New enzyme could aid anticancer drug development
Retracing nature’s steps, Rice University engineer Xue Gao and her team mapped out the full series of enzyme-powered reactions a marine fungus uses to produce a complex molecule with anticancer properties. In the process, the Gao lab uncovered the first fungal enzyme of its kind known to break an amide bond.
Rice U. grad student wins DOE research award
Winnie Shi, a Rice University chemical and biomolecular engineering graduate student, has been selected to participate in the Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program at the U.S. Department of Energy.
New priming method improves battery life, efficiency
Rice University engineers have developed a readily scalable method to optimize a silicon anode priming method that increases lithium-ion battery performance by 22% to 44%.
Rice graduate programs land among nation’s best in US News rankings
Numerous Rice University graduate programs ranked in the nation’s top 25 in their respective categories in the latest edition of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools” rankings.
32 Rice students, alums win NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
The National Science Foundation has awarded Graduate Research Fellowships to 32 current, incoming and former Rice students, and selected another six for honorable mention.
Upgraded tumor model optimizes search for cancer therapies
Rice U. bioengineers have developed an upgraded tumor model that houses bone cancer cells beside immune cells inside a 3D structure engineered to mimic bone and, through research using the model, found that the body’s immune response can make tumor cells more resistant to chemotherapy.
Rice mourns professor emeritus and avid supporter Sam Davis
Sam H. Davis Jr. ’52 ’53, a professor emeritus of chemical engineering and former director of the Office of Continuing Studies, died on Christmas Day at age 92. A celebration of his life is tentatively planned for Saturday, March 25, at Rice’s Anderson-Clarke Center.
Rice scientists reengineer cancer drugs to be more versatile
Rice University scientists enlist widely used cancer therapy systems to control gene expression in mammalian cells, a feat of synthetic biology that could change how diseases are treated.
Mosquito’s DNA could provide clues on gene expression, regulation
Rice University researchers discover that the Aedes aegypti mosquito’s DNA has the physical properties of a liquid crystal, a unique feature not found in any other species that could provide new clues on the factors that govern gene expression and regulation.
Researchers can ‘see’ crystals perform their dance moves
Rice University researchers already knew the atoms in perovskites react favorably to light. Now they’ve seen precisely how the atoms move when the 2D materials are excited with light. Their study this week in Nature Physics details the first direct measurement of structural dynamics under light-induced excitation in 2D perovskites.
New enzyme could mean better drugs
Biomolecular engineers at Rice University identified a new enzyme that catalyzes the Nobel Prize-winning Diels-Alder reaction.
New fluorescent dye can light up the brain
Rice chemist Han Xiao and Stanford researcher Zhen Cheng have developed a tool for noninvasive brain imaging that can help illuminate hard-to-access structures and processes. Their small-molecule dye is the first of its kind that can cross the blood-brain barrier, allowing researchers to differentiate between healthy brain tissue and a glioblastoma tumor in mice.
Rice University scientists get fungi to spill their secrets
As anyone who has ever attended a cocktail party can tell you, shedding inhibitions makes you more talkative and possibly more prone to divulging secrets. Fungi, it turns out, are no different from humans in this respect.
Strategic planning process to be launched in January
President Reginald DesRoches shared the news with the Rice community in an email Nov. 21.
Rice refines analysis of MRI contrast agents
Simulations reveal details about the magnetic interactions between gadolinium contrast agents used in MRI scans and their environment.
