Introduction – Company Background

GuangXin Industrial Co., Ltd. is a specialized manufacturer dedicated to the development and production of high-quality insoles.

With a strong foundation in material science and footwear ergonomics, we serve as a trusted partner for global brands seeking reliable insole solutions that combine comfort, functionality, and design.

With years of experience in insole production and OEM/ODM services, GuangXin has successfully supported a wide range of clients across various industries—including sportswear, health & wellness, orthopedic care, and daily footwear.

From initial prototyping to mass production, we provide comprehensive support tailored to each client’s market and application needs.

At GuangXin, we are committed to quality, innovation, and sustainable development. Every insole we produce reflects our dedication to precision craftsmanship, forward-thinking design, and ESG-driven practices.

By integrating eco-friendly materials, clean production processes, and responsible sourcing, we help our partners meet both market demand and environmental goals.

Core Strengths in Insole Manufacturing

At GuangXin Industrial, our core strength lies in our deep expertise and versatility in insole and pillow manufacturing. We specialize in working with a wide range of materials, including PU (polyurethane), natural latex, and advanced graphene composites, to develop insoles and pillows that meet diverse performance, comfort, and health-support needs.

Whether it's cushioning, support, breathability, or antibacterial function, we tailor material selection to the exact requirements of each project-whether for foot wellness or ergonomic sleep products.

We provide end-to-end manufacturing capabilities under one roof—covering every stage from material sourcing and foaming, to precision molding, lamination, cutting, sewing, and strict quality control. This full-process control not only ensures product consistency and durability, but also allows for faster lead times and better customization flexibility.

With our flexible production capacity, we accommodate both small batch custom orders and high-volume mass production with equal efficiency. Whether you're a startup launching your first insole or pillow line, or a global brand scaling up to meet market demand, GuangXin is equipped to deliver reliable OEM/ODM solutions that grow with your business.

Customization & OEM/ODM Flexibility

GuangXin offers exceptional flexibility in customization and OEM/ODM services, empowering our partners to create insole products that truly align with their brand identity and target market. We develop insoles tailored to specific foot shapes, end-user needs, and regional market preferences, ensuring optimal fit and functionality.

Our team supports comprehensive branding solutions, including logo printing, custom packaging, and product integration support for marketing campaigns. Whether you're launching a new product line or upgrading an existing one, we help your vision come to life with attention to detail and consistent brand presentation.

With fast prototyping services and efficient lead times, GuangXin helps reduce your time-to-market and respond quickly to evolving trends or seasonal demands. From concept to final production, we offer agile support that keeps you ahead of the competition.

Quality Assurance & Certifications

Quality is at the heart of everything we do. GuangXin implements a rigorous quality control system at every stage of production—ensuring that each insole meets the highest standards of consistency, comfort, and durability.

We provide a variety of in-house and third-party testing options, including antibacterial performance, odor control, durability testing, and eco-safety verification, to meet the specific needs of our clients and markets.

Our products are fully compliant with international safety and environmental standards, such as REACH, RoHS, and other applicable export regulations. This ensures seamless entry into global markets while supporting your ESG and product safety commitments.

ESG-Oriented Sustainable Production

At GuangXin Industrial, we are committed to integrating ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) values into every step of our manufacturing process. We actively pursue eco-conscious practices by utilizing eco-friendly materials and adopting low-carbon production methods to reduce environmental impact.

To support circular economy goals, we offer recycled and upcycled material options, including innovative applications such as recycled glass and repurposed LCD panel glass. These materials are processed using advanced techniques to retain performance while reducing waste—contributing to a more sustainable supply chain.

We also work closely with our partners to support their ESG compliance and sustainability reporting needs, providing documentation, traceability, and material data upon request. Whether you're aiming to meet corporate sustainability targets or align with global green regulations, GuangXin is your trusted manufacturing ally in building a better, greener future.

Let’s Build Your Next Insole Success Together

Looking for a reliable insole manufacturing partner that understands customization, quality, and flexibility? GuangXin Industrial Co., Ltd. specializes in high-performance insole production, offering tailored solutions for brands across the globe. Whether you're launching a new insole collection or expanding your existing product line, we provide OEM/ODM services built around your unique design and performance goals.

