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Waters New Bioseparations Tools Accelerate and Improve Development of RNA-based Vaccines and Therapies Using LC-MS Analysis

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Waters new LC-MS grade reagents, enzymes, and software simplify large molecule RNA analysis to accelerate and improve development of mRNA vaccines, personalized cancer therapies, and innovative drugs for genetic disorders.Novel digestion enzymes deliver complete RNA sequence coveragei for more confident characterization, while new LC-MS-grade reagents increase sensitivity and improve detection accuracy of RNA components.iiNew waters_connect™ MAP Sequence software accelerates RNA oligonucleotide mapping using semi-automated workflows that reduce data processing time over manual techniques, enabling routine monitoring of key product attributes.

MILFORD, Mass., Oct. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) today introduced a comprehensive set of sample preparation enzymes, reagents, and waters_connect software that simplify sequence and modification confirmation of large molecule RNA therapeutics using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. When used together in a workflow, these bioseparations tools help accelerate and improve the development of innovative large molecule RNA-based pharmaceuticals, such as CRISPR sgRNA and mRNA therapeutics.

Large molecule RNA (ribonucleic acid) therapeutics represent some of the most exciting and potentially life-saving developments in pharmaceuticals today. They include new and more effective vaccines for diseases like COVID-19, personalized cancer treatments, as well as emerging CRISPR RNA therapies that address challenging genetic conditions, such as sickle cell anemia.

“As RNA-based therapies are prepared for widespread use, more direct composition measurements are needed to ensure stability, safety, and effectiveness for patients,” said Erin Chambers, Vice President, Consumables and Lab Automation at Waters Corporation. “The combination of Waters enzymes, reagents, and software are specially designed to simplify the confirmation of sequence and modifications of complex molecules. These analytical tools can accelerate RNA therapeutic development and lower barriers for use by LC-MS non-experts.”

“As innovators looking to help our customers advance nucleic acid-based therapies and reduce the burden of serious diseases, we are always seeking new technologies to improve characterization and accelerate development,” said Arnaud Delobel, PhD, R&D and Innovation Director at Quality Assistance S.A. and beta tester of the Waters RNA analytical tools. “Waters new enzymes efficiently digest mRNA and sgRNA with short incubation times and data processing in MAP Sequence allows the user to obtain reproducible results quickly with confidence.”

The Waters RNA analytical tools include:

Enzymes: Two novel enzymes, RapiZyme™ MC1 and RapiZyme Cusativin, are used in a simplified three-step protocol that provides complete LC-MS sequence coverage over traditional digestion methods enabling more confident characterization of RNA molecules.iiiReagents: IonHance™ HFIP, an LC-MS-grade reagent, is formulated to improve ionization and delivers increased spectral clarity and detection accuracy of RNA components.Software: New MAP Sequence application on the waters_connect software platform simplifies RNA LC-MS oligo mapping workflows to accelerate analysis and data processing time over manual techniques using spreadsheets.

Used together within a workflow, the tools generate an LC-MS fingerprint to confirm product identity, purity, and efficacy. The tools improve sequence coverage, LC-MS spectral data quality, and data interpretation. Supported by the compliance-ready waters_connect software platform, these tools help transition LC and LC-MS-based digestion analysis from discovery and development to release and at-line process analytical testing.

Waters RapiZyme RNAses and IonHance HFIP are now available. The new MAP Sequence App on waters_connect software will be available on October 18, 2024.

Additional Resources

Learn more about the Waters RNA Analytical ToolsListen to our webinar “Cracking the Code: Analyzing mRNA and sgRNA with Advanced Enzymes, Mass Spectrometry, and Informatics on Oct. 16 at 11:00am ETJoin Waters at the PharmSci 360 conference for an expert session on “Oligo Mapping of Large RNA Therapeutics by Novel Enzyme Specificities” with Dr. Bala Addepalli, Waters Director, R&D New Modalities Portfolio on Oct. 21, at 11:00am ETFollow and connect with Waters via LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook

About Waters Corporation (www.waters.com)

Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT), a global leader in analytical instruments and software, has pioneered chromatography, mass spectrometry, and thermal analysis innovations serving the life, materials, food, and environmental sciences for more than 65 years. With approximately 7,500 employees worldwide, Waters operates directly in 35 countries, including 14 manufacturing facilities, and with products available in more than 100 countries.

Waters, Rapizyme, IonHance, and waters_connect are trademarks of Waters Technologies Corporation.

