clams. The idea is that
the vibrant colors of giant clams are not
due to optical differences in the tissue,
but rather differences in the distribution
or abundance of symbionts relative to
iridocytes in each individual. “It’s just a
hypothesis,” explains lead author Susann
Rossbach, “but it’s the most reasonable
explanation we have about why the clams
have different colors.” Whether or not
the differences in color have functional
consequences remains an open question.
Rossbach says that this was a curiosity-
driven project to see if the iridocytes had
optical properties that might be useful in
photonics technologies. “It wasn’t initially
about answering a biology question, but
in the end it explained a lot about this
symbiosis and opened up new questions
in biological photonics,” she says. These
findings have also led to new optoelectronic
applications based on iridocytes although
they have not yet been published.
Rossbach, S., Subedi, R.C., Ng, T.K.,
Ooi, B.S. & Duarte, C.M. Iridocytes
mediate photonic cooperation between
giant clams (Tridacninae) and their
photosynthetic symbionts. Frontiers in
Marine Science 7, 465 (2020). | article
di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 13

BROADENING
© SIMON KRATTINGER
HORIZONS FOR
PEOPLE WITH
QUADRIPLEGIA
An assistive technology uses magnetic skin to support
freedom of movement for people with quadriplegia.
A system that uses flexible,
breathable magnetic skin
allows people with severe
qu adr ipleg i a to move
around and choose their surroundings.
Developed by KAUST researchers, the
high-tech system relies on the user’s facial
expressions to accomplish a wide variety
of tasks, from moving down the street to
using an elevator.
There are a wide variety of assistive
technologies for people with quadriple-
fo
gia, but most systems are not suitable for
patients with severe quadriplegia because
they often rely on head or neck movements
to work. For these patients, the options are
limited to camera, tongue control, voice-
assistant and neural detector systems. But
these either offer a limited range of ges-
tures or are not compatible with outdoor
Assistive
technologies that
combine smart
In a changing climate, the need glasses, smart
gadgets and
to grow food, particularly in arid magnetic skins with a
smart wheelchair are
regions, has led KAUST plant allowing people with
limited mobility to
scientists to domesticate and move more freely.
adapt crops that thrive in salty
soils and at high temperatures.
AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGY
applications. Some also require invasive
attachments or continuous attention while
using the system.
“Most existing technologies don’t
give people a lot of freedom,” says
Abdullah Almansouri, a Ph.D. student
at KAUST. “We wanted to develop a
solution that works inside the house as
well as outdoors, allowing them to move
around independently.”
The new integrated system includes mag-
netic skins, smart glasses, a smart wheel-
chair and smart gadgets that rely on wireless
Bluetooth and infrared communication.
The three magnetic skins are placed
between the eyebrows and on each side of
the nose to track facial movements, such
as moving the eyebrows up and down and
the nose left and right. These movements
are detected by magnetic field sensors in
K AUST DISCOVERY
the smart glasses and are converted into
electrical signals that are transmitted to the
head unit of the wheelchair.
This unit processes these signals into
wheelchair or smart gadget commands,
such as turning the lights on or clicking
the mouse on a computer. The system cur-
rently supports 13 distinct facial gestures.
“We were aiming for something easy
and accessible but also that couldn’t
be easily triggered by accident,” says
Almansouri. “The system itself handles
the complexity, so the user is only wear-
ing the glasses and magnetic skin to con-
trol their surroundings.”
With his team, Almansouri tested the
system on three able-bodied users with a
high success rate. The participants took
less than 15 minutes to learn how to use
the system without assistance, with a
worst-case success rate of 93 percent.
“The synergetic combination of
advanced sensor technology and machine
learning will definitely improve qual-
© 2021 KAUST; ANASTASIA SERIN
ity of life,” says Khaled Salama, professor
of electrical and computer engineering.
“This combination has the potential to be
a game-changer in so many applications.”
Almansouri, A.S., Upadhyaya, L, Nunes,
S.P., Salama, K.N., Kosel, J. An assistive
magnetic skin system: Enabling technology
for quadriplegics. Advanced Engineering
Materials 23, 2000944 (2021). | article
di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 15
AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGY
DIAGNOSING BY USING UAV AND SATELLITE
REMOTE SENSING, FARMERS
INDIVIDUAL TREES
COULD REDUCE CROP LOSS
BY EVALUATING THE HEALTH
OF THOUSANDS OF TREES AT
ONE TIME.
FROM ABOVE
Increased data resolution makes it pos-
Models based on images from unmanned aerial vehicles
sible to scrutinize individual trees on a
farm, which enables farmers to take tar-
and satellites can help farmers to monitor the health of geted action. As the world’s population
individual trees. grows, it is vital to have improved ways to
optimize food production. Remote sens-
ing technologies are key to meeting these
goals, providing the means to monitor
crop health over large areas.
16 S p r i n g 2 0 21
AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGY
The team used combined
data from satellite and
unmanned aerial vehicle
flights to accurately
map the condition of
macadamia trees in
Australia.
says Johansen, “whereas UAV and satel-
lite remote sensing could evaluate thou-
sands at a time.”
The team studied three plantations
containing trees of various ages and vari-
eties. The health of each tree was assessed
by an experienced agronomist using a
five-point scale from excellent to poor
condition. The researchers flew a UAV
over the sites to record spectral images
in green, red and near-infrared, and they
acquired data across several more spec-
tral bands from the WorldView-3 earth
observation satellite.
Researchers Kasper Johansen and Mat-
thew McCabe, with co-workers in Aus-
tralia, have demonstrated this potential
using combined data from satellite and
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights to
accurately map the condition of macada-
mia trees in Queensland.
Macadamia nuts are an important
export for Australia, but the trees take
15 years to mature and provide their
maximum yield, so farmers must iden-
tify any trees that are suffering as early as
possible. “Currently, macadamia farmers
rely on manual visual assessment of each
tree and its irrigation system, which is
time consuming and often inconsistent,”
K AUST DISCOVERY
Using training data from a few hundred
trees, the team developed models relating the
spectral data to the ground measurements.
The models were then able to correctly clas-
sify over 98 percent of the other trees.
Interestingly, although the detailed
spectra from Worldview-3 provided the
most accurate models of tree health, the
pixel size of 1.2 meters was too coarse to
identify individual tree crowns, which
could only be done with the high-resolu-
tion UAV data. This highlights the benefits
of a combined UAV-satellite approach.
The research benefited greatly from
its links with McCabe’s research group at
KAUST, which focuses on remote sensing
applications for precision agriculture and
includes related studies of olive orchards
in Saudi Arabia.
“The use of remote sensing for preci-
sion agriculture, such as in our study,
will improve overall orchard manage-
ment practices, production and yield,”
says Johansen. “In turn, this will enhance
food and water security.”
“This work was part of a collaborative
project funded by the Australian gov-
ernment to support tree crop industries,
specifically for macadamia, mango and
avocado orchards,” explains Johansen.
Johansen, K., Duan, Q., Tu, Y.-H., Searle,
C., Wu, D., Phinn, S., Robson, A. & McCabe,
M.F. Mapping the condition of macadamia
tree crops using multi-spectral UAV and
WorldView-3 imagery. ISPRS Journal of
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
165, 28-40 (2020). | article
© 2020 KASPER JOHANSEN
di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 17
AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGY AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGY

UNLEASHING THE
POTENTIAL OF
TETHERED DRONES
Wire-connected drones may complement or replace the
fixed-base stations of cellular communications networks.

The use of tethered unmanned aerial showed how drones (UAVs) fitted with cellular trans-

© 2020 KAUST; XAVIER PITA

vehicles (TUAVs) has been modeled as a
powerful new tool for improving cellu-
lar phone and internet networks. When
employed as flying base stations with a cable connec-
tion, multirotor drones promise to quickly ramp up
coverage, increase the efficiency of urban networks
and provide much-needed access in remote rural areas.
“Our aim has been to show that TUAVs offer a
very appealing solution as a bridge between fixed-
base stations and free-flying drones,” says Mohamed-
Slim Alouini, who has authored two papers on the
subject with KAUST mathematicians Mustafa A.
Kishk and Ahmed Bader. “We hope our theoretical
ceivers could quickly be deployed to replace inoperable
base stations and restore mobile coverage. Mathemati-
cians have been calculating the optimal positioning of
such “COWs” (cells on wings) ever since.
Adding a cable for power and data has been an
obvious development. A U.S. startup called Spooky
Action, for example, has been experimenting with
TUAVs to connect remote areas of Africa.
TUAVs on the market today can stay aloft for a
Researchers
month or more, much longer than their untethered anticipate that
counterparts, which must land to recharge every hour TUAVs could
or so. With a fiber optic line running alongside their
power connection, TUAVs can also “backhaul” their
potentially offload
data during peak “W i t h l o n g e r Eventually, the three KAUST researchers envisage
TUAVs complementing fixed-base stations in high-
KAUST researchers
have modeled the
hours and shift use of TUAVs to

t e t h e r s , T UAVs
investigation will spur others to develop the idea to data to the core network with much greater efficiency. their position density urban networks. provide cellular
around the clock network coverage in
its full potential,” says Alouini. Their drawback is their restricted mobility although to cover varying
Tethered to tall buildings, they would offload data
both urban and rural
In 2017, after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto the cable that connects currently available products traffic distribution during peak hours and shift their position around the
will outperform
areas.
Rico, the U.S. telecommunications company AT&T can be as long as 150 meters. throughout the day. clock to cover varying traffic distribution throughout
the day.

f r e e - f l y i n g UAVs In the low-density countryside, meanwhile, high-

in just about
e v e r y s c e n a r i o.”
Unlike free-flying UAVs, little theoretical work
has been done on how best to position their teth-
ered counterparts. The KAUST researchers took two
approaches. First, they used exhaustive search opti-
mization by crunching numbers for every item in a set
of possible locations, with each location correspond-
ing to a value of coverage probability. Secondly, they
derived closed-form expressions for a suboptimal
solution, which was faster arrived at but less accurate.
Future modeling will likely use both methods, with
the latter greatly reducing the size of the set searched
through by the former.
“An interesting result was that with longer tethers,
TUAVs will outperform free-flying UAVs in just about
every scenario,” says Kishk. “Tomorrow’s 5G equipment
is heavier and consumes more power than 4G available
today, so their advantage will become more apparent.”
flying TUAVs promise a more viable alternative to
expensive, tall towers needed to provide coverage to
large but sparsely populated regions.
While the KAUST researchers only looked into the
optimal placing of one TUAV for their papers, they
are now developing more complex models, featuring
two or more flying base stations. They hope that other
mathematicians will join them in their pursuit to opti-
mize the use of TUAVs.
1. Kishk, M.A., Bader, A. & Alouini, M.S. On
the 3-D placement of airborne base stations
using tethered UAVs. IEEE Transactions on
Communications 68, 5202-5215 (2020). | article
MUSTAFA A. KISHK
POSTDOC
In Mohamed-Slim Alouini’s group,
Kishk investigates stochastic
geometry, energy harvesting, UAV-
enabled wireless networks, laser
communications and physical
layer security.

18 S p r i n g 2 0 21 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 19

 NE W M ATERI A L S

“Imagine it like LEGO, The team tested their membranes on colored dyes
with similar yet distinct molecular sizes. All of their

where you take

membranes filtered out at least 90 percent of the color
molecules that weighed more than 450 grams per mole,
far outperforming some of the other membranes they
preformed hollow tested. “The membranes’ performance didn’t deteriorate
after 48 hours of continuous filtration,” adds Huang. And
triangles and assemble they even withstood exposure to harsher substances,
including acetone and methanol.

them in a flat film. ”

molecular building blocks, known as trianglamines. “You
can imagine it like LEGO,” explains Suzana Nunes, pro-
fessor of chemical and environmental science and engi-
neering, “where you take preformed hollow triangles and
assemble them in a flat film.” By first defining the pore
size and electric charge of these triangular molecules, the
teams went on to create a membrane that could separate
molecules of different sizes and shapes.
Membrane thickness is also critical for efficient filtering.
“For faster filtration, the film needs to be as thin as pos-
sible to avoid unnecessary resistance to the solvent pass-
ing through,” says Nunes. To achieve this, they separated
the two main ingredients (terephthaloyl chloride and the
preformed trianglamines) into two different fluids that do
not mix (oil and water, respectively), forcing the reaction
to occur only at the interface where the fluids met. “We
found this formed an extremely thin layer of a few nanom-
eters,” says Tiefan Huang, the lead author, “much thinner
than common commercial membranes prepared in this
way.” Each film was between 3.5 and 10 nanometers thick,
depending on how long the reaction continued.
The membranes did not deteriorate after 48 hours of continuous use, withstood exposure to harsh substances and outperformed other membranes
that were tested.
“Molecular purification for pharmaceuticals can
involve many steps,” explains Nunes. “More selective and
sturdy membranes like ours can simplify the process,
making it more cost effective. The machinery we used
is already widely used in the membrane industry,” she
adds, “so it can be easily scaled up for manufacturing.”
“This work was possible because of the collabora-
tion with Niveen Khashab’s group,” explains Nunes. “I
credit the complementarity of our groups and the unique
research environment at KAUST for facilitating what
I hope will be a continuing collaboration with Prof.
Khashab and her team.”
The membranes in this study were tailored specifically
for molecules of around 400 grams per mole. “We will
next work on a portfolio of building blocks so that we
can make membranes for selecting molecules of many
different shapes and sizes,” says Nunes, “and ultimately
help make organic solvent separation more sustainable.”
Huang, T., Moosa, B.A., Hoang, P., Liu, J., Chisca, S., Zhang,
G., AlYami, M., Khashab, N.M. & Nunes, S.P. Molecularly-
porous ultrathin membranes for highly selective organic
solvent nanofiltration. Nature Communications 11, 5882
(2020). | article

MOLECULAR
Wafer-thin membranes tailored to sep-

GET
© 2020 KAUST; IVAN GROMICHO
arate specific molecules from liquids

PORES FOR
could improve the efficiency of oil refin-
ing and pharmaceutical manufacture.
Filtering organic solvents—carbon-based liquids, such SOCIAL
THOUGHT WITH
as oils and alcohols, that dissolve other substances—is
crucial for petroleum, chemical and pharmaceutical com-
panies that must consistently create the purest product.
Ultrathin porous films that can pluck out Traditional extraction techniques, such as distillation, @KAUST_RESEARCH
use vast amounts of energy, and emerging green alter-
specific nanoscopic molecules could refine natives, such as membranes, face other challenges. For
oil purification and drug development. instance, porous materials must withstand often highly
Follow us on social media
reactive solvents while filtering out target molecules of a
particular size and shape. Some very efficient membranes
THE LEGO-LIKE MEMBRANES are available for separating salt from water in seawater
CAN SELECTIVELY SEPARATE desalination, but they are not as effective at separating
MOLECULES OF DIFFERENT smaller, very similar molecules in organic solvents.
SIZES AND SHAPES.
Two teams of KAUST researchers have created an
ultrathin porous membrane using carefully crafted

