Environmental champions win Rice grants
The Rice University Sustainable Futures Fund backs six projects to help bolster the planet’s environmental health.
Bacterial ‘bully’ could improve food production
Lactic acid bacteria that thrive in many organisms, including humans, employ a hybrid metabolism that combines respiration and fermentation to give it an advantage over competitors. Researchers say the discovery could lead to enhanced techniques for food and chemical production.
‘Lefty’ tightens control of embryonic development
A protein known as Lefty pumps the brakes as human embryos begin to differentiate into the bones, soft tissues and organs that make us.
Antibody with engineered peptide targets bone metastasis
A moderate amount of a peptide-enhanced cancer drug goes a long way in treating breast cancers that metastasize to the bone.
Biologists discover new insect species at Rice University
Newly discovered insect Neuroterus valhalla is barely a millimeter long and spends 11 months of the year locked in a crypt. It’s legendary sounding name stems from where it was discovered: A tree outside Rice’s graduate student pub Valhalla.
Halting antibiotic resistance is a little less futile
Rice University bioscientists develop a microfluidic platform for high-throughput studies of how bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance.
Lost birds and mammals spell doom for some plants
In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers have gauged how biodiversity loss of birds and mammals will impact plants’ chances of adapting to human-induced climate warming.
Four faculty members and their collaborators win Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health seed grants.
Barney Graham '75 named a Time Hero of the Year for developing COVID-19 vaccine
Rice alumnus Barney Graham, a renowned virologist and deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been named a 2021 Hero of the Year by Time magazine for his work developing the groundbreaking Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
NSF grant supports study of cells’ early decisions
Rice University receives National Science Foundation support to build a model of cell differentiation during the earliest stage of life. The model could help improve researchers’ ability to direct stem cells to a given fate.
People, papers and presentations for Oct. 11, 2021
People, papers and presentations for Oct. 11, 2021
NSF extends Physics of Living Systems network at Rice
The NSF awards nearly $3 million to the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics to continue its leadership role in the Physics of Living Systems graduate research network.
Grant backs effort to build useful bacterial colonies
Rice scientists have won a grant to advance the development of custom-designed microbial colonies for a variety of applications.
Crop-eating moths will flourish as climate warms
Climate change in this century will allow one of the world's costliest agricultural pests, the diamondback moth, to both thrive year-round and rapidly evolve resistance to pesticides in large parts of the United States, Europe and China where it previously died each winter, according to a study by U.S. and Chinese researchers.
Docking peptides, slow to lock, open possible path to treat Alzheimer’s
Researchers have identified a possible “Achilles’ heel” in the frustration of amyloid beta peptides as they dock to the fibrils that form plaques in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.