Contact:
Janice Foley
Senior Public Relations Manager, Corporate Communications
Waters Corporation
janice_foley@waters.com
+1.617.823.5555

i 100% RNA sequence coverage achieved for HPRT sgRNA digested with RapiZyme MC1 and RapiZyme Cusativin compared to traditional digestion methods such as RNase T1. Waters Application Note 720008539EN: “Tunable Digestions of RNA Using RapiZyme RNases to Confirm Sequence and Map Modifications” .

ii IonHance HFIP reagents are certified to contain less than 100 ppb sodium and less than 100 ppb potassium content, resulting in reduced adduct formation and improved sensitivity of RNA detection compared to commercially available HFIP. Waters Application Note 720008540EN: “Evaluating IonHance Hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) for Enhanced LC-MS Oligonucleotide Analysis”

iii Waters RapiZyme RNase protocol simplifies sample preparation with three steps including reagent preparation, RNA digestion, and heat inactivation without the need to add chemical denaturants and enzyme inhibitors.

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uSMART Securities Singapore Marks Third Branch Opening in Bugis with Lion Dance and K-pop

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SINGAPORE, Nov. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — uSMART Securities Singapore officially opened its third branch at 516 North Bridge Road, #01-00, Singapore 188740 expanding its physical presence in Singapore with a new uSMART Investor Hub. The opening was marked by a private ceremony featuring a speech, a traditional lion dance and a K-pop dance performance, bringing together the uSMART team, esteemed guests and partners.

The Bugis opening marks another milestone in uSMART’s expansion in Singapore, following the launch of its first local branch at Robinson Road in July 2025 and its Somerset branch in October that year. The new branch reflects the company’s approach of combining digital trading with face-to-face support, offering clients an additional location to make enquiries, receive assistance with account opening and engage directly with the team.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Eng Thiam Choon (TC Eng), Chief Operating Officer of uSMART, highlighted the importance of maintaining physical branches alongside digital brokerage services. Clients may appreciate the opportunity to discuss opening their first investment account, gain a better understanding of products available on the app or receive assistance with any issues.

“Customers should have a choice in how they deal with us. If they’re comfortable doing everything on the app, that’s fine. If they’d prefer to come in and talk, we want to make that possible too,” said Mr Eng.

Drawing on its experience operating branches in Hong Kong, uSMART has tailored this approach to the Singapore market through ongoing engagement and conversations with local clients.

Mr Eng also highlighted the importance of understanding different trading rules, currency exposure and diversification as investors explore more markets. Seminars and conversations with the branch team will support these learning opportunities, equipping clients with the knowledge and information they need to make informed investment decisions.

“You don’t need to come with a decision already made. You can come with a question,” said Mr Eng.

Beyond the opening celebrations, Mr Eng highlighted the importance of consistent client service through attentive listening, clear communication and following through on commitments.

About uSMART Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Established in March 2021, uSMART Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. is the Singapore entity of uSMART Group, which holds a Capital Markets Services licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) (Licence No. CMS101161).

Through the uSMART platform, the company provides access to stocks across global markets, as well as ETFs, options, futures, funds, Contracts for Difference (CFDs) and forex products. Its services include digital trading tools and client account support.

In addition to its digital trading platform, uSMART offers structured investment solutions, including Fixed Coupon Notes (FCNs), catering to investors with different investment objectives and risk preferences. Through its growing network of physical branches, the company also provides face-to-face assistance, investor education and account support, complementing its digital services.

Branch Address

uSMART Securities – Bugis Branch
516 North Bridge Road, #01-00
Singapore 188740

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SOURCE uSMART Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

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Chinese Team Drops a “Game-Changer”: Motphys Launches MotrixSim 1.0, Sparking Industry Buzz

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BEIJING, Nov. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — If the global expansion of Chinese-made robots defined the hardware boom in the first half of the embodied AI race, the second half will be won by those that can bring down the high cost of real-world trial and error and make robot training more universal and accessible. In this underlying physics engine race long dominated by Western players, a Chinese team is now bringing a potential game-changer to the field.

Recently, Chinese company Motphys was invited to attend CoRL 2026, where it showcased its fully in-house embodied intelligence simulation engine—MotrixSim 1.0. In extreme benchmark tests against leading international physics engines, MotrixSim 1.0 demonstrates extraordinary capabilities: overwhelming established open-source engines in the contact and grasping test and vastly surpassing mainstream GPU-accelerated simulation platforms in training efficiency.

In the past, simulation was primarily used for error-proof verification at the end of the design phase. But in the era of embodied AI, AI requires massive amounts of interaction experience.

“Simulation once served to validate how machines perform. Now, it is where they learn how to perform,” said Zhang Heng, co-founder and CTO of Motphys. Simulation has evolved from a “post-design validation tool” into a “physical experience production system”. To power this system, Motphys builds its physics engine entirely in-house, developing the core from the ground up in Rust rather than building on existing open-source engines. This equips MotrixSim 1.0 with strong memory safety and computation power, enabling it to compete with established international players at the underlying architecture level.