20 S p r i n g 2 0 21 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 21

NE W M ATERI A L S
A STAR
Plastics are ubiquitous in
modern life, used in packaging,
computers, medical equipment
IS BORN
and many other devices. All
of these applications require
different material properties,
which depend on the nature of
the polymer molecules within
Unique star-shaped polymers have the plastics.
KAUST researchers are
highly tunable properties that will
open up a range of new applications.
at the forefront of efforts to
develop unusual star-shaped
polymers that could open up
fresh opportunities for these
materials. “Because the heart
of a material’s properties is at
22 S p r i n g 2 0 21
the molecular level, this unique can fine-tune important
structure gives the materials their characteristics, such as elasticity
unique properties and, therefore, and density.
applications,” says Distinguished In 1992, Hadjichristidis and
Professor of Chemical Science his Ph.D. student Hermis Iatrou,
Nikos Hadjichristidis. now at the University of Athens,
© 2020 NATURE; YOUSSEF KHALIL
Polymers are built from
“E a sy a n d co st- e f fe c t i ve
repeating chemical units called
monomers. The identity of the
monomer influences a material’s
physical properties, but so sy n ­t h e s i s of we ll-
too does the arrangement of
the polymer chains and the
interactions among them.
de f i n e d m i kto a rm st a rs
By changing a polymer’s
architecture, researchers re m a i n s a c h a ll e n ge.”
Greece, created an entirely
new polymer architecture
Miktoarm star polymers with several different types of
(from the Greek word polymers all meeting at a point1.
µικτός, meaning
“mixed”) are highly
Hadjichristidis called them
tunable because they miktoarm star polymers (from
combine different the Greek word µικτός, meaning
polymers.
“mixed”) because they combine
different polymers and are highly
tunable. Their discovery has
spawned a research field that has
yielded hundreds of papers.
In their latest research,
Hadjichristidis and his colleagues
developed a better way to
incorporate polyethylene (PE)
into miktoarm star polymers2.
PE-based materials have a wide
range of applications thanks to
their excellent properties; they
are inexpensive, stable to heat,
strong and flexible. Consequently,
miktoarm polymers that contain
PE might offer a way to combine
the tunability of star polymers
with the versatility of PE.
The method previously
used to make PE-based star
polymers led to stars having PE
arms with very short branches,
which made the material less
robust. So Hadjichristidis’s team
developed an improved approach
that combines two different
polymerization techniques.
They built the stars
around a molecule called
4-(dichloromethylsilyl)-
diphenylethylene, which
contains chemical groups that
act as anchor points for polymer
chains. The researchers hooked
two polyisoprene (PI) chains
onto this foundation and then
grew a third arm from a different
anchor point. By choosing
different monomers, the star’s
third arm could either be PI,
polystyrene or polybutadiene.
The researchers then added
a boron reagent that bonded to
the tip of this third arm. Another
reagent inserted repeating
monomer units between the
boron atom and the star, creating
a section of PE. Once each star
was released from the boron
atom, this perfectly linear
PE chain contained no short
branches and was capped by a
hydroxyl group.
“By comparing three types of
PE-based stars, the researchers
could study how the different
structures affected their physical
properties, such as self-
assembly and crystallinity,” says
Konstantinos Ntetsikas, who led
the experimental work at KAUST.
“The next step is to synthesize
more PE-based star polymers
with varied compositions and
study their self-assembly
behavior,” he says.
The researchers plan to
incorporate polymers that make
the materials more soluble, to
compare how the stars behave
in solution, for example. The
hydroxyl group at the end of the
PE arm could also be used to
attach more polymer molecules
onto the star, producing even
more complex architectures with
unprecedented properties.
“With the knowledge achieved
K AUST DISCOVERY
NE W M ATERI A L S
from this and other studies, we
can design and synthesize the
polymers to precisely achieve
targeted material properties,”
says Edwin L. Thomas at Rice
University in Houston, Texas, who
collaborated with Hadjichristidis’s
team on the research. “Our future
work will be aimed at finding
processing conditions that will
enable the PE arms to have much
higher crystallinities, even above
90 percent.”
Hadjichristidis and his KAUST
colleague Yves Gnanou hope
to incorporate biodegradable
sections into miktoarm stars
that could make them useful
in biomedical applications
or add fluorinated polymers
so that they might be applied
in manufacturing electronic
devices. “Their unique
microstructures will solve
problems otherwise impossible
with their linear counterparts,”
Hadjichristidis says.
The researchers also aim to
develop processes that are more
amenable to manufacturing
miktoarm star polymers. For
now, the methods used to build
the new stars are very sensitive
to air and moisture, so they must
be carried out in high-vacuum
conditions. “So far, the easy and
cost-effective synthesis of well-
defined miktoarm stars remains
a challenge,” says Hadjichristidis.
“These challenges will
undoubtedly inspire more
research in the future.”
1. Iatrou, H. & Hadjichristidis, N.
Synthesis of a model 3-miktoarm
star terpolymer. Macromolecules
25, 4649-4651 (1992). | article
2. Ntetsikas, K., Zapsas, G.,
Bilalis, P., Gnanou, Y., Feng, X.,
Thomas, E.L. & Hadjichristidis,
N. Complex star architectures
of well-defined polyethylene-
based Co/terpolymers.
Macromolecules 53, 4355-
4365 (2020). | article
di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 23
NE W M ATERI A L S
This model for NGF growth shows that the variable number of graphene layers correlates with the orientation,
size and boundaries of the Ni grains at the surface of the polycrystalline metal foil.
NEXT-GEN
SMARTPHONES TO
KEEP THEIR COOL
Multilayered carbon material could be the perfect
fit for heat management in electronic devices.
The powerful electronics packed inside
the latest smartphones can be a sig-
nificant challenge to keep cool. KAUST
researchers have developed a fast and
efficient way to make a carbon material
that could be ideally suited to dissipating
heat in electronic devices. This versatile
material could also have additional uses
ranging from gas sensors to solar cells.
Many electronic devices use graphite
films to draw away and dissipate the heat
generated by their electronic components.
Although graphite is a naturally occurring
form of carbon, heat management of elec-
tronics is a demanding application and
usually relies on the use of high-quality
micrometer-thick manufactured graph-
ite films. “However, the method used to
make these graphite films, using polymers
as a source material, is complex and very
energy intensive,” says G. Deokar, a post-
doc in Pedro Costa’s lab, who led the work.
The films are made in a multistep process
that requires temperatures of up to 3200
degrees Celsius and that cannot produce
films any thinner than a few micrometers.
Deokar, Costa and their colleagues
have developed a quick energy-efficient
24 S p r i n g 2 0 21
way to make graphite sheets that are
approximately 100 nanometers thick.
The team grew nanometer-thick graphite
films (NGF) on nickel foils using a tech-
nique called chemical vapor deposition
(CVD) in which the nickel catalytically
converts hot methane gas into graphite
on its surface. “We achieved NGFs with
a CVD growth step of just five minutes
at a reaction temperature of 900 degrees
Celsius,” Deokar says.
The NGFs, which could be grown in
sheets of up to 55 square centimeters,
grew on both sides of the foil. They could
be extracted and transferred to other
surfaces without the need for a polymer-
supporting layer, which is a common
requirement when handling single-layer
graphene films.
Working with electron microscopy
specialist Alessandro Genovese, the team
captured cross-sectional transmission
electron microscopy (TEM) images of
the NGF on nickel. “Observing the inter-
face of the graphite films to the nickel foil
was an unprecedented achievement that
will shed additional light on the growth
mechanisms of these films,” Costa says.
NE W M ATERI A L S
MICROSCOPE stage-top incubators that are used to
grow live cells for bioimaging.
LENS INSPIRED Andrea Bertoncini, a researcher in
Liberale’s group, spearheaded a study to
BY LIGHTHOUSE
create an ultrathin SRS lens using laser-
based 3D printing. Taking their cue from
the slender design of lighthouse lenses,
LENSES the team printed tiny lens-like and mirror-
like features into a transparent polymer
only a fraction of a millimeter thick.
© 2020 KAUST; ANDREA BERTONCINI
Custom-fabricated lenses make it easy to attach high- “This type of lens design is a very
tech microscopes directly to cell incubators. efficient way to collect and redirect light
coming from wide-angle sources right
to our laser detector,” says Bertoncini.
“And since it’s so thin, it easily fits into the
“This type of lens
In terms of thickness, NGF sits An optical device that resembles a closed chambers of an incubator.”
between commercially available micro­ miniaturized lighthouse lens can make After calibration trials confirmed that
meter-thick graphite films and single- it easier to peer into Petri dishes and their new lens could reject the cross-
design is a very
layer graphene. “NGFs complement
graphene and industrial graphite sheets,
observe molecular-level details of
biological processes, including cancer
efficient way
phase modulation background, the
researchers turned their sights on human
adding to the toolbox of layered carbon cell growth. Developed by KAUST, the cancer cells cultured in a conventional
films,” Costa says. Due to its flexibility, new lens is also very cost effective. Petri dish. These experiments revealed
for example, NGF could lend itself to Many bioimaging techniques that the lens could image the cell’s
heat management in flexible phones now require fluorescent dyes to be to collect and interior components with a resolution
starting to appear on the market. “NGF added to specific cell targets. But a similar to conventional SRS microscopes,
redirect light.”
© 2020 KAUST; XAVIER PITA
integration would be cheaper and more recently developed method known but in a much more convenient and less
robust than what could be obtained with as stimulated raman scattering (SRS) expensive format.
a graphene film,” he adds. microscopy can avoid cumbersome “The objectives we normally use to
However, NGFs could find many labeling steps by using laser pulses to between laser pulses and the samples. collect SRS microscope signals cost a few
applications in addition to heat dissi- collect molecular vibrational signals “This background signal is ubiquitous thousand dollars,” says Bertoncini. “Now
pation. One intriguing feature, high- from biological samples. The ability of and reduces the contrast during we have a lens with similar benefits that
lighted in the TEM images, was that SRS microscopes to produce high- microscopic observation of complex we can produce for less than a tenth of
some sections of the NGF were just a resolution, noninvasive images at real- samples, such as live cells,” explains Carlo that price.”
few carbon sheets thick. “Remarkably, time speeds has prompted researchers Liberale from KAUST. “It also makes it
the presence of the few-layer graphene to also deploy them for in vivo disease difficult to identify target molecules.” Bertoncini, A., Laptenok, S.P., Genchi,
domains resulted in a reasonable degree diagnostic studies. To avoid the effects of cross-phase L., Rajamanickam, V.P. & Liberale, C.
of visible light transparency of the over- One drawback of SRS microscopes, modulation, most SRS microscopes 3D-printed high-NA catadioptric thin
all film,” Deokar says. The team proposed however, is that the detection system is need to use bulky glass objectives lens for suppression of XPM background
that conducting, semitransparent NGFs affected by a background signal, known capable of collecting wide angles of in Stimulated Raman Scattering
could be used as a component of solar as cross-phase modulation, which is light. However, these kinds of lenses microscopy. Journal of Biophotonics
cells or as a sensor material for detecting generated by the intense interactions are nearly impossible to fit into the e202000219 (2020). | article
NO2 gas. “We plan to integrate NGFs in
devices where they would act as a multi­
functional active material,” Costa says.
1. Deokar, G., Genovese, A. & Costa,
P.M.F.J. Fast, wafer-scale growth of a
The thin and cost-effective
nanometer-thick graphite film on Ni foil and lens is 3D printed and has the
its structural analysis. Nanotechnology 31, capacity to put live cells under
the microscope, which would
485605 (2020). | article
significantly improve diagnostics.
2. Deokar, G., Genovese, A., Surya,
S.G., Long, C, Salama, K.N. & Costa,
P.M.F.J. Semi-transparent graphite
films growth on Ni and their double-
sided polymer-free transfer. Scientific
Reports 10, 14703 (2020). | article
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 25
NE W M ATERI A L S NE W M ATERI A L S

“N o n po ro u s o rga n i c
c a ge s co u l d
be a do pte d fo r
m a ny i n du st ri a l-
scale chemical
s e pa rat i o n s.”
require less heat would lower the carbon footprint and
1,000+
overall pollution of xylene separation,” he adds.
Khashab and her team have been investigating the STUDENTS
possibility of separating xylene isomers using cage-like FROM OVER 75
COUNTRIES
materials, which selectively absorb one xylene isomer in
the mixture, as an energy-efficient alternative separation
technique. Previous research has focused on porous inor-
ganic materials called zeolites, but processing challenges Join an international community
and zeolites’ limited selectivity have somewhat restricted dedicated to science &
their adoption by industry. technology innovation.
In their latest work, KAUST researchers turned to sta-
ble, easily made organic cage materials that incorporated
nitrogen-based azo groups in their structure. The materi-
als captured the para-xylene isomer with high selectively. A P P LY N OW !
“Compared with other organic materials, it showed one of
the highest adsorbents for xylene separations,” says Ali- kaust.edu.sa
yah Fakim, a Ph.D. student on Khashab’s team. Strikingly,
however, the para-xylene adsorption did not involve the
isomer entering the azo-cage. Instead, the isomer stuck to
the outside of the cage, forming crystals in which each para-
KAUST researchers are developing organic cage-like materials to separate xylene isomers in a more energy-efficient way.
xylene molecule was surrounded by four cage molecules.
The team plans to refine the performance of the nonpo-

THINKING
Molecular cages, in which guest mol- rous organic cages by lowering the activation temperature

© 2020 KAUST; ANASTASIA SERIN

ecules cling to the cages’ outer surfaces and reducing the time it takes to absorb and then release

OUTSIDE
rather than enter an internal cavity, the para-xylene once extracted from the mixture.
could cut the environmental impact of However, the concept of separation using nonporous
separating mixtures of industrial chemicals, research organic cages could be adopted for many industrial-

THE CAGE
from KAUST suggests.
Molecular separations performed at scale by the
chemical industry collectively account for as much as 15
A reverse form of host-guest chemistry percent of global energy consumption. One of the most
energy-intensive separations involves benzene deriva-
could upend the way the chemical industry tives, called xylenes, which are produced as a mixture
approaches challenging, energy-intensive of three isomeric forms that must be separated for their
molecular separations. various industrial uses. The most valuable isomer, para-
xylene, is a key ingredient in polyester and polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) polymer manufacture.
“Conventionally, these isomers are separated by
energy-demanding methods, such as fractional crys-
tallization,” says Basem Moosa, a research scientist
in Niveen Khashab’s lab. “Alternative techniques that
scale chemical separations, lowering the energy demand
of these major industrial processes, Khashab notes. “We
believe that these structures will be a next-generation,
disruptive technology for many energy-intensive chemi-
cal separations,” she says. “The organic cages are cheap
to scale up compared with other organic materials, and
most interestingly, they can be easily tuned for selective
separations, unlike their inorganic zeolite counterparts.”
Moosa, B., Alimi, L. O., Shkurenko, A., Fakim, A.,
Bhatt, P.M., Zhang, G., Eddaoudi, M., Khashab, N.M. A
polymorphic azobenzene cage for energy-efficient and
highly selective p‑xylene separation. Angewandte Chemie
International Edition 59, 21367-21371 (2020). | article