From small-batch custom orders to full-scale mass production, our flexible insole manufacturing capabilities adapt to your business needs. With expertise in PU, latex, and graphene insole materials, we turn ideas into functional, comfortable, and market-ready insoles that deliver value.

Contact us today to discuss your next insole project. Let GuangXin help you create custom insoles that stand out, perform better, and reflect your brand’s commitment to comfort, quality, and sustainability.

🔗 Learn more or get in touch:
🌐 Website: https://www.deryou-tw.com/
📧 Email: shela.a9119@msa.hinet.net
📘 Facebook: facebook.com/deryou.tw
📷 Instagram: instagram.com/deryou.tw

Vietnam orthopedic insole OEM manufacturer

Are you looking for a trusted and experienced manufacturing partner that can bring your comfort-focused product ideas to life? GuangXin Industrial Co., Ltd. is your ideal OEM/ODM supplier, specializing in insole production, pillow manufacturing, and advanced graphene product design.

With decades of experience in insole OEM/ODM, we provide full-service manufacturing—from PU and latex to cutting-edge graphene-infused insoles—customized to meet your performance, support, and breathability requirements. Our production process is vertically integrated, covering everything from material sourcing and foaming to molding, cutting, and strict quality control.Custom foam pillow OEM in Taiwan

Beyond insoles, GuangXin also offers pillow OEM/ODM services with a focus on ergonomic comfort and functional innovation. Whether you need memory foam, latex, or smart material integration for neck and sleep support, we deliver tailor-made solutions that reflect your brand’s values.

We are especially proud to lead the way in ESG-driven insole development. Through the use of recycled materials—such as repurposed LCD glass—and low-carbon production processes, we help our partners meet sustainability goals without compromising product quality. Our ESG insole solutions are designed not only for comfort but also for compliance with global environmental standards.Graphene cushion OEM production factory in Taiwan

At GuangXin, we don’t just manufacture products—we create long-term value for your brand. Whether you're developing your first product line or scaling up globally, our flexible production capabilities and collaborative approach will help you go further, faster.Graphene-infused pillow ODM Thailand

📩 Contact us today to learn how our insole OEM, pillow ODM, and graphene product design services can elevate your product offering—while aligning with the sustainability expectations of modern consumers.One-stop OEM/ODM solution provider Taiwan