True technical strength is proven in extreme tests.

In a “devil-level” disturbance-rejection grasping test where a Franka arm grasps objects of different shapes, MotrixSim 1.0 is the only engine to achieve a 100% pass rate at both 2 ms and 10 ms simulation step sizes. In the microscopic critical friction point test, MotrixSim exhibits hold-and-slip behavior near the critical friction consistent with Coulomb’s law, achieving 0mm slip distance.

In terms of compute and training efficiency. Through its unique pipeline supporting CPU/GPU parallel computation, MotrixSim can achieve a physics simulation throughput of millions of physics steps per second across 4,096 parallel environments. In a controlled comparison conducted on the G1 whole-body tracking task, under the same task environment configuration and the same RL algorithm, MotrixSim reaches the current tracking score in about 10.2 minutes of end-to-end time, while the Isaac Sim-based solution takes 130.8 minutes—a gap of about 12.8×.

Furthermore, for the Strandbeest complex closed-loop mechanism with 92 linkages, when traditional engines fail to maintain the stability of the mechanism at a large time step of 5ms, MotrixSim solves closed-loop constraints together with the multibody dynamics in generalized coordinates, so the mechanism maintains its assembly relationships during motion.

Beyond extreme physical conditions and compute, MotrixSim 1.0 has achieved breakthroughs in multimodal perception and developer experience: LiDAR simulation throughput reaches 124 million rays per second; visual synthesis maintains stable throughput even when resolution surges 16 times. In terms of developer experience and industrial deployment, MotrixSim 1.0 streamlines development with high-speed solving in a single line of code (98.42% success rate) and a “zero-conversion + AI auto-modeling” workflow. Forge is also launched as the industry’s first Blender-based extension tool, enabling AI Agents to automatically generate physics scenes.

Zhang Heng emphasized that the core proposition of Physical AI is to transform expensive and slow “real-world physical experience” into digital learning resources that can be generated at scale.

Motphys’s relevant research has been accepted to top international conferences such as RSS and CoRL, and the company has built a simulation and real-robot training center for embodied AI in China. Currently, the world’s leading physics engines primarily include Google’s MuJoCo and NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chinese-team-drops-a-game-changer-motphys-launches-motrixsim-1-0–sparking-industry-buzz-302939513.html

SOURCE Motphys

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HiTHIUM Partners with the University of Cambridge to Advance International Industry-Academia Collaboration in Long-Duration Energy Storage

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XIAMEN, China, Nov. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On November 12, the Global Energy Storage Colloquium was held in Xiamen. During the colloquium, HiTHIUM and the University of Cambridge signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), establishing a strategic partnership. The two parties will collaborate on frontier scientific research, key technology innovation and industrial applications in battery energy storage, bringing academic research into closer alignment with industry needs and exploring new models for international industry-academia collaboration. The partnership aims to contribute to the advancement of global energy storage technology and the industry.

The UK has a strong track record in the development of modern battery technologies and fundamental research. The University of Cambridge is one of the world’s leading universities, with internationally recognized expertise in engineering, materials science and fundamental research. As a leading global energy storage technology company, HiTHIUM has long focused on energy storage technology development and commercialization. It continues to advance integrated research and innovation across the value chain, from high-capacity energy storage cells to long-duration energy storage systems and grid integration technologies.

The collaboration is intended to bring internationally leading academic research into closer engagement with innovation across China’s energy storage industry. The University of Cambridge’s strengths in fundamental science, materials research and engineering will offer new perspectives and approaches to key scientific questions and emerging technologies in energy storage. HiTHIUM will bring its experience in long-duration energy storage (LDES), product development and large-scale deployment, connecting research with real industry needs and application scenarios, and supporting the engineering validation and commercialization of research outcomes. By drawing on the strengths of both research and industry, the partnership will strengthen the links between frontier innovation and practical applications.

Under the cooperation plan, the two parties will establish joint management and research collaboration mechanisms, bringing together academic resources and corporate R&D capabilities. They will work together to plan research projects, facilitate scientific exchange and support the translation of research outcomes, strengthening connections between fundamental research, technology development and industrial applications so that innovation in energy storage can better serve industry needs.

The partnership also marks an important step in HiTHIUM’s efforts to expand its international innovation network. Building on this collaboration with the University of Cambridge, HiTHIUM will further strengthen academic exchanges and research partnerships with leading universities and research institutions around the world. By bringing together international research resources and talent, the company aims to encourage collaboration across disciplines and technology fields, explore the development of technologies such as LDES from a global perspective, and bring technical challenges and application needs from the front lines of industry into research and innovation. This will help research and industrial practice reinforce one another.

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SOURCE HiTHIUM

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