26 S p r i n g 2 0 21 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 27


THIN-SKINNED SOLAR
PANELS PRINTED
WITH INKJET
Efficient yet exceptionally light organic solar cells created entirely by inkjet printing.
EACH ULTRATHIN LAYER
WAS PRINTED ON A MICRON-
THICK BIOCOMPATIBLE
SUBSTRATE AND THEN
TRANSFERRED TO THE
SURFACE OF SOAP BUBBLES.
Solar cells can now be made
“A n e w
so thin, light and flex-
ible that they can rest on a
soap bubble. The new cells,
which efficiently capture energy from
light, could offer an alternative way to
power novel electronic devices, such as
medical skin patches, where conventional
energy sources are unsuitable.
“The tremendous developments in
electronic skin for robots, sensors for
flying devices and biosensors to detect
illness are all limited in terms of energy
sources,” says Eloïse Bihar, a postdoc in
the team of Derya Baran, who led the
research. “Rather than bulky batteries
or a connection to an electrical grid, we
thought of using lightweight, ultrathin
organic solar cells to harvest energy from
light, whether indoors or outdoors.”
Instead of ITO, the team printed a
transparent, flexible and conductive poly-
mer called PEDOT:PSS, or poly(3,4-ethyl-
enedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate.
The electrode layers sandwiched a light-
capturing organic photovoltaic material.
The whole device could be sealed within
parylene, a flexible, waterproof and bio-
compatible protective coating.
Although inkjet printing is very amena-
ble to scale up and low-cost manufactur-
ing, “developing the functional links was a
28 Spring 2021
g e n e ra t i o n
o f v e r s a t i l e,
ultralight­w eight
printed solar
cells that can
be used as a
p o w e r s o u r c e.”
challenge,” Corzo notes. “Inkjet printing is
a science on its own,” he says. “The inter-
molecular forces within the cartridge and
the ink need to be overcome to eject very
fine droplets from the very small nozzle.
Solvents also play an important role once
the ink is deposited because the drying
behavior affects the film quality.”
After optimizing the ink composi-
tion for each layer of the device, the solar
cells were printed onto glass to test their
performance. They achieved a power
K AUST DISCOVERY
SOLAR
conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.73 per-
© 2020 KAUST; ANASTASIA SERIN
cent, beating the previous record of 4.1
percent for a fully printed cell. For the
first time, the team also showed that they
could print a cell onto an ultrathin flexible
substrate, reaching a PCE of 3.6 percent.
“Our findings mark a stepping-stone
for a new generation of versatile, ultra-
lightweight printed solar cells that can be
used as a power source or be integrated
into skin-based or implantable medical
devices,” Bihar says.
Until now, ultrathin organic solar cells
were typically made by spin-coating or
thermal evaporation, which are not scal-
able and which limit device geometry. This
technique involved using a transparent
and conductive, but brittle and inflexible,
material called indium tin oxide (ITO) as
an electrode. To overcome these limitations,
the team applied inkjet printing. “We for-
mulated functional inks for each layer of the
solar cell architecture,” says Daniel Corzo, a
Ph.D. student who is also on Baran’s team.
Bihar, E., Corzo, D., Hidalgo, T.C., Rosas-
Villalva, D., Salama, K.N., Inal, S. & Baran,
D. Fully inkjet-printed, ultrathin and
conformable organic photovoltaics as power
source based on cross-linked PEDOT:PSS
electrodes. Advanced Material Technologies
5, 2000226 (2020). | article
di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 29
SOLAR
SHEDDING
LIGHT ON
EFFICIENCY
LOSS IN
ORGANIC
SOLAR CELLS
A deeper understanding of efficiency-limiting processes
provides design rules for organic solar cell materials.
Insight into energy losses that affect the
conversion of light into electricity could
“A c c e p t o r s
help enhance organic solar cell efficien-
have
cies. A KAUST-led team of organic
chemists, materials engineers, spectros-
copists and theoretical physicists from six recently
research groups has extensively evaluated
efficiency-limiting processes in organic
yielded
photovoltaic systems.
To harvest light, cutting-edge organic
solar cells rely on bulk heterojunctions, solar
blends of light-responsive electron donor
and acceptor materials. When light
strikes the heterojunction, the resulting
cells with
excited states are pairs of electrons and
positively charged holes that need to be conversion
separated to create an electric current.
During charge separation, the donor efficiencies
gives electrons to the acceptor and the
acceptor transfers holes to the donor.
Therefore, the efficiency of the solar cells
nearing 20
depends on two key factors: the electron
affinity offset between these materials, p e r c e n t .”
which corresponds to the ability of the
acceptor to gain an electron, driving elec-
tron transfer; and the ionization energy
offset, which represents the propensity of
the donor to release an electron, facilitat-
ing hole transfer.
30 S p r i n g 2 0 21
SOLAR
Nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) have
recently yielded solar cells with conversion
efficiencies nearing 20 percent, outperform-
ing fullerene-based acceptors that had pre-
viously dominated. “Key to these record
efficiencies is the design and synthesis of
materials that combine efficient charge
generation with minimal energy losses,”
explains team leader Frédéric Laquai.
“However, the precise role of the energy
offsets and their related processes is unclear,
which has stalled the development of design
rules for NFA-based systems,” he adds.
To address this, the multidisciplinary
team devised an approach to monitor the
photophysical processes that influence
charge generation in 23 different NFA-
based systems. “With our collaborator
Denis Andrienko from the Max Planck
Institute for Polymer Research in Ger-
many, we developed a concise model that
enabled us to correlate our experimental
observations to physical parameters and
chemical structures,” says research scien-
tist Julien Gorenflot.
The researchers discovered that, con-
trary to recent reports, substantial ioniza-
tion energy offsets were needed to generate
charges. In contrast, electron affinity off-
sets failed to induce charge separation
regardless of their magnitude. These
unexpected findings result from a pro-
cess known as Förster resonance energy
© 2020 KAUST; XAVIER PITA
transfer, which appears to compete with
electron transfer. Postdoc Catherine De
Castro explains that “this is an immediate
consequence of the design principle of the
blends, where donor and acceptor present
overlapping emission and absorption,
which facilitates energy transfer.”
The team plans to design new materi-
als combining enhanced charge genera-
tion efficiencies with lower energy losses.
“This will help reduce the efficiency gap to
other emerging photovoltaic technologies
and bring organic photovoltaics closer to
maturity and application,” Gorenflot says.
Karuthedath, S., Gorenflot, J., Firdaus,
Y., Chaturvedi, N., De Castro, C.S.P.,
et al. Intrinsic efficiency limits in
low-bandgap non-fullerene acceptor
organic solar cells. Nature Materials 20,
378–384 (2021). | article
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 31
SOLAR SOLAR

“T h e s e A BLAST OF GAS
improvements FOR BETTER
will bring SOLAR CELLS
Treating silicon with carbon dioxide gas in
perovskite/ plasma processing brings simplicity and
Polysilicon
control to a key step for making solar cells.
silicon tandem layer

solar cells one

A simple process for depositing silicon
step closer to oxide onto silicon wafers could greatly
advance production of silicon-based
wafers with a thin layer of silicon oxide,
in a chamber filled with carbon dioxide
gas. This new method enables high

t h e m a r ke t .”
solar cells. An important step in the control over the deposition of the
preparation of solar cells is a process silicon oxide layer, which is also more

the ambient temperatures in most areas
where solar cells are deployed are much
higher than the standard 25 degrees
Encapsulated perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells under testing at a KAUST outdoor test facility.
Celsius and can fluctuate dramatically,
called surface passivation. Several
methods can achieve this, but they all
have difficulties and limitations. They
also introduce an additional and costly
fabrication step. Researchers at KAUST
4
stable at high temperatures and Another silicon layer,
ensures high voltages and low which is required for the
electrical resistance. Having fabrication of a solar cell,
is then applied.
demonstrated the basic
technique, the team

TANDEM DEVICES
which affects performance. have developed a less costly method will now consider its
Aydin and his colleagues investigated called plasma processing that enables commercial

3
the performance of perovskite/silicon This allows the
them to passivate the surface of silicon potential.

FEEL THE HEAT

tandem solar cells outdoors in a hot sunny controlled deposition
of an ultrathin silicon
climate. The KAUST team show that while oxide layer.
the silicon bandgap gets smaller as the
Researchers develop a better understanding of how device gets hotter, the perovskite band-
novel solar cells developed in the lab will operate gap gets larger. This shifts the devices

2
away from their ideal operating point
under real conditions. Carbon dioxide is

© 2020 KAUST; XAVIER PITA

and reduces the efficiency of tandem cells heated to form plasma,
optimized at standard test conditions. a low-temperature
Understanding how solar-cell operation generated when a photon is absorbed. In a Encouragingly, this tendency has the effect

changes as it moves from the lab into
the real world is essential for optimizing
their design prior to mass production.
KAUST researchers show how perov­
skite/silicon tandem solar cells function
in a sunny and hot environment.
Silicon dominates commercial solar-
cell production. It is abundant and effi-
cient as a converter of light to electricity.
But recently, perovskites have emerged
as a material with potential for lower
cost fabrication using solution-based
processes. Their properties can be tuned
via changes in chemical composition.
The optical and electronic properties
of a material are linked to its bandgap:
the minimum energy that incoming pho-
tons require to be absorbed. The bandgap
also determines how much current is
conventional solar cell, the light-absorbing
material absorbs only wavelengths of light
with energies above the bandgap, leaving
part of the sun’s energy untapped.
To get the benefits of both the indus-
trial maturity of silicon and the versatility
of perovskite, scientists have investigated
using both materials in a device known as
a tandem solar cell. These have a theoreti-
cal efficiency limit of 44 percent, which
is beyond the 33 percent limit of conven-
tional solar cells.
“One limitation of this tandem configu-
ration is that it was thought that the per-
ovskite bandgap had to be wider than stable
material compositions would allow,” says
the first author of the study, Erkan Aydin.
New solar cells are tested in the labora-
tory under standard test conditions. But
1
ionized gas.
The silicon wafer is Oxygen reacts
of lowering the perovskite bandgap, allow-
placed inside the with silicon
ing more stable perovskite compositions to carbon dioxide surface Silicon
be used in tandem solar cells. gas-filled chamber. oxide layer
“Our research will next focus on push-
ing the power conversion efficiency of Plasma
these devices beyond the highest reported
single-junction silicon solar-cell efficiency
of 26.7 percent with improved stability,”
says Aydin. “These improvements will CO2
bring perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells
one step closer to the market.”
Aydin, E., Allen, T.G., De Bastiani, M., Xu,
L., Ávila, J., Salvador, M., Van Kerschaver, Alzahrani, A., Allen, T.G., De Bastiani, M.,
E. & De Wolf, S. Interplay between Van Kerschaver, E., Harrison, G.T., Liu,
temperature and bandgap energies on W. & De Wolf, S. In situ plasma-grown
the outdoor performance of perovskite/
Surface of silicon-oxide for polysilicon passivating
silicon tandem solar cells. Nature Energy silicon wafer contacts. Advanced Materials Interfaces
5, 851-859 (2020). | article 7, 2000589 (2020). | article

32 S p r i n g 2 0 21 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 33

SOLAR SOLAR

KAUST are developing alternative approaches to TMD

fabrication using surface templates to direct single-crystal
growth.
While analyzing candidates with high-resolution
electron microscopy, researcher Areej Aljarb spotted
something unusual about a semiconductor named gal-
lium trioxide (Ga2O3). After peeling off layers of the flaky
material using sticky tape, she saw arrays of narrow, ter-
race-like ledges that stepped up or down along the entire
Ga2O3 surface.
“The steps are very steep and well exposed,” says Aljarb.

REPRODUCED FROM REFERENCE WITH PERMISSION © 2020 SPRINGER NATURE

“And because the atoms located near the vicinity of these
ledges have asymmetric structures, they can drive growth
in specific directions.”
When the team exposed Ga2O3 surfaces to a mix of
molybdenum and sulfur gas, they observed that TMD
Magnify your
nanoribbons crystallized lengthwise along the ledges with
structures that were practically defect free. Microscopy
opportunities
experiments and theoretical models revealed that the
ledge atoms had unique energetic features that enabled at KAUST
aligned nucleation to form single-crystal nanoribbons.
“For decades, scientists have sought to grow 2D single-
crystal semiconductors on insulators, and this work dem-
onstrates that controlling the ledges of the substrate is the
key,” says Tung.
Intriguingly, the nanoribbons could be pulled off
A P P LY N OW !
and transferred to other substrates without damag-
ing them. To explore potential applications of the
ledge-directed growth technology, the international kaust.edu.sa
group joined together to design a transistor capable of
incorporating nanoribbons from the Ga2O3 template.
Electronic measurements showed the new transistor
could operate at high speeds and had amplification fac-
tors similar to TMD materials produced through more
labor-intensive techniques.
“The nanoribbons grow along the ledges using weak
Molybdenum disulfide reagents (blue and yellow spheres) can assemble into organized nanoribbons using surfaces containing naturally occurring ledges. physical interactions to stay in place, meaning that no
chemical bonds form between the TMD and the underly-

PEEL-APART
ing Ga2O3 substrate,” notes Aljarb. “This unique feature
Semiconductor manufacturers are pay- enables us to transfer the nanoribbons onto foreign sub-
ing more attention to two-dimensional strates for many applications, including transistors, sen-

SURFACES
materials, such as transition metal sors, artificial muscles and atomically thin photovoltaics.”
dichalcogenides (TMDs), following the
discovery at KAUST of an epitaxial growth process of Aljarb, A., Fu, J.-H., Hsu, C.-C., Chuu, C.-P.,

DRIVE
single-crystal TMDs nanoribbons. Wan, Y., et al. Ledge-directed epitaxy of
An emerging trend in transistor design involves continuous, self-aligned and monolayer TMDs
space-saving architectures that stack components

TRANSISTORS
nanoribbons with single crystallinity. Nature
on top of one other. TMDs have potential for these Materials 19, 1300-1306 (2020). | article
systems because they readily form into thin sheets,

TO THE LEDGE
known as nanoribbons, which have electrical, optical
and magnetic activity. However, typical semiconductor AREEJ ALJARB
processes, such as photolithography, require compli- PH.D. STUDENT
Working under the supervision of Vincent
Surfaces featuring atomic-scale ledges cated procedures to produce TMDs of sufficient quality Tung, Aljarb studies directed growth
for device purposes. of 2D materials using chemical vapor
and steps can act as reusable templates for In collaboration with researchers in the U.S., Bel- deposition.
producing nanoelectronic components. gium and Taiwan, Vincent Tung and colleagues at

34 S p r i n g 2 0 21 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 35

environ
ment.
ADAPTING TO
CLIMATE CHANGE
IS BUSINESS
The warm waters of the Red Sea provide an ideal laboratory to study coral
adaptation to climate change. KAUST researchers are investigating the coral
UNUSUAL
As the world seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there exists
a growing need to adapt to the impacts of climate change that are
microbiome as a route to strengthening coral responses.
already occurring. KAUST is developing a suite of options to support
adaptation in an arid country.