Mouse embryos, like the one depicted here, die in utero if they are missing the choline transporter FLVCR1. But giving them supplemental choline can increase their lifespan. Credit: Laboratory of Metabolic Regulation and Genetics at The Rockefeller University Scientists identified FLVCR1 as the choline transporter protein, offering a direct therapeutic pathway for PCARP. Proteins integrated into the cell membrane play a crucial role in transporting nutrients to the intended destination within our cells. If this transportation system malfunctions and metabolites are unable to reach their target, it can have adverse effects on human health, ranging from rare illnesses to neurodegenerative disorders and even cancer. A deeper comprehension of how metabolites are transported into cells could pave the way for potential therapies for diseases associated with metabolite transportation. But matching which proteins transport which nutrients has proven difficult—to date, some 30 percent of carrier proteins have yet to be mapped back to their nutrients. Now, a new study reveals the protein responsible for transporting choline into the cell. The findings, published in Cell Metabolism, may have immediate implications for people living with posterior column ataxia with retinitis pigmentosa (PCARP), a disease caused by a mutation in this transporter protein. “You can get supplemental choline over-the-counter—it’s easily administered and patients can tolerate fairly high levels of it,” says Timothy Kenny, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Kivanc Birsoy at Rockefeller. “Our findings could be easily translated into the clinic.” The results may also pave the way for further discoveries that chip away at the inner workings of other transport proteins and diseases that are linked to their dysfunction. “The whole study is a proof of concept,” Birsoy says. “By systematically identifying so-called ‘orphan’ transport proteins, we can solve mysteries not only in human biology but also in human health.” A Metabolite in a Haystack There are about 5,000 different metabolites in human blood, and scientists still do not know how many of them enter cells. Determined to change that, Birsoy, Kenny, and colleagues began investigating transport proteins. The team took a uniquely broad approach to the problem and scoured scores of studies mapping associations between transporters and metabolites across the entire human genome. Casting a wide net bore fruit, and one metabolite—choline—was shown to be very strongly associated with a membrane transport protein known as FLVCR1. “Within our data, one could actually pull out multiple transport proteins linked to specific metabolites,” Birsoy says. “We chose to focus on choline because it had the strongest signal.” Choline was also an appealing choice because of the bevy of diseases associated with its deficiency. “Choline is a key component of cell membranes and neurotransmitters, so it’s biologically important, and choline deficiency is also associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, neurodegeneration, liver disease, and some cancers,” Birsoy says. The fact that prior studies have noted a link between FLVCR1 mutations and PCARP (which results in vision problems, muscle weakness, and difficulties with spatial orientation) only sharpened the team’s sense that they had hit on a possible pairing with important implications. Confirming Choline Birsoy and colleagues then conducted a series of experiments to definitively demonstrate that FLVCR1 was indeed the transporter in question. They found that mice without FLVCR1 die in utero (but live longer if given supplemental choline), and that human cells missing the gene that produces FLVCR1 are not only choline-deficient, but also can have their metabolism corrected with the equivalent gene in flies—a demonstration of just how fundamental to life the gene must be. Moreover, the experiment with mouse embryos provided evidence that FLVCR1 mutations may be treatable with supplemental choline. If that holds in humans, that would mean that it may make more sense to provide PCARP patients’ missing choline through a dietary supplement than to try to fix the transporter that should have been bringing choline into their cells. “Scientists knew that PCARP was linked to FLVCR1, but they didn’t know that FLVCR1 was linked to choline, so providing supplemental choline for PCARP patients was not even considered,” Kenny says. “This is an example of how basic biology allows us to rationally design therapies.” Meanwhile, the Birsoy lab intends to use the method described in this study to identify more mystery connections between metabolites and transporters. “Given that many transporters are associated with diseases and drug targets, identifying these transporters is a top priority,” Birsoy says. “We have now devised one important strategy for accomplishing this.” Reference: “Integrative genetic analysis identifies FLVCR1 as a plasma-membrane choline transporter in mammals” by Timothy C. Kenny, Artem Khan, Yeeun Son, Lishu Yue, Søren Heissel, Anurag Sharma, H. Amalia Pasolli, Yuyang Liu, Eric R. Gamazon, Hanan Alwaseem, Richard K. Hite and Kıvanç Birsoy, 25 April 2023, Cell Metabolism. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.04.003

