With a growing global population, food demand is rising, yet large amounts of food are lost to spoilage each year. Unpredictable weather, pest and pathogen pressures, and poor storage contribute to nearly one-third of all food going to waste. Reducing spoilage is crucial to meet population needs, conserve resources, and enhance food security. The application of postharvest antimicrobial agents can efficiently reduce spoilage; however, sustainable alternatives, are increasingly being sought for their lower environmental impact. This study presents a lab-developed setup that uses low electrical currents to inhibit Escherichia coli growth on fruit. When an alternating current (50 mA) was applied to Escherichia coli-contaminated grapes, 99 % of the bacteria were eliminated. After 12 days, visual inspection showed that untreated, contaminated grapes had rotted, while the electrically treated ones remained visually similar to uncontaminated grapes. Quantitative Colony Forming Unit (CFU) reduction assays and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis of grape skins confirmed these findings, showing clear bacterial structural damage on treated grapes, indicating the electrical current's effectiveness in deactivating Escherichia coli. These promising results highlight the potential of this eco-friendly decontamination strategy and make it adaptable to grapes and other fruits and vegetables.

Developing new drugs is a complex, time-consuming, and expensive process, essential to identify potential pharmacokinetic issues in the early stages to avoid investment in nonpromising candidates. Nearly half of all drug targets and key drug-metabolizing enzymes are found in intracellular environments, compartmentalized by semipermeable barriers, the cell membranes. Inspired by their lipidic bilayer structure, lipid-based biomimetic platforms are being developed to understand the biochemical and biophysical processes at the cellular membrane level. Considering the pharmaceutical industry's demands for efficient in vitro high throughput screening tools, microfluidic technology emerges as a promising solution to address challenges in lipid biomimetic models for screening applications. This involves the transformation of commonly used lipid-based biomimetic models, like supported lipid bilayers and lipid vesicles, to miniaturized approachs and their evolution into a new generation of bilayer models. These include pore-suspended and free-standing lipid bilayers, black lipid membranes, and droplet interface bilayers. This review provides an overview of both generations of lipid biomimetic models used in drug-membrane screening applications. Moreover, it delves into the intricacies of their production through microfluidic approaches and examines their screening applications in drug-membrane interaction. The review concludes with a critical analysis of potential future directions in this rapidly evolving field.

The growing demand for advanced technologies to support the Internet of Things has prompted the search for innovative, flexible, lightweight, and cost-effective optoelectronic devices for large-scale applications. Photodetectors (PDs) convert optical signals into measurable electrical signals, making them essential in fields such as health monitoring, optical communication, and solar cells. This work embeds inorganic ZnO and CuO nanoparticles, as well as CsPbI<inf>3</inf> perovskite nanocrystals, in flexible and stretchable thermoplastic copolymer styrene ethylene butylene styrene (SEBS). The films were processed using the doctor blade technique and evaluated for their mechanical, optical, morphological, and thermal properties. Interdigitated electrodes were screen-printed on the films, which were then irradiated with visible and X-ray radiation to assess their electrical properties. Pristine SEBS films showed consistent conductivity under all irradiation conditions. In turn, SEBS@ZnO films showed increased conductivity under visible irradiation (∼9.9 × 10<sup>−5</sup>(Ω·mm)<sup>−1</sup>) but minimal response to X-rays, while CuO@SEBS films exhibited conductivity under both visible light and X-rays, with slightly higher conductivity under X-ray irradiation (∼6.2 × 10<sup>−6</sup>(Ω·mm)<sup>−1</sup>) compared to visible light (∼2.8 × 10<sup>−6</sup>(Ω·mm)<sup>−1</sup>). Finally, SEBS@CsPbI<inf>3</inf> films uniquely responded to X-ray irradiation with a conductivity of ∼5.9 × 10<sup>−4</sup>(Ω·mm)<sup>−1</sup>. These findings highlight the potential of flexible polymer-based composites for diverse applications, paving the way for lightweight, cost-effective, and adaptable PD systems.