© 2021 KAUST: XAVIER PITA

© 2020 MORGAN BENNETT SMITH

In 2020, world leaders at the G20 Riyadh
Summit put adaptation for climate
change firmly on the global agenda. The
recommendations from the meeting
emphasized the need to address
food security, water security and the
importance of synergy between mitigation
and adaptation and nature-based
solutions and ecosystem approaches.
Flanked by the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia
is mostly desert with an arid climate.
Climate projections outline a future of
warming land and sea temperatures,
water stress and desertification. As the
summit host country, Saudi Arabia already
had the G20 priorities covered under the
country’s ambitious Vision 2030. These
priorities are also helping to focus KAUST
research, which is providing science-
based solutions to address climate change
issues. Climate challenges addressed by
KAUST are not unique to Saudi Arabia and
this research will also support adaptation
in other hot dry countries.

K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 37

FE AT URE
Reducing the energy for water supply
The global shortage of water for human
needs is exacerbated by climate change and
the sharp rise in demand for fresh water.
Much of the water supply gap will be filled
by desalination. As an arid country, Saudi
Arabia already sources around 90 percent
of its water supply from groundwater or
desalination plants. Yet desalination, while
part of the climate adaptation solution, is
also part of the climate change problem.
“Desalination can support the water needs
of the population, but it also contributes to
increasing population and urbanization of
coastal areas; plus, it requires substantial
amounts of energy,” explains Johannes
Vrouwenvelder, center director of the Water
Desalination and Reuse Center (WDRC) at
KAUST. “The WDRC aims to reduce energy
consumption and create resources from
waste,” says Vrouwenvelder. “To maximize
the impact of our research, we collaborate
with major players in the Saudi water
industry, such as ACWA Power, the Saline
Water Conversion Corporation and the
National Water Company.”
The most common desalination process
uses reverse osmosis to filter seawater
through a semipermeable membrane. “To
38 S p r i n g 2 0 21
maintain flowthrough, this membrane has
to be kept clean, but, to be sustainable,
this cleaning process must use minimal
energy and chemicals. Rising seawater
temperatures will also increase fouling of
these membranes, adding to the energy and
chemical consumption of the desalination
process,” says Vrouwenvelder. “We are
developing efficient cleaning methods
that allow reuse of the cleaning agent to
minimize the discharge of chemicals.” This
makes the desalination process1 more
resilient to climate change and also reduces
its impact on climate change.
Future agriculture needs to
make more with less
“Water scarcity also affects agriculture in
Saudi Arabia and the entire Gulf region,”
says Simon Krattinger, plant scientist at
the Centre for Desert Agriculture. “By
2040, six of the seven Gulf States will
be among the 10 most water-stressed
countries in the world.”
Water security is just one of many
climate change challenges to food
production. “While some threats such as
droughts, floods and intense storms are
well researched, there is also growing
awareness of more subtle challenges,” says
Krattinger. For example, plant diseases
are shifting their geographical range to
new regions2, now warmer, that are ill
prepared. As Krattinger explains, “plant
breeding programs haven’t previously
needed to consider resistance against these
diseases.” Krattinger’s research group is
working to improve genetic and molecular
understanding of disease resistance in
wheat and barley3 to enable breeders to
rapidly respond to new pathogens as they
emerge.
Krattinger’s team is also applying
genetic and molecular expertise to expand
future crop options. Modern agriculture is
remarkably low in diversity: more than fifty
percent of global calories consumed are
from just three plant species—rice, wheat
and maize—despite more than 30,000
edible species available. The team aims to
domesticate entirely new crops4 that are
better adapted to future climates and can
also make more with less by producing
higher crop yields with fewer resources.
Current techniques can speed up the
domestication process. “Genomics, genome
editing and molecular tools now make it
possible to domesticate wild plants in 10-15
years,” says Krattinger. “We start with wild
plants that are highly adapted to hot, dry
and saline environments and domesticate
them to create new crop species that can be
sustainably grown in harsh environments.”
Results from their current work on the
nutritious fonio millet5 shows promise for
cultivation in dry and arid countries.
Coral reefs get a little help
from microbes
Located on the Red Sea, KAUST is well
placed to study adaptation in marine
ecosystems, such as mangroves,
seagrasses and coral reefs. Mangroves
are known for their ability to store carbon6,
helping to mitigate climate change while
also providing a natural barrier to rising sea
levels and coastal storms to protect urban
areas. Marine flora is also vital for protecting
marine fauna from thermal stress7: in
“We n e e d t o
address food
s e c u r i t y, wa t e r
security
and the
importance
o f s y n e rg y
between
mitigation and
a d a p t a t i o n .”
warming waters, their photosynthesis can
help satisfy increasing oxygen demand of
coastal organisms.
An important climate change event for
coral reefs is coral bleaching, which occurs
following exposure to prolonged periods of
warm water and high nutrient levels. One
group of KAUST researchers has recently
overturned assumptions of the physiology
of the coral holobiont8 during a bleaching
event, which has highlighted the need
to monitor both the nutritional status of
corals and water quality to identify reefs
that are most vulnerable to bleaching. This
work also highlights the importance of a
new line of enquiry for KAUST: the use of
natural probiotics9 for heat-stressed corals
being explored by Raquel Peixoto, a marine
scientist at the Red Sea Research Center,
that could increase coral’s resistance to
stress.
Reef restoration is an emerging option
for supporting recovery of coral reefs;
however, costs and logistics are high.
Peixoto’s group has been investigating if
the use of coral probiotics can also help
accelerate coral growth and resilience
and boost coral reef restoration efforts. In
addition, to reduce project costs and build
community resilience, research scientist
FE AT URE
Sebastian Schmidt-Roach proposes
an ecotourism approach that engages
local communities to undertake coral
gardening10 in key coastal areas.
“Despite the overall higher resilience
observed in the Rea Sea, these reefs are also
threatened by the current pace of global
and local impacts accelerated by human
activities,” says Peixoto. “It is our moral
obligation to quickly explore and understand
the unique resistance traits observed in the
Red Sea to support local adaptation and
conservation of these unique ecosystems
and to generate knowledge that can be
translated into rehabilitation tools to be
applied worldwide.”
1. Sanawar, H. et al. Pilot-scale assessment
of urea as a chemical cleaning agent for
biofouling control in spiral-wound reverse
osmosis membrane elements. Membranes 9,
117 (2019). | article
2. Zaidi, S.SeA. et al. Engineering crops of
the future: CRISPR approaches to develop
climate-resilient and disease-resistant plants.
Genome Biology 21, 289 (2020). | article
3. Walkowiak, S. et al. Multiple wheat genomes
reveal global variation in modern breeding.
Nature 588, 277–283 (2020). | article
4. Jarvis, D.E. et al. The genome of Chenopodium
quinoa. Nature, 542, 307-312 (2017). | article
5. Abrouk, M. et al. Fonio millet
genome unlocks African orphan crop
diversity for agriculture in a changing
climate.” Nature Communications
11, 4488 (2020). | article
6. Saderne, V. et al. Total alkalinity production in
a mangrove ecosystem reveals an overlooked
Blue Carbon component. Limnology and
Oceanography Letters 6, 61-67 (2020). | article
7. Giomi, F. et al. Oxygen supersaturation
protects coastal marine fauna from
ocean warming. Science Advances 5,
eaax1814 (2019). | article
8. Rädecker, N. et al. Heat stress destabilizes
symbiotic nutrient cycling in corals.
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences 118 (2021). | article
9. Peixoto, R. S. et al. Coral probiotics:
Premise, promise, prospects. Annual Review
of Animal Biosciences 9 (2020). | article
10. Schmidt-Roach, S. et al. Beyond reef
restoration: Next-generation techniques
for coral gardening, landscaping, and
outreach. Frontiers in Marine Science 7,
672 (2020). | article
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 39
 SEA CHANGE
Human health Agriculture
may be seriously affected by prolonged exposure will be affected by higher temperatures, more
Communities and infrastructure to higher temperatures, humidity and concentrations drought events and seawater intrusion into

IN THE RED SEA

of airborne particulates due to more frequent farmland.
will be impacted by more frequent and more
sandstorms. Warmer temperatures will also increase More frequent
intense extreme events, such as sandstorms and
the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
Economic activities flooding. sandstorms due
KEY IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE to drier weather
such as fishery and tourism industries will be
affected by damage to marine ecosystems. Dangerously high
ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE Marine ecosystems
temperatures
Crops under
heat stress
Flooding
will be affected by increasing water
temperatures and salinity. Coral reefs will be Heat and salt
The Red Sea plays an important role in Saudi Arabia's climate and is damaged by more frequent bleaching events. resistant crops
vulnerable to climate change, which will have significant environmental, Efficient air
economic and societal impacts in the region. KAUST has several projects conditioning
Erosion
that support a better understanding of climate change and adaptation to
Impact on fishing Solar tower
its impacts. promotes ventilation
Bleached Cultivation
coral reef
of new crops and new varieties of
existing crops that are better adapted
for drier, more saline conditions to
improve food security.
COASTLINE WITHOUT
Sea wall Abundant shelter
Gulf of Aqaba ADAPTATION MEASURES
IMPLEMENTED from the sun

NEOM

Suez Gulf
Solar-powered water
CO2 capture desalination plant

SAUDI
Yanbu ARABIA
Marine economic
R

activities Healthy
coral reef
E

Mangroves and seagrass meadows Urbanized areas

D

Jeddah can capture and store the greenhouse with architectural solutions that
The fluorecence of corals promote cooling and are fitted with
Water desalination
gas carbon dioxide and can protect
COASTLINE WITH can be used to gauge their coasts by increasing sedimentation and air conditioning units that produce practices that are more efficient and
ADAPTATION MEASURES health under heat stress reducing wave energy. less heat and use less energy. less fossil fuel dependent.
IMPLEMENTED
S
E
A

KEEPING UP WITH MODELING TOOLS THAT HELP US

RISING SEA LEVELS PREPARE FOR EXTREME WEATHER
Jizan
Mangroves
Sea level rise 50% reduction in
AREAS AT RISK DUE TO Warm air Cloud
0.17cm/year wave height
CLIMATE CHANGE from the city formation Intense
Coral reefs rainfall
High risk can protect coastal areas by Moist air
dissipating wave energy. Reefs from the sea
Medium risk Rate of mangrove sediment Coral reef Seawall
can be made more resilient by accumulation equal to or faster Flash flood
Low risk selecting heat-resistant genotypes than the rate of sea level rise.
Gulf of Aden and by removing other pressures.
Computer models of the Red Sea reveal that coral reefs Numerical models used to study flash floods in Jeddah have
SOURCE: HEREHER, M.E. VULNERABILITY Mangroves and seagrass meadows trap sediment, elevating the reduce wave height by 50%, which is helpful for planning revealed that urban areas receive about 25% more rain than
ASSESSMENT OF THE SAUDI ARABIAN RED
SEA COAST TO CLIMATE CHANGE.
seabed at a rate equivalent to sea level rise. and adapting coastal infrastructure. the surrounding desert.
ENVIRON EARTH SCI 75, 30 (2016)