Algae bloom in Baltic Sea, where extreme blooms are a significant problem. Captured June 2016, by the European Space Agency Sentinel-3A satellite, which helps monitor, for example, concentrations of algae, suspended matter and chlorophyll in seawater, useful to predict harmful algal blooms, The health and vulnerability of marine ecosystems is fundamental to our knowledge of ocean productivity and, in turn, fish stocks. Credit: European Space Agency UNESCO IOC delivers 1st global assessment report after 7 years’ work by 109 experts in 35 countries, creating a baseline to detect and gauge the changing distribution, frequency, and intensity of harmful — often poisonous — algal blooms. An unprecedented analysis of almost 10,000 Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) events worldwide over the past 33 years was launched today by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. The first-ever global statistical analysis examined ~9,500 HABs events over 33 years and found that the harm caused by HABs rises in step with growth of the aquaculture industry and marine exploitation and calls for more research on linkages. Conducted over seven years by 109 scientists in 35 countries, the study found that reported HAB events have increased in some regions and decreased or held steady in others. A widely-stated view that HABs are on the rise throughout the world, perhaps due to climate change, isn’t confirmed. However, the study, “Perceived global increase in algal blooms is attributable to intensified monitoring and emerging bloom impacts,” published in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment, creates the world’s first baseline against which to track future shifts in the location, frequency, and impacts of HABs, which differ depending on which of the 250 harmful marine algae species is involved and where, requiring assessment on a species-by-species and site-by-site basis. Databases mined The scientists mined both the global Harmful Algae Event Database (HAEDAT), consisting of 9,503 events with one or more impacts on human society, and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) database, containing 7 million microalgal observation records, including 289,668 toxic algal species occurrences. The study found that regionally-recorded HAB events, after being corrected for higher levels of monitoring effort, have Increased: Central America/Caribbean South America Mediterranean North Asia Decreased: West Coast America Australia/New Zealand No significant change: East Coast America South East Asia Europe The 9,503 events’ impacts on humans break down as follows: 48% involved seafood toxins 43% high phytoplankton counts and/or water discolorations with a socio-economic impact 7% mass animal or plant mortalities 2% caused other impacts (including foam and mucilage production) (As well, in 11% of events, a single incident had multiple impacts, e.g. both water discoloration and mass mortality) Of the event records linked to seafood toxins: 35% were Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PST) 30% Diarrhetic Shellfish Toxins (DST) 9% Ciguatera Poisoning (CP) 9% marine and brackish water cyanobacterial toxins 7% Amnesic Shellfish Toxins (AST) 10% others, including Neurotoxic Shellfish Toxins (NST), Azaspiracid Shellfish Toxins (AZA), and toxic aerosols By region, the largest number of records came from, in order: Europe North Asia Mediterranean The east and west coasts of North America Caribbean Pacific/Oceania Southeast Asia With more limited data sets for South America, and Australia/New Zealand All geographic regions were impacted by multiple HAB types, but in varying proportions. 50% of regional HAEDAT records in the Caribbean, Benguela, Mediterranean Sea, North and South East Asia related to high phytoplankton density problems. Seafood toxins and fish kill impacts dominated in all other regions Among toxin-related impacts: Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PST) prevailed in North America, the Caribbean, South America, South East Asia, and North Asia Diarrhetic Shellfish Toxins (DST) were the most frequently recorded in Europe and the Mediterranean (and are an emerging threat in the USA) Neurotoxic Shellfish Toxins (NST) were confined to the US State of Florida, with a single outbreak also reported from New Zealand Human poisonings from Ciguatera were prominent in the tropical Pacific, the Indian Ocean, Australia, and the Caribbean. For the most part, however, the impacts were confined to shellfish harvesting area closures; rarely to human poisonings. The exception: Ciguatera event records are almost exclusively based on medical reports of human poisonings. HAB events over time Eight of nine regions used in the study showed increases in reports logged via HAEDAT of harmful events per year, of which six were statistically significant. The OBIS dataset, meanwhile, generally showed an increase in sampling effort in five of the nine regions. When all the information was combined, the researchers could find no statistically significant global trend overall. They also found, however, that aquaculture production increased 16-fold from a global total of 11.35 million tonnes of seafood in 1985 to 178.5 million tonnes in 2018, with the largest increases occurring in Southeast Asia and South America/Caribbean and Central America, with North America and Europe stabilizing. The number of recorded harmful algal bloom events over time was strongly correlated with intensified aquaculture production in all regions with data suitable for the study. However, says lead author Gustaaf M. Hallegraeff of the University of Tasmania: Intensified aquaculture clearly drives an increase in HAB monitoring efforts essential to sustaining the industry and protecting human health. “And, just as clearly, a secondary effect of aquaculture is nutrient pollution. But a major data gap exists here. Conducting a meta-analysis of HABs vs aquaculture we had data on HAB monitoring efforts using OBIS records as a proxy but data on nutrient pollution is inadequate. The relationship between aquaculture-related nutrients and HABs therefore represents an important direction for further research.” Greater