40 Spring 2021 ART AND DESIGN: XAVIER PITA

SOURCES: CARLOS DUARTE, IBRAHIM HOTEIT. KAUST 2021

G20 LEADS IN CLIMATE
CHANGE TRANSITION
POST-COVID
Specializing in developing transition paths for more sustainable
economies, Noura Y. Mansouri considers the G20’s crucial role in
achieving climate and sustainable energy goals.
Pandemic-related cancellations of
global leadership events have dis-
“T h e c i r c u l a r
rupted the momentum of interna-
tional coordination and cooperation.
The UN Climate Change Conference
COP26 and the UN Biodiversity Con-
ference COP15 were both postponed
to 2021, leaving little room for effec-
tive multilateralism in climate change
and environment agendas. The G20
platform is crucially filling this gap.
The world is not currently on
track to meet the United Nation’s
Sustainable Development Goal 7
that aims to “ensure access to afford-
able, reliable and modern energy for
all by 2030.” It is also behind sched-
ule on meeting the Paris Agreement
and Sustainable Development Goal
13 on climate action. Some coun-
tries argue for more emphasis on
a general global reduction in the
use of hydrocarbon fuels. However,
while alternative energy sources
are expanding, the world continues
to rely on hydrocarbons for most
of its energy needs, driving both
FE AT URE
economic and social development.
Under the Saudi G20 presidency,
Saudi Arabia proposed the circu-
lar carbon economy (CCE)—now
endorsed by all G20 governments—
as a holistic, integrated, inclusive
and pragmatic approach to man-
aging emissions. Encompassing a
broad range of potential pathways
and options, the CCE advocates the
three Rs of environmentalism—
reduce, reuse and recycle carbon,
while adding a fourth R, remove—to
eliminate emissions from the atmos-
phere. The CCE can contribute to
climate mitigation with actions that
improve energy efficiency, boost
renewable and nuclear energy use,
and incorporate carbon capture
and storage technologies. It can also
carbon contribute to climate adaptation by
implementing afforestation, sup-
economy can porting a blue carbon economy and
building sustainable infrastructure.
Since 1990, hydrocarbons have
contribute continued to provide 82 percent of
the G20’s energy supply. G20 mem-
to climate
ber countries must reduce carbon
accumulation in the atmosphere
for the planet to stay below the Paris
mitigation and Agreement’s warming thresholds.
There has been significant progress
in transitioning to cleaner energy
a d a p t a t i o n .” systems, such as increasing the share
of renewables or nuclear energy in
the mix, and also in improving the
energy efficiency of the supply and
demand sides. However, there remain
significant problems in mitigating
greenhouse gas emissions, particu-
larly in sectors such as oil, gas, pet-
rochemicals, aluminum, iron, steel,
cement and heavy transport. Com-
bined, these contribute 37 percent of
 FE AT URE
Vice President for Research, Professor Donal Bradley, addresses an audience of national partners during the launch of KAUST’s Circular Carbon Initiative.
“Po s t - p a n d e m i c
global carbon dioxide emissions.
To achieve the Paris Agreement’s tar-
get, we need these industries to imple-
economic ment policies and actions that support
transition to cleaner energy systems.
recovery Coordinated G20 efforts are vital to this
goal. Post-pandemic economic recovery
stimulus packages, especially hydrocarbon
stimulus bailouts, need to be built around a circu-
lar carbon economy framework. Carbon
management initiatives must be integrated
packages,
into post-COVID-19 green/sustainable
stimulus packages that aim to address
especially societal and environmental concerns
while stimulating economic prosperity for
a more inclusive and sustainable future.
hydrocarbon The G20 presents an ideal forum for
initiating and advancing the concept of
bailouts, the CCE as part of the global COVID-19
recovery agenda. The CCE would support
the development of carbon management
need to be technologies that allow industry to con-
tinue to drive economic development. It
also presents a framework that seeks to
built around a
extract value from carbon rather than per-
ceiving it solely as a negative externality.
circular carbon One of the G20 engagement groups
called the Think20, or T20, called for a
renewed commitment to climate change
economy by embracing all mitigation technology
options to progress sustainability. T20
f ra m e w o r k .”
Saudi Arabia called on G20 governments
to utilize the CCE approach by supporting
42 S p r i n g 2 0 21
a broad range of carbon management
technologies as well as nature-based solu-
tions, embracing collaboration across
heavy and hard-to-abate industries and
ramping up efforts for global markets to
include low-carbon energy options.
The T20 2020 Communiqué for G20
governments included key recommen-
dations on climate change and the envi-
ronment. Some of these appeared in the
G20 Leaders’ Declaration, including the
endorsement of the CCE by G20 coun-
tries. By encompassing the broad range
of pathways and options available, the
CCE considers different national cir-
cumstances while striving to meet our
shared global aspirations. The G20
represents the world’s most powerful
economies. Using this power, we could
collectively utilize the circular carbon
economy for a more inclusive, resilient
and sustainable future.
Noura Y. Mansouri is co-chair of the
climate change, sustainable energy and
environment task force for Think 20 (T20),
an engagement group for G20 Italy 2021.
She was the lead co-chair of the climate
change and environment task force for T20
Saudi Arabia 2020. She is a research fellow
at King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and
Research Center (KAPSARC), Saudi Arabia,
and a visiting scholar at MIT.
BETTER COMMUNICATION
HELPS TRANSLATE
MOLECULAR TOOLS
Multistakeholder collaboration is key for the adoption of
molecular approaches that can facilitate accurate, cheaper
and faster monitoring of marine ecosystems.
To effectively develop, test, validate and standardize novel monitoring tools, researchers and
policymakers need to establish a robust, solid network.
A sustained dialogue must
be established between
molecular ecologists,
policymakers and other
stakeholders to support adoption of DNA-
based approaches for marine monitoring
and assessment, according to KAUST
scientists and colleagues.
“New tools that could solve major challenges
in this field are not getting the attention
they deserve,” claims molecular ecologist
Eva Aylagas. “This is because researchers,
policymakers and other stakeholders involved
in marine environmental management tend to
act independently.”
DNA barcoding and metabarcoding are
molecular techniques used to identify
species by comparing small fragments of
their DNA against a reference database.
Traditionally, assessing the health of a
marine ecosystem involves identifying
organisms from samples based on their
morphological characteristics. This
requires specialized taxonomy skills and is
time consuming and very expensive. DNA
barcoding and metabarcoding could save
monitoring programs both time and money.
Aylagas and colleagues used lessons from
several projects to propose a roadmap for
developing meaningful collaboration between
stakeholders in order to implement molecular
approaches into marine monitoring.
In New Zealand, for example, DNA
metabarcoding was tested for monitoring
the impacts of extensive aquaculture farms
on the surrounding marine environment.
Aquaculture can cause environmental
damage when organic matter accumulates
from fish excretions and uneaten food,
creating toxic conditions in the aquaculture
facility but also causing low-oxygen conditions
for organisms in the marine sediment.
The New Zealand government
collaborated with monitoring agencies,
industry and researchers to compare
traditional and DNA-based approaches for
K AUST DISCOVERY
FE AT URE
monitoring marine sediment in the vicinity
of a large number of aquaculture farms in
different regions.
Direct involvement from the outset
between aquaculture farmers and relevant
government agencies was critical in
developing a protocol that suited all parties.
“The approach provided more reliable,
faster and ultimately cheaper results
than the methods previously used,” says
co-author and marine ecologist Susana
Carvalho. “DNA metabarcoding will soon
be established in environmental legislation
in New Zealand for routinely monitoring
aquaculture activities.”
In Europe, the DEVOTES project
developed innovative tools and indicators
to assess the impacts of human activities on
marine biodiversity. Several stakeholders
compared traditional taxonomic methods
with DNA metabarcoding approaches
for monitoring macroinvertebrates, such
as crustaceans and worms, in marine
© 2020 KAUST; XAVIER PITA
sediment. The diversity of these organisms
is considered a robust indicator of marine
ecosystem health. DNA metabarcoding
yielded very positive results, which led to
the technique being proposed for improving
ecological assessments in Europe.
“The main lesson from these projects is the
need for robust and solid networking between
researchers and policymakers to effectively
develop, test, validate and standardize novel
monitoring tools,” says Aylagas.
KAUST’s researchers and colleagues
recommend a roadmap that encourages
interaction, engagement, communication
and commitment. They also stress the need
for decision framing for molecular methods
to be integrated for routine use.
KAUST researchers are now working with
government representatives and other
stakeholders from the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia on the potential of DNA-based tools to
enhance marine monitoring in the Red Sea.
Aylagas, E., Borja, A., Pochon, X., Zaiko, A.,
Keeley, N., Bruce, K., Hong, P., Ruiz, G.M.,
Stein, E.D., Theroux, S., Geralid, N., Ortega, A.,
Gajdzik, L., Coker, D.J., Katan, Y., Hikmawan,
T., Saleem, A., Alamer, S., Jones, B.H., Duarte,
C.M., Pearman, J. & Carvalho, S. Translational
molecular ecology in practice: Linking
DNA-based methods to actionable marine
environmental management. Science of the
Total Environment 744, 140780 (2020). | article
di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 43
FE AT URE FE AT URE

VOLCANIC

© 2020 KAUST; ANASTASIA SERIN

severe weather events. To evaluate these from Princeton University, U.S., to run
risks, it is essential to have proper pro- the CM2.1 climate model using KAUST’s

ERUPTIONS
jections and predictions of future ENSO supercomputer.
behavior.” “After running more than 6,000 climate

HAVE A
Climate modeling indicates that the simulations covering nearly 20,000 model
THE PLUME FROM
AN ERUPTING ENSO is very sensitive to external per- years and analyzing the data,” says Predy-
VOLCANO CAN turbations, such as increased carbon baylo, “we found that the ENSO response

BIGGER
REACH UP TO 45 dioxide in the atmosphere or volcanic to stratospheric volcanic eruptions
KILOMETERS INTO
eruptions. Even though major volcanic strongly depends on the seasonal timing
THE ATMOSPHERE

IMPACT IN
ABOVE. eruptions, like the Mount Pinatubo erup- of the eruption and the state of the atmos-
tion in 1991, are known to have caused phere and ocean in the Pacific at the time.”
widespread cooling due to the reflection In particular, the research showed that

SUMMER
The butterfly effect:
KAUST’s model shows
how volcanic eruptions
Modeling shows that can disrupt global
climate by affecting
volcanic eruptions can cause the El Niño Southern
changes in global climate, if Oscillation.
the timing is right.
of solar radiation, such effects have been
difficult to prove by modeling.
“There was previously no modeling
consensus on how the Pacific Ocean
responds to such climatologically large
volcanic eruptions, with climate models
predicting diverse and often contradic-
tory responses,” says Sergey Osipov from
the research team.
Because the tropical Pacific climate is
itself highly variable, the modeling needs
to be performed carefully to separate the
eruption-driven ocean response from
random variations. This requires a large
number of climate simulations using a
model that can simulate both the radiative
impact of volcanic eruptions and a realis-
tic ENSO cycle. To achieve this, the team
collaborated with Andrew Wittenberg
even very large eruptions seem to have
little discernible effect on the ENSO in
winter or spring, while summer erup-
tions almost always produce a strong
climate response.
“The principles and techniques devel-
oped in our study could also be applied
to various types of observational data
and multimodel studies of future climate
change, including the effects of global
warming,” says Predybaylo.
Predybaylo, E., Stenchikov, G.,
Wittenberg, A. & Osipov, S. El Niño/
Southern Oscillation response to low-
latitude volcanic eruptions depends
on ocean pre-conditions and eruption
timing. Communications Earth &
Environment 1, 12 (2020). | article

Detailed modeling of the

effect of volcanic eruptions
on the El Niño Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) has
shown that the climate response to these
events depends on the timing of the
eruption and the preceding conditions.
The research, led by KAUST researchers
Evgeniya Predybaylo and Georgiy Sten-
chikov, settles a long-standing debate
about the role of volcanic eruptions in
global climate perturbations.
“The ENSO is a feature of the tropical
Pacific Ocean climate, with patterns of
temperature, precipitation and wind that
oscillate between warmer El Niño and
cooler La Niña phases every two to seven
years,” explains Predybaylo. “Due to the
vast size of the tropical Pacific, the ENSO
controls the climate in many other parts of
the globe and is responsible for droughts,
floods, hurricanes, heat waves and other

44 Spring 2021 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 45


Ecologists are
comparing data on social media. When Carlos Duarte, distinguished
to determine the professor at KAUST, noticed the rising reports of unu-
effect of reduced
sual animal behavior, he launched the PAN-Environ-
human activity
during lockdowns ment project to connect international researchers
on animal studying the ecological impacts of lockdowns.
movemement.
“Our aim is to use this serendipitous global human
confinement experiment to assess the effects of human
activity on biodiversity and ecosystems at a global
scale,” says Duarte, who leads the project alongside
Amanda Bates, a marine ecologist at the Memorial
© 2020 MORGAN BENNETT-SMITH
University of Newfoundland, and Richard Primack,
an ecologist at Boston University.
Abundant anecdotal evidence during the lock-
downs—jackals prowling parks in Tel Aviv, monkeys
ruling empty roads in India, a beaver window-shop-
ping in Berlin—suggests that animals took advantage
of the absence of humans. But warning signs also
showed some species could be at risk as more people
descended upon green spaces or began hunting and
foraging for their own food. Duarte’s team recognized
the need for a quantitative scientific investigation.
Most endeavors to measure humanity’s impact on
animals have focused either on changes over space—
how biodiversity differs between protected and unpro-
tected areas, for example—or over time—how wildlife
in one area responds to short- or long-term changes
in human activity. The COVID-19 pandemic created
similar perturbations around the world as many coun-
tries imposed similar strict protective measures.
PAN-Environment is gathering global data from
diverse sources so ecologists can compare animal
behavior before, during and after lockdown, as well
as between sites with different levels of restrictions,
and compare with results from remote or inaccessible
“control” sites. This should reveal if reduced human
activity really did enable animals to expand their
ranges and increase their numbers, and if the lack
of conservation efforts left more endangered species
exposed.
It is also an opportunity to assess the strengths and
weaknesses of existing observation systems and use
the findings to improve biodiversity conservation.
LOCKDOWNS When most of the world went into lockdown to limit
the spread of COVID-19, ecologists realized that these
Organizing a global research effort amidst lock-
down restrictions presents many challenges. “Coor-
UNLOCK ECOLOGY tragic circumstances presented a unique opportunity
to study how the presence, or absence, of humans
dinating large teams around the world is tricky when
you cannot meet,” says Duarte, “Fortunately, KAUST
RESEARCH
affects biodiversity. sits in a convenient time zone between East and West,
The freedom to travel and transport goods by land, air enabling me to do so.”
or sea has underpinned social and economic progress, However, with most researchers in confinement,
POTENTIAL yet has been costly to the natural world, destroying habi-
tats and contributing to climate change. In April 2020, an
the team could not keep up observations, making it
difficult to get robust data sets. “This is where big data
National lockdowns have provided a unique estimated 4.4 billion people experienced a full or partial approaches can help reduce uncertainties,” he adds.
opportunity to assess the effects of human national lockdown, compelled to severely limit their Duarte’s team called upon environmental and citi-
movements. And the natural world expanded its reach. zen scientists, such as the Bio-Logging Initiative, fel-
activity on wildlife, which could translate into As people remained in their homes, wildlife showed low biologists and ecologists, and owners of human
new attitudes and better policies. up in unexpected places, with many sightings shared mobility data to provide open and rapid access to
46 S p r i n g 2 0 21
FE AT URE
their observations. 1, 2 By combining diverse data
sources, including traditional wildlife surveys and
anecdotes, animal tracking devices, remote sensing,
social media and geolocated photographs, they hope
to gather sufficient real-time data to inform immedi-
ate conservation actions.
Anecdotal evidence has already revealed some
positives. As industrial activities ceased, air and
water quality improved; for instance, daily global car-
bon dioxide emissions fell by 17 percent at the start of
lockdown. Noise pollution also decreased, which may
explain animal sightings in harbors and cities.
However, the loss of ecotourism in protected areas
could cut funding for wildlife protection and anti­
poaching programs, while canceled biodiversity confer-
ences will delay policies destined to help nations reach
the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The lockdown has shown that monumental
changes in human behavior are possible, which
challenges the notion that the large-scale societal
changes needed to combat global crises, such as cli-
mate change, are impossible to achieve.
Duarte’s team recommend a rapid return to con-
servation research and education (with pandemic-
appropriate safety measures) that prioritize species
recovery and habitat protection. “Humanity’s role as
custodians of nature is impacted when our ability to
remain active is impaired,” says Duarte. He is opti-
mistic that their work will benefit both humans and
animals. “As we move on from COVID-19, lessons
from PAN-Environment will help us balance our role
in the biosphere,” he says. “Limiting activities that
negatively impact wildlife, while promoting those
that benefit the natural world, will ultimately feed
back into healthier lives.”
For now, there are vast volumes of data to pro-
cess, publish and act upon. “What we learn from this
experiment could transform the way humans relate
to the species we share the planet with,” says Duarte.
From this unforgettable crisis, people may redis-
cover the benefits of a healthy environment and, as
the team concludes2, “replace a sense of owning with
a sense of belonging.”
1. Bates, A.E., Primack, R.B., Moraga, P. & Duarte,
C.M. COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown
as a “Global Human Confinement Experiment” to
investigate biodiversity conservation. Biological
Conservation 248, 108665 (2020). | article
2. Rutz, C., Loretto, M-C., Bates, A.E., Davidson, S.C.,
Duarte, C M., Jetz, W., Johnson, M., Kato, A., Kays,
R., Mueller, T., Primack, R.B., Ropert-Coudert, Y. &
Tucker, M.A., Wikelski, M. & Cagnacci, F. Comment:
COVID-19 lockdown allows researchers to quantify
the effects of human activity on wildlife. Nature
Ecology and Evolution 4, 1156-1159 (2020). | article
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 47
FE AT URE
NEW SPIN
An intrinsically porous polymer with a
very high internal surface area could be
an ideal material for soaking up spilled
BRINGS RAPID oil. Researchers from KAUST have
identified a polymer that can be formed into robust,
RESCUE FROM
reusable mats to rapidly adsorb spilled oil, fuel or
organic solvents from the surface of fresh or salt water.
“Oil spills remain a global threat to marine habi-
OIL SPILLS
High-capacity oil-adsorbing mats could
tats, human health and livelihoods,” says Gyorgy Sze-
kely, who led the research. “Even though most spilled
oil floats on the water surface, a small percentage
of the oil is dispersed naturally in water, affecting
be deployed in oil spill emergencies to the marine ecosystem, including fish and plankton,”
Szekely says. “Such ecological disasters have led to a
limit ecological damage.
great need to discover high-performance sorbents
48 S p r i n g 2 0 21
“O i l s p i l l s
remain a global
threat to marine
habitats, human
health and
l i v e l i h o o d s .”
for rapid and high-efficiency cleanup
from the sea surface.”
To develop a more effective oil-adsor-
bent material, the team exploited a poly-
mer called 6FDA-TrMPD, which has
two key features important for soaking
up spilled oil. “Our materials—unlike
most other materials reported for the
cleanup of oil spills—are intrinsically
porous,” explains Fuat Topuz, a postdoc
on Szekely’s team. The team used a pro-
cess called electrospinning to convert a
solution of the polymer into robust mats,
which incorporated an extensive network
of pores within the polymer’s fibrous
The research
team’s testing
showed that the
structure, creating a vast surface area of
565 square meters per gram of material
for adsorbing oil.
Secondly, the polymer’s molecular
material could
rapidly and
structure incorporated water-repellent
trifluoromethyl groups, which caused
efficiently clean up
oil spills on water. the material’s adsorptive properties to
K AUST DISCOVERY
FE AT URE
AN ESTIMATED
1 MILLION METRIC
TONS OF OIL ARE
RELEASED INTO THE
WORLD’S OCEANS
ANNUALLY.
reject water while strongly soaking up
nonpolar liquids, such as oil floating
on the water’s surface.
In testing, the material could rap-
idly and efficiently clean up oil spills
on water. Within a few minutes of their
deployment, the mats adsorbed spills
with a capacity of between 25 and 56
grams of oil, or nonpolar solvent, per
gram of polymer. “The sorption per-
formance of the material is much bet-
ter than many reported adsorbents,
and the materials could be recycled
and reused with similar performance,
demonstrating their great potential for
cleanup of oil spills and nonpolar sol-
vents,” Topuz says.
“In our next step, we will process
these materials further to create mem-
branes and fibrous sponges to make
easily recoverable adsorbents while
preserving their high performance,”
Szekely says. The team is also devel-
oping adsorbent materials made from
sustainably sourced polymers and
expanding the range of pollutants that
the materials can capture to include
removing organic micropollutants and
heavy metals from water.
© 2020 KAUST; XAVIER PITA
Topuz, F, Abdulhamid, M.A., Nunes,
S.P. & Szekely, G. Hierarchically porous
electrospun nanofibrous mats produced
from intrinsically microporous fluorinated
polyimide for the removal of oils and
non-polar solvents. Environmental Science
Nano 7, 1365-1372 (2020). | article
di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 49
FE AT URE FE AT URE

RED SEA TURTLE

© 2020 MORGAN BENNETT SMITH

HATCHLINGS ARE
FEELING THE HEAT
The balance of the sexes in marine turtle hatchlings may be disrupted by
high sand temperatures at nesting sites around the Red Sea.

Understanding the environmental threats to Red Sea turtles, such as plastic and heavy metal
pollution, is critical to the success of conservation strategies.

“M a r i n e t u r t l e s determination, meaning that the sex of

hatchlings is determined by the tempera-
the exception of Small Gobal Island in
the northern Red Sea. These results sug-
ture of the nest during incubation,” says gest that feminization of hatchlings could
EACH SEA TURTLE
are particularly Lyndsey Tanabe, a Ph.D. student investi- already be occurring.
CLUTCH COMPRISES gating the nesting ecology and conserva- “We must be cautious in claiming
ABOUT 100 EGGS,
BUT ONLY ABOUT 1 IN v u l n e ra b l e t o tion strategies of marine turtles, under the
supervision of Michael Berumen.
that feminization is definitely happen-
ing,” says Tanabe. “The Red Sea is gener-
1,000 SURVIVES TO
The Red Sea is home to five out of seven ally warmer than other nesting beaches
ADULTHOOD.
t e m p e ra t u r e species of sea turtles, with endangered around the world, so these turtles may
green turtles and critically endangered have already adapted to a higher pivotal
shifts hawksbill turtles nesting along its coast-
lines. Current research suggests that the
temperature threshold. It is concerning,
however, that sand temperatures as high

because they
pivotal temperature to maintain a 50:50
sex ratio is 29.2 degrees Celsius, above
which hatchlings are predominantly
d e m o n s t ra t e female. Temperatures above 33 degrees
Celsius can cause hatchling deformities
as 36 degrees Celsius were measured at
some sites. This could pose a consider-
able threat to their survival.”
Tanabe’s findings will contribute
to ongoing national consultations on

t e m p e ra t u r e - and even mass mortality.

“Marine turtles have survived since
marine conservation, particularly in
light of the proposed megadevelop-
the late Triassic period and have adapted ments along Red Sea coasts. “I hope

Making a dash for

d e p e n d e n t s ex
d e t e r m i n a t i o n .”
it: a turtle hatchling
emerges from the
sand along the Red
Sea coast.
Analyses by KAUST researchers of sand
temperatures at marine turtle nesting sites
around the Red Sea indicate that turtle
hatchlings born in the region could now be
predominantly female. These findings hold
significant implications for the survival
of marine turtle species as temperature
increases take hold, driven by anthropo-
genic climate change.
“Marine turtles are particularly vulner-
able to temperature shifts because they
demonstrate temperature-dependent sex
to past climatic shifts,” says Tanabe. “The
current rate of anthropogenic-driven tem-
perature change is unprecedented.”
“We examined sand temperature pro-
files at Red Sea nesting sites to improve our
understanding of the current turtle popu-
lation,” explains Tanabe.
The team selected five sites distrib-
uted across the region that are favored by
hawksbill and green turtles. Automated
data loggers collected sand temperature
data at the nest depths of both species
every 15 minutes for five months (May
to September 2018, corresponding to the
presumed nesting season).
The sand temperature exceeded 29.2
degrees Celsius at all study sites, with
these development projects prioritize
the conservation of turtle nesting sites,
especially those likely to produce bal-
anced sex ratios,” she says.
Tanabe is also studying turtle popula-
tion dynamics and genetics, and threats
such as plastic and heavy metal pollution.
She notes that understanding these fac-
tors is critical to the success of conserva-
tion strategies.
Tanabe, L.K., Ellis, J., Elsadek, I. &
Berumen, M.L. Potential feminization of
Red Sea turtle hatchlings as indicated
by in situ sand temperature profiles.
Conservation Science and Practice 2,
e266 (2020). | article

50 Spring 2021 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 51

FE AT URE
CLOUD
SIMULATIONS
GET A DOSE OF
REALISM
A focus on the fundamental physics of cloud
formation leads to highly realistic simulations of
different types of clouds.
A cloud simulation
that captures the
“O u r m a i n
development and
evolution of clouds
based on atmospheric physical
processes is more accurate than
other models.
“Our model describes atmospheric
conditions and thermodynamic
processes as well as the fluid
dynamics that govern the motion of
air in the atmosphere,” says Torsten
Hädrich, a KAUST Ph.D. student in
the international research team.
“This allows us to simulate cloud
phenomena more realistically
compared with previous methods.”
The model can take known
atmospheric information at any time—
such as temperature, humidity and
wind—and simulate cloud formation,
52 S p r i n g 2 0 21
which can be used for “nowcasting” of
imminent cloud phenomena.
“For example, our model is able to simulate
the formation of cumulonimbus clouds by
considering varying temperature gradients
in the atmosphere,” says Hädrich. “The
gradients lead to temperature inversions
at certain altitudes, which are responsible
for the characteristic flattened top of
cumulonimbus clouds. We can also model
different types of supercell thunderstorms,
which has not been addressed previously.”
The model was developed by KAUST’s
Hädrich and Dominik Michels in
collaboration with researchers from
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland,
the University of New Mexico in the U.S.
and Google AI.
To create the model, the team had to
challenge
resolve a number of physical processes,
such as condensation and evaporation,
and the complex interplay of physical
wa s t h e n t o quantities, such as temperature and
humidity, within the simulation.
determine which “Our main challenge was then
to determine which parameters
contribute to the formation of specific
p a ra m e t e r s cloud types. We were able to define the
physical parameters in our simulation
contribute to in such a way that we can create
specific cloud formations without
specific knowledge,” Hädrich says.
the formation
Hädrich, T., Makowski, M., Palubicki,
of specific W., Banuti, D., Pirk, S. & Michels, D.
Stormscapes: Simulating cloud dynamics
c l o u d t y p e s .”
in the now. ACM Transactions on Graphics
39, 175 (2020). | article
FE AT URE
CAULIFLOWER
transposable elements—than closely related corals. This might
© 2020 KAUST; HAGEN GEGNER
be indicative of a radiation of the genus, which is consistent
with the species’ broad distribution in geography and depth.
CORAL GENOME The researchers also looked at the proportion of genes
without introns, a typical signature of genes that were
SEQUENCED
acquired through horizontal gene transfer. The proportion
was similar to that in another Pocillopora coral and signifi-
cantly greater than in a coral of a different genus. It is cur-
A newly sequenced coral genome offers tools rently not known what these genes are for.
With the genome revealed, researchers can now investi-
to understand environmental adaptation. gate these and other patterns and work to understand the
evolutionary history of these corals. Figuring out how they
The sequencing of the genome of the cauliflower coral, have adapted to conditions in the Red Sea may point toward
Pocillopora verrucosa, by an international team provides ways to support corals to cope with the pressures of climate
a resource that scientists can use to study how corals have change. “With a sequenced genome, you’re not working
adapted to different environmental conditions. blindly,” says Buitrago-López. “It will help to figure out where
The cauliflower coral, also known as brush or lace coral, is we should focus our attention.”
one of the most popular corals in research because it is found
throughout the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Buitrago-López, C., Mariappan, K., Cardenas,
Ocean. “Having the genome will help us understand the A., Gegner, H.M. & Voolstra, C.R. The
genetic basis underlying the species’ adaptation to different genome of the cauliflower coral Pocillopora
environmental conditions,” says Carol Buitrago-López, a Ph.D. verrucosa. Genome Biology and Evolution 12,
student supervised by Christian R. Voolstra, “which might 1911-1917 (2020). | article
shine light on how corals could
respond to global warming.”
Buitrago-López was seek-
ing a sequenced cauliflower
coral genome for use in popula-
tion genomics studies of corals
throughout the Red Sea. The hab-
itat gradient in Red Sea waters
means corals have adapted or
acclimated to different condi-
tions, such as variations in tem-
perature, salinity and nutrients.
After researchers compared
populations to identify sites in
the genome linked with these
adaptations, the next step was
to determine what those differ-
ences meant. A reference genome
is invaluable in this process. “It’s
very helpful to know where spe-
cific genes are or to figure out
which genes are under selection,”
says Buitrago-López.
The team’s analysis predicted
about 27,500 genes based on
information from about 50,000
transcripts used for subsequent
gene modeling, which is com-
parable to genomes from closely
related corals. However, the
cauliflower coral genome has a
higher percentage of repetitive KAUST researchers compared populations of cauliflower corals to
elements—in particular, more identify sites in the genome linked with adaptations.
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 53
 BIOSCIENCE

ENZYME then tested how efficiently the end-product could alter

human stem cells.

BIOFACTORIES
The researchers showed that their yeast- and silk-
worm-derived FTVI far outperformed commercial
sources of the enzyme made in standard expression sys-

TO ENHANCE
tems. “Now, these enzymes can be used ex vivo on stem
cells to enhance their migration toward the bone marrow
during a transplant,” Merzaban says.

CORD BLOOD Alternatively, researchers could take advantage of

the new yeast- and silkworm-produced FTVI for drug

TRANSPLANTS
screening efforts. First author of the study Asma Al-
Amoodi points out that many metastatic cancers exhibit
enhanced activity of FTVI and similar enzymes. “We
could envision using such enzymes to screen for small
Stem cell trafficking to the bone marrow is molecule inhibitors that block metastasis,” she says.