monitoring efforts The study revealed A 4-fold increase from 1985 to 2018 in observations of organisms mainly responsible for Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning (84,392 OBIS records) A 7-fold increase in observations of organisms mainly responsible for Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (128,282 OBIS records) A 6-fold increase in observations of organisms mainly responsible for Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (9,887 OBIS records) (Note: Some observations may include non-toxic species or strains.) In each case, the clear increase in the number of observations of problematic organisms paralleled an increase in records of associated toxic syndrome impacts. They also found that the presence of toxic HAB species doesn’t always accurately predict cases of human shellfish poisonings, which the study credits to the food safety risk management strategies in many affected countries. Some 11,000 non-fatal events related to Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning were reported worldwide, mostly from Europe, South America, and Japan, with impacts consisting mostly of shellfish harvesting area closures. Also, the study says, despite widespread distribution of the responsible algal species, there have been no human fatalities from Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning since the original 1987 incident in Prince Edward Island, Canada (150 illnesses, three fatalities). But ASP-associated mortalities of important marine mammals are of growing concern in Alaska and other parts of western North America, and ASP toxins have been linked to marine mammal calf mortalities in Argentina. Of the world’s 3,800 human Paralytic Shellfish Poisonings from 1985 to 2018, the largest number (2,555 from 1983 to 2013, including 165 fatalities) occurred in the Philippines, which depends strongly on aquaculture for human food protein. DNA and other advanced detection methods have improved knowledge of the global distribution of ciguatera-causing organisms. Ciguatera poisonings, rarely fatal but annually affecting 10,000 to 50,000 people, have been decreasing in Hawaii and remained stable in French Polynesia and the Caribbean but constitute a new phenomenon in the Canary Islands. Farmed fish killed by algal blooms: Largely a human-generated problem. Aquacultured finfish mortalities account for much greater economic damage than HAB-contaminated seafood. Notes the study: wild marine finfish can simply swim away from blooms but those held captive in intensive aquaculture operations are vulnerable. Recorded losses include US $71 million in Japan in 1972, $70 million in Korea in 1995, $290 million in China in 2012, and $100 million in Norway in 2019. A 2016 Chilean salmon mortality event caused a record $800 million loss, causing major social unrest. Again, the presence of fish-killing HAB species doesn’t accurately predict economic losses, the study shows. For example, Heterosigma blooms occur on the west and east coasts of Canada and the US, but fish mortalities are mostly confined to the west coast. In large part, the difference reflects the differences between sites where blooms occur and the relative location and size of aquaculture operations. A harmful algae species that caused no problems in Australian lagoons killed 50,000 caged fish in Malaysia in 2014. It is now also known in Japan and the Philippines. The authors note that some troublesome algal species may thrive, others decline, as ocean waters warm and acidify. Commentary “There has been a widely-stated contention that HABs worldwide are increasing in distribution, frequency or intensity, so a quantitative global assessment is long overdue,” says lead author Prof. Hallegraeff of the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania. “While some of the HAB literature over the past 30 years has handpicked selected examples to claim a global increase and expansion in HABs, this new big data approach shows a much more nuanced trend,” he adds. “Our study concludes that the health and economic damages caused by harmful microalgae — seafood poisoning, water discoloration that blights tourism, and the death of finfish in aquaculture operations, for example — differ between regions.” Adds co-author Adriana Zingone: “We also found that overexploitation acts as a natural multiplier of the effects of HABs, leading to an increase in impacts independent of an actual trend in HABs.” “It should be noted that over the last 40 years capacity and monitoring efforts to detect harmful species and harmful events have also increased, thus increasing the reporting of harmful events across the world’s seas,” she says. “The absence of events and decreasing trends, like all negative results, are rarely published. Whether or not HABs are increasing globally, however, their impacts are a growing concern all around the globe.” Says co-author Henrik Oksfeldt Enevoldsen: “As the human population continues to increase in tandem with resource demands, HABs will predictably constitute a serious threat in terms of seafood safety and security, a hindrance to recreational uses of the sea, and a problem for the tourism industry.” “Occurrences of harmful species over time and their human impacts can be expected to change locally, regionally and globally alongside the effects that climate, hydrography and human pressure impose on the coastal environment.” “Understanding the trends and distribution patterns of harmful species and events at multiple spatial and temporal scales will help predict whether, where and when to expect HABs, their frequency and intensity. This knowledge is fundamental for effective management of HABs and to optimize the uses and values of the maritime space in coastal areas.” Johan Hanssens, Secretary-General of Flanders Department of Economy, Science and Innovation, a sponsor of this report, concluded: “This status report is a very timely reminder, at the start of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, that a thorough understanding of natural and ecological processes in the ocean is crucial for the development of the blue economy, now that many coastal countries are turning to the sea for additional