© 2020 KAUST; HENO HWANG

improved by an enzyme manufactured in
silkworms and yeast. Al-Amoodi, A.S., Sakashita, K., Ali, A.J., Zhou,
R., Lee, J.M., Tehseen, M., Li, M., Belmonte,
J.C.I., Kusakabe, T. & Merzaban, J.S. Using
eukaryotic expression systems to generate
human α1,3-fucosyltransferases that effectively

wat
create selectin-binding glycans on stem cells.
Biochemistry 59, 3757-3771 (2020). | article
A new way of producing an enzyme called fucosyltransferase VI
(FTVI) in the lab could help enhance the therapeutic potential
of cord blood transplants. ASMA AL-AMOODI
PH.D. STUDENT
Cord blood is currently used to treat more than 80 life-threat-
Working in Jasmeen Merzaban’s group,
ening conditions, ranging from cancer and immune deficiency Al-Amoodi focuses on understanding the
to metabolic and genetic disorders. The therapy is predicated migration mechanisms of hematopoietic
on the idea that stem cells in the cord blood will traffic to the stem cells through blood circulation.
Specifically, she studies adhesion
bone marrow, where they can help rebuild a healthy blood and systems on rare blood stem cell
immune system that has been damaged by disease. But cord populations derived from bone marrow

er.
blood stem cells are not naturally adept at this process, which and umbilical cord blood.
is why several drugmakers have turned to FTVI as a way of
enhancing the cells’ homing ability.
FTVI is an enzyme involved in tagging cells with sugar mol-
ecules in a way that alters migration patterns in the body. In
clinical trials, cord blood stem cells treated with FTVI showed
enhanced engraftment following infusion into cancer patients.
Yet most commercial sources of FTVI available today have only
limited enzymatic activity. Plus, they tend to be made
using various expression systems that either
produce enzymes with low activity or are
costly and generate low yields.
Seeking a better manufactur-
ing platform, a team led by
Jasmeen Merzaban at KAUST
engineered yeast cells and
silkworm larvae to express
the human version of FTVI.
Working with collaborators
in Japan, KAUST research-
ers from several teams came
To support adaptation to a changing climate, KAUST together to devise a purifica-
tion scheme for obtaining the
researchers are engineering specialized membranes to enzyme at high yields. They
The researchers showed that their yeast- and silkworm-derived enzyme far outperformed commercial sources of
the enzyme made in standard expression systems.
reduce the energy required to desalinate and reuse water.
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 55

GENETIC
An African millet crop could
be improved for growth in
the dry, arid lands of Saudi
“I m p r o v e m e n t s
GAINS FOR
Arabia by using information
about its genome. Fonio is already well
adapted to this environment but has not
BETTER
had as much domestication as the major
cereal crops, such as wheat, rice and
maize. Gene targeting could lead to higher
yields and larger grains.
GRAINS
“The Arabian Peninsula is home to 80
million people and needs to import 90
percent of its food,” says KAUST plant
A nutritious millet crop grown mainly in West Africa
scientist Simon Krattinger, who led the
study. “The major cereal crops that
could be genetically improved for large-scale provide 50 percent of our daily calories
agriculture in Saudi Arabia. cannot be grown sustainably in this region
due to a lack of fresh water, poor soils and
high temperatures. Fonio is an amazing
nutritious plant that thrives in dry and
56 S p r i n g 2 0 21
Gene targeting of fonio
millet could lead to higher
yields and larger grains.
hot regions with poor soils. Our long-
term goal is to improve fonio millet while
maintaining its extraordinary properties,”
could lead to a
explains Krattinger.
KAUST researchers, with an
international team of scientists, analyzed
new cereal that
the genomes of domesticated and wild
fonio millet plants from across Africa and
can be widely
then compared them with the genomes of
major cereal crops.
The analyses found two genes that had
and sustainably undergone selection in fonio. One of these
two genes, called DeGs5-3A, is very similar
grown in to a rice gene that regulates grain width
and weight. It showed a complete loss of
diversity in domesticated fonio, suggesting
dry and hot that plants with this active gene had been
artificially selected for their larger grains.
e n v i r o n m e n t s .” The other gene, called DeSh1-9A,
was found to be mutated in some fonio
K AUST DISCOVERY
BIOSCIENCE
domesticated varieties and is similar to
another mutation in domesticated African
rice. The mutation reduces seed loss
through a process called shattering; this
is beneficial for wild varieties because
it ensures seed dispersal and natural
planting in the environment but reduces
yield in cultivated crops.
Other gene variants that have been
selected for in major cereal crops were also
found to show a wild-plant-like nucleotide
sequence in fonio. “Modifying these genes,
for example with genome editing, could
significantly improve fonio by producing
larger seeds with no seed shattering,” says
KAUST postdoc Michael Abrouk. “Our next
aim is to produce a fonio cultivar that has all
the properties of a modern cereal but that
retains drought tolerance, fast maturation
and the ability to grow in sandy soils.”
The researchers also identified factors
that have impacted fonio’s genetic diversity
across Africa. “Adaptations to climate were
not a big surprise,” says Ph.D. student Hanin
Ahmed. “A fonio cultivar grown in the Sahel
zone of Mali requires different properties
from a cultivar grown in the subtropical
regions of southern Togo.” Surprising,
© 2020 ADELINE BARNAUD
however, was the link identified between
fonio’s genetic patterns and ethnolinguistic
groupings in Africa. For example, there
were striking genetic differences between
fonio cultivars collected from northern and
southern Togo. Although partially related to
climate, this diversity is also probably caused
by cultural differences that have limited seed
sharing between farmers of the two regions.
“Fonio is a semidomesticated crop that
shows some adaptation to agricultural
practices,” says Krattinger. “Improvements
could lead to a new cereal that can be
widely and sustainably grown in dry and
hot environments.”
Abrouk, M., Ahmed, H.I., Cubry, P.,
Šimoníková, D., Cauet, S., Pailles, Y.,
Bettgenhaeuser, J., Gapa, L., Scarcelli, N.,
Couderc, M., Zekraoui, L., Kathiresan, N.,
Čížková, J., Hřibov á, E., Doležel, J., Arribat,
S., Bergès, H., Wieringa, J.J., Gueye, M., Kane,
N.A., Leclerc, C., Causse, S., Vancopponeolle,
S., Billot, C., Wicker, T., Vigouroux, Y., Barnaud,
A.& Krattinger, S.G. Fonio millet genome
unlocks African orphan crop diversity for
agriculture in a changing climate. Nature
Communications 11, 4488 (2020). | article
di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 57
BIOSCIENCE
When the gel is stained with the conjugate and illuminated with UV radiation, the His-tagged proteins
can be seen with the naked eye.
FINDING A HANDLE
TO BAG THE RIGHT
PROTEINS
A method that lights up tags attached to selected proteins
can help to purify the proteins from a mixed protein pool.
Purifying specific protein molecules
from complex mixtures will become
“I t wa s
easier with a simpler way to detect a
molecular “tag” commonly used as a
handle to grab the proteins.
Proteins, comprising many linked
amino acid molecules, form the key
“workforce” of molecular biology, per-
forming a multitude of chemical tasks,
including catalyzing the chemistry of life,
switching genes on and off, and receiving
and responding to signals between cells.
Researchers need to produce and
purify selected proteins to investigate
their activities for drug research, bio-
technology and basic investigations of
cell biology.
Proteins of interest are commonly
made by inserting the genes that code for
58 S p r i n g 2 0 21
them into cells that will produce them,
but that leaves the problem of identifying
and purifying the desired protein from a
potentially complex mixture. A common
strategy is to modify the gene encoding the
protein to make the protein carry a string
of molecules of the amino acid called histi-
dine, creating a “polyhistidine tag.”
“The tag acts like a handle attached to a
bag,” explains the first author of the study,
Vlad-Stefan Raducanu. “It’s much easier
to fish out a protein by catching the tag.”
The various proteins in an impure
sample can be separated using an electric
field to pull them through a gel at differ-
ent rates—a process called gel electro-
phoresis. The gel is then transferred to a
membrane and the region carrying the
polyhistidine-tagged proteins is visualized
using antibodies, also a form of protein, to
selectively bind to the tag. However, this
type of detection can be laborious.
Now, Raducanu and his colleagues
have developed a simpler detection pro-
cedure that avoids the membrane transfer
step and the use of antibodies.
They constructed a chemical complex
that binds to polyhistidine tags and can be
stimulated by ultraviolet (UV) radiation
to fluoresce with visible light. The regions
of the gel-carrying tagged proteins can be
readily detected by the light given off by
the UV-excited “fluorophore” complexes
bound to the tags.
“It was challenging to devise a suitable
UV-excitable fluorophore,” Raducanu
explains. The team had to couple the flu-
orescent component of their complex to
another part containing a metal ion that
challenging
can bind to the polyhistidine tag.
“We now plan to collaborate with
chemists at KAUST to develop even
t o d ev i s e brighter dyes,” Raducanu says, expressing
hope that the usefulness of UV-excitable
a suitable fluorophores could be adopted more
widely to help researchers detect the pro-
teins they need.
U V- exc i t a b l e
Raducanu, V-S., Isaioglou, I.,
f l u o r o p h o r e.” Raducanu, D-V., Merzaban, J.S. &
Hamdan, S.M. Simplified detection of
polyhistidine-tagged proteins in gels
and membranes using a UV-excitable
dye and a multiple chelator head pair.
Journal of Biological Chemistry 295,
12214-12223 (2020). | article
BIOSCIENCE
BARCODING LONG
DNA QUANTIFIES
current DNA sequencing strategies. But
our approach, in combination with various
CRISPR EFFECTS
sequencing platforms, can analyze these
large DNA mutations with high accuracy
and sensitivity,” says Ph.D. student
Chongwei Bi.
A sequencing approach can home in on a rare mutation The tests found that large deletions
within a large number of cells, revealing implications for accounted for 2.8 to 5.4 percent of Cas9
CRISPR genome editing and early cancer detection. editing outcomes. They also discovered a
threefold rise in single-base DNA variants
in the edited region. “This shows that
there is a lot that we need to learn about
Current sequencing techniques lack the deletions and insertions in the original CRISPR/Cas9 before it can be safely
sensitivity to detect rare gene mutations DNA molecules. used in the clinic,” says Yanyi Huang of
in a pool of cells, which is particularly The approach successfully detected a Peking University, who is an international
important in early cancer detection, for deliberately caused gene mutation that collaborator co-funded by KAUST.
example. Now, scientists at KAUST have was mixed with a group of wild-type cells IDMseq can currently sequence only one
developed an approach, called targeted at ratios of 1:100, 1:1,000 and 1:10,000. It DNA strand, but work to enable double-
individual DNA molecule sequencing also correctly reported its frequency. strand sequencing could further improve
(IDMseq), that can accurately detect a The researchers also used IDMseq to performance, say the researchers.
single mutation in a pool of 10,000 cells. look for mutations caused by CRISPR/
© 2020 KAUST; MO LI.
Importantly, the team successfully used Cas9 genome editing. “Several recent Bi, C., Wang, L., Yuan, B., Zhou, X., Li,
IDMseq to determine the number and studies have reported that Cas9 Y., Wang, S., Pang, Y., Gao, X., Huang, Y.
frequency of mutations caused by the introduces large and unexpected DNA & Li, M. Long-read individual-molecule
gene editing tool, CRISPR/Cas9, in human deletions around the edited genes, leading sequencing reveals CRISPR-induced genetic
embryonic stem cells. Clinical trials to safety concerns. These deletions are heterogeneity in human ESCs. Genome
are underway to test CRISPR’s safety difficult to detect and quantitate using Biology 21, 213 (2020). | article
to treat some genetic diseases. “Our
study revealed potential risks associated
with CRISPR/Cas9 editing and provides
tools to better study genome editing
outcomes,” says KAUST bioscientist Mo Li,
who led the study.
IDMseq is a sequencing technique that
involves attaching a unique barcode to
every DNA molecule in a sample of cells
and then making a large number of copies
of each molecule using a polymerase chain
reaction (PCR). Copied molecules carry the
same barcode as the original ones.
A bioinformatics tool kit, called variant
analysis with a unique molecular
identifier for long-read technology
(VAULT), then decodes the barcodes and
places similar molecules into their own
“bins,” with every bin representing one of
the original DNA molecules. VAULT uses
a combination of algorithms to detect
mutations in the bins. The process works
especially well with third-generation
long-read sequencing technologies and
helps scientists detect and determine the
frequency of all types of mutations, from The sequencing setup for the study: an Oxford Nanopore sequencer and a laptop computer. The screen in the
changes in single DNA letters to large background shows the DNA strand fed through the sequencer.
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 59
BIOSCIENCE
COPYCAT PLANT
BOOSTER
IMPROVES
ON NATURE
A molecular mimic designed to promote plant
growth and limit witchweed infestation shows
promise in initial trials.
SYNTHETIC GROWTH-
PROMOTING HORMONES
CAN BOTH STIMULATE THE
GROWTH OF PLANTS AND
REDUCE INFESTATION BY
PARASITIC PLANTS.
A molecule that can mimic the function
of zaxinone, a natural growth-promoting
plant metabolite, has been designed and
fabricated by an international team led
by KAUST and the University of Tokyo.
Their successful mimic may have wide-
reaching applications in plant biology
and agriculture.
“We identified zaxinone in a previous
study and found that it both stimulates
the growth of rice plants and appears to
reduce infestation by the root parasite
Striga (witchweed),” says Jian You Wang,
a Ph.D student under the supervision of
Salim Al-Babili. “It is tempting to jump
in and say we can harvest zaxinone from
plants, study its activity and use it to boost
crop yields, but it is not that simple.”
Living organisms produce growth-
regulating metabolites, such as zaxinone,
at very low concentrations, and the mol-
ecules themselves are often short-lived
60 S p r i n g 2 0 21
and unstable. The team realized that to
make full use of their discovery, they
would need to design a synthetic mol-
ecule that can mimic zaxinone’s function,
rather than using the metabolite itself.
“We first identified the parts of zax-
inone that are crucial for its activity and
the other parts that can be replaced or
modified,” says Wang. “These results
helped our team to design a series of
easy-to-synthesize zaxinone mimics
called MiZax.”
The team trialed MiZax by adding
them to soil and measuring their ability
to improve root growth and limit Striga
infestation in rice plants. Two of the
mimics, MiZax3 and MiZax5, proved
particularly effective, with MiZax3 per-
forming even better than zaxinone itself.
“We were excited to see the excellent
activity and stability of MiZax3, even
when it was used at very low concentra-
tions,” says Wang. “It is important to note
that we still do not know precisely how
zaxinone itself works. MiZax3 will help
us investigate the mechanisms behind
Zaxinone and
zaxinone mimics
(MiZax) have
the potential to
alleviate purple
witchweed
infestation.
BIOSCIENCE
“T h e g r o u p zaxinone’s activity and how it changes
© 2020 KAUST; BOUBACAR A. KOUNTCHE AND JIAN YOU WANG
plant hormone patterns and metabolism.”
will perform
“We will also perform controlled field
and safety tests to evaluate MiZax activ-
ity on cereals and horticultural crops in
controlled
greenhouse and research farms in the
kingdom,” says Al-Babili. “MiZax will
field and help improve our understanding of the
development, growth and biotic interac-
tions of cereals, particularly rice.”
safety tests in Al-Babili is also going to integrate
MiZax into a wider project he is leading,
t h e K i n g d o m .” which is funded by the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, on combating Striga
in sub-Saharan Africa.
Wang, J.Y., Jamil, M., Lin, P-Y., Ota,
T., Fiorilli, V., Novero, M., Zarban,
R.A., Kountche, B.A., Takahashi,
I., Martinez, C., Lanfranco, L.,
Bonfante, P., de Lera, A.R., Asami,
T. & Al-Babili, S. Efficient mimics
for elucidating zaxinone biology
and promoting agricultural
applications. Molecular Plant 13,
1651-1661 (2020). | article
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SOCIAL
WITH
@KAUST_RESEARCH
Follow us on social media
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 61
H U M A N H E A LT H
KAUST scientists have developed a unified statistical framework that can characterize the community
structure of brain functional networks.
A BRAINWAVE FROM
SOCIAL NETWORKS
The statistics used to understand social networks reveal
the diversity of functional connections in the brain.
Analyzing brain activity across multiple
subjects using sophisticated statistics has
produced a model that better captures
the diversity and dynamics of brain
function. The method, developed by
KAUST researchers, could help us better
understand human cognition and identify
the abnormal brain states that underlie
many neurological diseases.
Neuroscientists use a noninvasive
technique called functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure
the activation of neurons in the
brain by detecting localized changes
in blood flow and blood oxygen in
62 S p r i n g 2 0 21
different brain regions. This has
allowed researchers to see networked
“communities” of neuronal clusters or
nodes that are densely connected and
respond to the same stimuli.
“The current state-of-the-art approach
is to use a stochastic ‘block model’ to
explain brain networks, which gives only
a static description of brain function and
is not realistic because brain function
changes dynamically as the brain
responds to new stimuli,” says group
leader Hernando Ombao. “So we set
out to develop a new unified statistical
framework that can characterize the
H U M A N H E A LT H
community structure of brain functional
networks and help understand how they QUIETER WIND edge.”
Rather than directly simulate the entire
BENEATH THE
vary across individuals.” flow field at high resolution, Boukharf-
Current models of the brain’s community ane, with colleagues Matteo Parsani and
network structure suggest that much of Julien Bodart, applied a wall-modeled
brain function is assortative, meaning
that brain function is segregated into
separate specialized information-
WINGS
The ability to efficiently simulate the noise generated
large-eddy simulation (WMLES) to
model the near-surface flows at high reso-
lution, while reducing overall computa-
processing regions in the brain. Although tional intensity by modeling only larger
the integration of information from by wings and propellers promises to accelerate the flow structures further from the airfoil.
specialized brain regions is also known development of quieter aircraft and turbines. “The WMLES approach used in this
to be important in brain function, this has work allows us to reproduce many of the
been very difficult to observe. key qualitative features of the airflow seen
“The problem has been that brain
function is traditionally analyzed by fitting
A new simulation approach
has enabled a first practical “A i rc ra f t n o i s e in experiments, as well as noise-related
characteristics, such as the wall pressure
models to individual subjects, which and highly accurate compu- spectra. Importantly, we have also shown
can capture localized or ‘assortative’ tation of the noise charac- i s a pro bl e m that the method is valid for high-speed and
community structures,” explains Ombao. teristics of complex three-dimensional highly turbulent flows,” says Boukharfane.
© SCIEPRO/ SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGES
“But this is not well suited to picking the
nonassortative integration functions,
airfoil designs under extreme operating
conditions. By shortening simulations
fo r m a ny The algorithm described in the paper
is the latest in a suite of tools developed
which require information to be mapped that would have taken months or weeks by the group and builds upon a col-
and compared among different subjects to run to just days or hours, the new co m m u n i t i e s laboration with the Higher Institute of
2020 KAUST; RADOUAN BOUKHARFANE
under different stimuli.” approach could accelerate the develop- Aeronautics and Space in France under
To solve this problem, the research
team—including KAUST student Meini Tang,
ment of quieter airfoil designs to enable
the next generation of aircraft and urban
l o c ate d the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking of the
European Union. Some of these tools
near major
long-time collaborator Chee-Ming Ting from airborne vehicles. are currently being used and tested by
Monash University in Malaysia and former “Aircraft noise is a problem for many NASA, Airbus and the National Institute
KAUST postdoctoral fellow Balqis Samdin, communities located near major air- of Aerospace in Virginia.
who led the study—used a “multilayer
modularity maximization method.” Recently
ports, and this will only get worse with the
expanded use of drones and, in the future,
a i rpo r t s.” “Our team is uniquely placed at the
intersection of numerical analysis, phys-
proposed for social networks, the method air taxis and private airborne vehicles,” ics and high-performance computing to
has been adapted by the team to detect says Radouan Boukharfane, a postdoc at develop novel and efficient algorithms that
common brain community structures that KAUST. better account for physical phenomena
are shared across subjects. Airfoils—wings, propellers and turbine and efficiently utilize modern computing
“Our model has revealed a more blades—are typically designed and refined architectures,” says Parsani.
diverse community organization in using relatively fast applied mathematical
addition to the typical assortative techniques. However, characteristics like
structure in brain networks associated noise generation are more complex. These
with language processing and motor typically require tests using experimental
functions,” says Samdin. models because the direct numerical sim-
KAUST researchers
“For example, we found a core-like ulations capable of resolving such features are using simulations
community in the language network that are so computationally intensive that, even to better understand
how airborne vehicles
seems to serve an integrative function on today’s fastest computers, they would
generate noise with the
between periphery communities in the left take months to complete. aim to reduce it.
and right hemispheres during language “In realistic engineering problems in
comprehension,” says Samdin. “Our aeroacoustics, the interactions between
model is able to capture more complex the turbulent airflow and the surface are
intercommunity interactions related to a important,” says Boukharfane. “One of
wider functional repertoire of brain function.” our main challenges was how to model
compressible airflows across the sur-
Ting, C.-M. Samdin, S.B., Tang, M. face under high turbulence with Boukharfane, R., Parsani, M. &
& Ombao, H. Detecting dynamic sufficient accuracy to predict Bodart, J. Characterization of pressure
community structure in functional brain the separation of the airflow fluctuations within a controlled–diffusion
networks across individuals: A multilayer over a smoothly curved blade boundary layer using the equilibrium
approach. IEEE Transactions on Medical surface and its reattach- wall–modelled LES. Scientific Reports 10,
Imaging 40, 468-480 (2021). | article ment near the trailing 12735 (2020). | article
K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 63
H U M A N H E A LT H H U M A N H E A LT H