resources, including food provisioning. International scientific collaboration is essential and most efficient to address the associated challenges.” Reference: “Perceived global increase in algal blooms is attributable to intensified monitoring and emerging bloom impacts” by Gustaaf M. Hallegraeff, Donald M. Anderson, Catherine Belin, Marie-Yasmine Dechraoui Bottein, Eileen Bresnan, Mireille Chinain, Henrik Enevoldsen, Mitsunori Iwataki, Bengt Karlson, Cynthia H. McKenzie, Inés Sunesen, Grant C. Pitcher, Pieter Provoost, Anthony Richardson, Laura Schweibold, Patricia A. Tester, Vera L. Trainer, Aletta T. Yñiguez and Adriana Zingone, 8 June 2021, Communications Earth & Environment. DOI: 10.1038/s43247-021-00178-8 New interactive portal At a new interactive portal (https://data.hais.ioc-unesco.org), also launched today, concerned citizens and scientists can extract data and knowledge about HABs occurrences over time at every scale, from local to global. Key public databases used The Harmful Algal Event Database (HAEDAT) The only existing database of information about harmful algal events from around the world, summarized into ‘events’ associated with a management action or negative economic / ecological impact. Includes cases of non-toxic water discolorations, mucilage, anoxia or other damage to fish. Link: http://haedat.iode.org HABMAP-OBIS: Database on the geographic range of Harmful Species The Database provides biogeographic information, as referenced maps, of the microalgal species that are listed in the IOC-UNESCO Taxonomic Reference List of Harmful Microalgae. Because entries concern these taxa regardless of the intraspecific variability in toxicity and impacts, the database provides a worldwide map of potential risks related to the occurrence of toxic species. Link: https://obis.org The IOC-UNESCO Taxonomic Reference List of Harmful Microalgae Includes formally accepted names of 150+ planktonic or benthic microalgae that have been proven to produce toxins. The number of species in the list has doubled over the years. Link: http://marinespecies.org/hab These datasets will help address three main questions in future: The distribution of HAB species, HAB events, and toxins globally How the geographic distribution, characteristic, frequency and intensity of HABs are changing and if these changes attributable to global change How climate change alters impacts from HABs on human health, ecosystems, economics, food and water security Background Algae are essential for life on Earth and for fisheries. But when some species “bloom” they can cause harm in various ways. Some 5,000 species of microalgae form the foundation of aquatic food chains, help control atmospheric CO2 levels, and produce roughly half of the world’s oxygen. The troublemakers are approximately 250 species that can produce potent toxins or cause harm through their sheer biomass. A harmful algal event is broadly defined as “any event where humans, animals or other organisms are negatively affected by algae.” These include: A bioaccumulation of toxins in seafood reaching levels unsafe for human consumption, or a ban on harvesting wild or farmed shellfish or other seafood. An abundance of harmful algae causing the closure of e.g. a beach or desalination plant A bloom of toxic or non-toxic microalgae causing discoloured water, scum or foam causing damage to tourism The Global Harmful Algal Bloom Status Report (GHSR) initiative is funded by the Flanders Government through the DIPS-4-Ocean Assessments project (link) as part of the UNESCO/Flanders Fund-in-Trust for the support of UNESCO’s activities in the field of Science (FUST). Principal authors: 19 principal authors from 15 countries (including two from Australia, two from France, three from the USA) Gustaaf M. Hallegraeff, University of Tasmania, Australia Donald M. Anderson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA Catherine Belin, IFREMER, France Marie-Yasmine Bottein, Ecotoxicology and Sustainable Development Expertise, France Eileen Bresnan, Marine Scotland, UK Mireille Chinain, Institut Louis Malardé-UMR241, Tahiti Henrik Enevoldsen, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Mitsunori Iwataki, University of Tokyo, Japan Bengt Karlson, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Oceanographic Research, Sweden Cynthia H. McKenzie, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canada Inés Sunesen, CONICET – UNLP, Argentina Grant C. Pitcher, University of Cape Town, South Africa Pieter Provoost, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, Oostende, Belgium Anthony Richardson, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, and University of Queensland, Australia Laura Schweibold, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, France Patricia A. Tester, Ocean Tester, USA Vera L. Trainer, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA Aletta T. Yñiguez, University of the Philippines, Philippines Adriana Zingone, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Italy About the HAB Program: The Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms (IOC-IPHAB), part of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, initiated the development of the Global HAB Status Report in Paris in April 2013, developed with the support of the Government of Flanders within the IOC International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) Program, which manages both the Harmful Algae Event Data Base (HAEDAT) and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS). Partners include the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), The North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). OBIS focuses on the global distribution of all marine species including those HAB species that are toxic to humans and fish as covered by the IOC-UNESCO Taxonomic Reference list of Harmful MicroAlgae (a subset of the World Register of Marine Species), while HAEDAT holds information specifically on the HAB events that have adversely impact on human society, whether by high biomass (clogging of fishing nets, beach closures), aquaculture fish kills, or seafood toxin events leading to shellfish farm closures, human poisonings or even death.