significant molecules such as short-lived and reactive

polar carbonyl compounds. MEMBRANE
The team devised a real-time gas chromatography
MAKEOVER
NO SMOKE,
mass spectrometry analysis method that collected vapors

MAKES
directly from heated tobacco sticks. Their setup allowed
the detection of small molecules that would not persist

BUT STILL
in the gaseous phase for a sufficient amount of time to be

FACE MASK
detected by previously used procedures. The researchers
were nevertheless surprised that they identified as many

HAZARDOUS
A more sensitive technique shows a
cigarette alternative seems to emit
more chemicals than manufacturer
testing revealed.
A technique that has greater sensitivity to assess
harmful chemicals adds to the analysis toolkit for
cigarette alternatives. This research by KAUST sci-
entists, now published in Tobacco Control, reveals
that a tobacco-heating device called “I quit ordinary smoking”
(IQOS) emits many more potentially harmful chemicals than
those identified by the manufacturer.
The IQOS device operates at a lower temperature than ordi-
nary cigarettes; it heats tobacco sticks to around 300 degrees
as 62 compounds, only 10 of which were found in the tests
by Philip Morris International.
The additional chemicals found by the researchers
included the known toxic compounds diacetyl, 2,3-pen-
tanedione, hydroxymethylfurfural and diethylhexyl
phthalate. The latter may be especially significant as it is
considered to be potentially carcinogenic.
“It is crucial to monitor and identify any toxic and car-
cinogenic products released by these new tobacco heat-
ing products,” Sarathy comments. He hopes that these
findings from KAUST’s independent investigations might
lead to collaboration with tobacco companies to identify
the health risks of their new products and to learn how
to mitigate these risks.
“Our novel approach to identify chemicals from heat-
ing tobacco sticks could also help to improve tobacco
legislation around the world,” says Ilies. “It enlarges the
set of analytical techniques available to identify harmful
chemicals that were invisible to previous methods.”
REUSABLE
A polyimide membrane with
regularly sized and spaced pores
turns the N95 respirator into a reusable
mask for protection against COVID-19.
An ultrathin, lightweight and porous polymeric The pores in the in polymeric, nanoporous membranes developed by
membrane designed at KAUST can turn the N95 the polymeric other researchers,” explains Hussain.
membrane can
respirator into a reusable face mask while potentially be as small as The template pattern is then etched onto a
improving its ability to keep out SARS-CoV-2, the 5 nanometers 10-micrometer-thick polyimide film that is removed from
in diameter,
virus that causes COVID-19. the template and can be attached to an N95 respirator.
preventing the
Governments around the world are requiring or passage of tiny The polyimide membrane is intrinsically hydrophobic.
advising citizens to cover their faces while in public particulate matter, In other words, water droplets fall off it instead of being
including viruses.
places to help protect themselves and others from absorbed into it, which means that particles do not
COVID-19 infection. The rise in demand for face masks accumulate or collect on the mask’s surface.
has led to global shortages and makeshift solutions.

“T h e re pu r p o s ed N 9 5
Celsius, whereas traditional cigarettes burn the tobacco at up to Ilies, B.D., Moosakutty, S.P., Kharbatia, N.M. The N95 respirator is a single-use, tight-fitting,
900 degrees Celsius. It also differs from vaping systems, which & Sarathy, S.M. Identification of volatile surgical-grade mask that filters 95 percent of airborne

ADAPTED FROM REFERENCE 1 © 2020 AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY; HUDA BADGHAISH

heat liquids containing nicotine.
IQOS was developed by Philip Morris International and intro-
duced to the market in 2014. The manufacturer claims it offers a
safer alternative to traditional smoking, based on their own and
other research. This suggested
that IQOS achieves a very sig-
nificant reduction in toxic
exposure compared to regular
cigarettes that burn tobacco.
“I wanted to assess the
company’s claims,” says Ph.D.
student Dragos Ilies. He pro-
posed an independent inves-
tigation to his supervisor,
Mani Sarathy.
“We brainstormed differ-
ent approaches to identify
the chemicals released by
the heated tobacco sticks,”
says Ilies. They realized there
were serious limitations with
the previously used method,
based on offline sampling
techniques, because they
could not identify potentially
constituents released from IQOS heat-
not-burn tobacco HeatSticks using a direct
sampling method. Tobacco Control advance
online 26 May 2020. | article
By using a new technique to analyze the compounds emitted from the IQOS device, the researchers identified
over 50 compounds that were initially missed by previous techniques because they were short-lived.
particles. World health bodies and governments
recommend their use only by healthcare professionals
as these masks are in short supply.
Now, electrical engineer Muhammad Mustafa
Hussain and his team have repurposed the N95
respirator by fabricating an attachable membrane that
can be replaced after a single use. The new design
facilitates reuse of the N95 mask, saving costs and
resources and broadening its availability.
Importantly, it could also improve the mask’s
filtration efficiency for SARS-CoV-2. Pores in currently
available N95 masks are around 300 nanometers
in size, while the SARS-CoV-2 virus is significantly
smaller at 65 to 125 nanometers. The N95 is highly
efficient at filtering out airborne particles but less so
for particles smaller than the respirator’s pores.
The team’s approach facilitates the design of
ultrathin polymeric membranes with pore sizes as
small as 5 nanometers. The method first involves
etching funnel-shaped pores into a silicon-based
template, producing an array of 90 x 90 nanometer
squares on one side and tiny 5- to 55-nanometer-
sized pores on the other. “The etching method controls
the distances between the pores and overcomes the
problem of randomly spaced and oriented pores found
re s pi rator h a s a n
att a c h a b l e memb ra n e
t h at c a n b e rep l a ced
a f te r a s in g l e u s e.”
The team’s theoretical calculations show that their
repurposed N95 mask conforms to the breathability
standards set out by the United States National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
“We are now working with commercial partners to
further optimize our mask’s breathability and filtration
efficacy,” says the study’s first author, postdoc Nazek
El-Atab.
El-Atab, N., Qaiser, N., Bagdhaish, H., Shaikh, S.F.
& Hussain, M.M. A flexible nanoporous template
for the design and development of reusable anti-
COVID-19 hydrophobic face masks. ACS Nano
14, 7659-7665 (2020). | article

64 S p r i n g 2 0 21 K AUST DISCOVERY di sc o ver y.kaust.edu.sa 65

H U M A N H E A LT H

PEERING UNDER Scripps Research Institute, U.S., provided

© 2020 KAUST; IVAN VIOLA; NANOGRAPHICS

us with the most likely hypothesis for the

THE “HOOD” OF
structure’s interior based on current data.
If this hypothesis is proven wrong, then we
can easily update the model,” she explains.

SARS-COV-2
Microscope and protein data are incorporated
into an easy-to-use-and-update tool that can
model an organism’s 3D appearance.
Information from electron
microscope images and
protein databases has been
used to develop a detailed
3D model of SARS-CoV-2, which can be
“The system uses the provided information
to predict the overall shape of the cell and
generate a 3D model,” explains Strnad.
The team used their approach to develop
a 3D representation of SARS-CoV-2.
The team hopes their SARS-CoV-2 model
will help reveal aspects of the virus and its
structure that could hasten drug discovery
for treating COVID-19. They also hope
scientists from different biological fields
will share information and exchange rules
relating to protein conformations to use the
modeling system for their research.
Further improvements to the system
are needed. The team plans to design
a user-friendly graphical user interface
to make it easy to use. They would also
like to make it applicable within a virtual
reality environment.

Follow
readily updated as new data becomes “Our model shows the complete viral
available. The modeling tool has potential ultrastructure as we know it to date, and Nguyen, N., Strnad, O., Klein, T., Luo, D.,
for visualizing components in other not just some arbitrarily placed incomplete Alharbi, R., Wonka, P., Maritan, M., Mindek, P.,

#SciCafeKAUST
biological organisms, ranging from 10 to spike proteins on a lipid membrane,” Autin, L., Goodsell, D.S. & Viola, I. Modeling
100 nanometers in size. explains KAUST computer science Ph.D. in the time of COVID-19: Statistical and rule-
“Our 3D model demonstrates the current student Ngan Nguyen. “Other available based mesoscale models. IEEE Transactions
state-of-the-art structure of SARS-CoV-2 models also don’t show the interior of the on Visualization and Computer Graphics 27,
at the atomistic level and reveals details of virus, as its details are not currently known. 722-732 (2020). | article
the virus that were previously impossible
to see, like how we think nucleocapsid WATCH ON
proteins form a rope-like structure inside
it,” says KAUST research scientist Ondřej Ivan Viola’s group has
generated a 3D model
Strnad. “The approach we used to develop that demonstrates the
the model could steer biological research current state-of-the-art
structure of the outer
into promising new directions for fighting
(left) and inner
the spread of COVID-19 because it could structures of
help scientists rapidly incorporate newly SARS-CoV-2.
discovered information into the model and
thus provide an up-to-date structure of the
virus,” he says.
The modeling system is intuitive and easy
to use. It takes information from readily
discernible structures in a small number
of electron microscope images of an
organism. For SARS-CoV-2, this involves
information on the shape and size of the
virus’s membrane and on the protein
structures attached to it.
Scientists can then incorporate
information into the model about other
proteins within the cell from existing
databases. This includes information
on SARS-CoV-2’s single RNA strand and
the nucleocapsid proteins protecting it.
Finally, a set of rules is created that defines
how each of the components is oriented
and interacts with the other components.

66 Spring 2021
“Historians will look back on
this era as the tipping point
for marine agriculture”

Destination KAUST:
Bring your big ideas to life
Professor Carlos Duarte is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading
voices on the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. At KAUST, he
is currently leading a multidisciplinary research team that is looking at how
the world’s oceans can help us provide food and freshwater security for current
and future generations.

Go to discovery.kaust.edu.sa and follow @KAUST_Research to learn more.

discovery.kaust.edu.sa