New research has unveiled that immune cells can independently navigate complex environments by actively shaping chemical cues, a finding with profound implications for understanding immune responses and cancer metastasis. Immune cells demonstrate a higher level of self-directed mobility than previously recognized. Jonna Alanko, a researcher with InFLAMES, has unveiled that these cells are not merely passive reactors to chemical signals in their surroundings. Instead, they actively modify these signals and adeptly navigate complex environments through self-organization. Directional cell movement is an essential and fundamental phenomenon of life. It is an important prerequisite for individual development, reformation of blood vessels, and immune response, among others. A study conducted by Postdoctoral Researcher Jonna Alanko focused on the movement and navigation of immune cells within the body. Chemokines, a class of signaling proteins, play a crucial role in guiding immune cells to specific locations. Chemokines are formed, for instance, in the lymph nodes and create chemical cues called chemokine gradients for cells to follow within the body. According to Alanko, these chemokine gradients are like a trail of scent left in the air, it gets lighter the further you are from its source. The traditional idea has been that immune cells recognize their target by following existing chemokine gradients. In other words, the cells following these cues have been seen as passive actors, which is not the case in reality. Dendritic cells navigating in a microscopic labyrinth with the help of a chemokine gradient they have created. The nuclei of the cells are pictured in blue in the upper image, and the lines in the bottom image represent cell movement. Credit: Jonna Alanko, University of Turku “We were able to prove for the first time that contrary to the previous conception, immune cells do not need an existing chemokine gradient to find their way. They can create gradients themselves and thereby migrate collectively and efficiently even in complex environments,” explains Alanko. Cells consume chemokines Immune cells have receptors with which they can sense a chemokine signal. One of these receptors is called CCR7 and can be found in dendritic cells. Dendritic cells are professional antigen-presenting cells with an important role in activating the entire immune response. They need to locate an infection, recognize it, and then migrate to the lymph nodes with the information. In the lymph nodes, the dendritic cells interact with other cells of the immune system to initiate an immune response against pathogens. The study conducted by Alanko revealed that dendritic cells do not only register a chemokine signal with their CCR7 receptor, but they also actively shape their chemical environment by consuming chemokines. By doing this, the cells create local gradients that guide their own movement and that of other immune cells. The researchers also discovered that T-cells, another type of an immune cell, can benefit from these self-generated gradients to enhance their own directional movement. “When immune cells are capable of creating chemokine gradients, they can avoid upcoming obstacles in complex environments and guide their own directional movement and that of other immune cells,” explains Jonna Alanko. This discovery increases our understanding of how immune responses are coordinated within the body. However, it can also reveal how cancer cells guide their movement to create metastases. “The CCR7 receptor has also been discovered in many cancer types and in these cases, the receptor has been seen to boost cancer metastasis. Cancer cells may even use the same mechanism as immune cells to guide their movement. Therefore, our findings may help design new strategies to modify immune responses as well as to target certain cancers,” notes Jonna Alanko. Reference: “CCR7 acts as both a sensor and a sink for CCL19 to coordinate collective leukocyte migration” by Jonna Alanko, Mehmet Can Uçar, Nikola Canigova, Julian Stopp, Jan Schwarz, Jack Merrin, Edouard Hannezo and Michael Sixt, 1 September 2023, Science Immunology. DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.adc9584 Jonna Alanko is a postdoctoral researcher in the InFLAMES Flagship, at the MediCity research laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Turku in Finland. She conducted a majority of her recently published study at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), in Austria, in a research group led by Professor Michael Sixt.

DVDV1551RTWW78V