Elevate Research

Biochar’s benefits for the long-term sequestration of carbon and nitrogen on American farms are clear, but new research from Rice University shows it can help farmers save money on irrigation as well. The study showed that sandy soil, in particular, gains ability to retain more water when amended with biochar. (Credit: Masiello Lab/Rice University)

Biochar helps hold water, saves money

Biochar’s benefits for long-term storage of carbon and nitrogen on American farms are clear, but new research from Rice University shows it can help farmers save money on irrigation as well.

At left, top and side views of the crystal structures of perovskite-derived Cs3Bi2I9, a material synthesized at Rice University that shows valleytronics capabilities. Each unit cell contains two neighboring layers with a weak van der Waals interaction in between. At right: an image shows triangles of the material on a mica substrate. (Credit: Lou Group/Rice University)

Odds are good for unique 2D compound

Rice University engineers make 2D materials for valleytronics, a platform for information processing and storage that relies on the manipulation of electrons’ positions in energetic “valleys.”

A novel antibody-drug conjugate targets cancer cells, but also kills "bystander" cancer cells. Credit: Illustration by the Jenna Kripal/Nicolaou Research Group

Targeted tumors attack not-innocent bystanders

Antibody-drug conjugates developed are found to attack not only targeted tumor cells but also nontargeted “bystanders.”

Scientists at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine are using pClick conjugation to create therapeutic antibodies that target bone cancers. The conjugate incorporates bisphosphonate molecules that bind to the bone hydroxyapatite matrix. (Credit: Baylor College of Medicine/Rice University)

Drug doubles down on bone cancer, metastasis

Researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine develop an antibody conjugate called BonTarg that delivers drugs to bone tumors and inhibits metastasis.

Rice University postdoctoral researcher Zhiwen Liu shows a marine fungus, Penicillium citrinum, the source of a catalytic enzyme that could simplify the development and manufacture of drugs. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Enzyme from fungi shows molecules which way to turn

A small fungal enzyme could play a significant role in simplifying the development and manufacture of drugs, according to Rice University scientists.

Video by Esteban Dodero-Rojas and Paul Whitford/Center for Theoretical Biological Physics

Rice, Rutgers developing inhalable COVID-19 vaccine spray

Scientists at Rice and Rutgers developing two COVID-19 vaccine strategies that do not require cold storage, one of which can be inhaled.

Coating ceramic schwarzites, 3D-printed lattices, with a thin polymer helps keep them from shattering under pressure, according to Rice University materials scientists.

Soft shell makes hard ceramic less likely to shatter

Coating ceramic schwarzites, 3D-printed lattices, with a thin polymer helps keep them from shattering under pressure.

Julian West

NIH grant will help streamline chemical synthesis

Rice University chemist Julian West has won a five-year, $1.8 million National Institutes of Health grant to advance his lab’s efforts to simplify the synthesis of organic chemicals.

Rice University synthetic chemists have simplified the process to make halichondrin B, top, the parent compound of the successful cancer drug eribulin, bottom. Their reverse synthesis reduced the number of steps required to make the natural product. (Credit: Jenna Kripal/Nicolaou Research Group)

Reversal speeds creation of important molecule

A Rice lab’s reverse approach to making halichondrin B is the shortest route to a “rather complex and important molecule."

Aerial image of the Texas Medical Center with the ENRICH office logo

Six Rice-TMC research teams earn seed grants

Rice's Educational and Research Initiatives for Collaborative Health has announced six seed grants for research collaborations between faculty from Rice and the Texas Medical Center.

Freshwater Hydra vulgaris, this one modified with green fluorescent proteins, is the focus of a study at Rice University that aims to define the connections between neurons and muscles that drive programmed behaviors in living animals. (Credit: Robinson Lab/Rice University)

Keck backs Rice bid to ‘build a brain’

A $1 million Keck Foundation grant will support work by Jacob Robinson to understand neural pathways.

Rice University engineers have led the development of a process that uses functionalized graphene quantum dots to trap transition metals for higher metal loading single-atom catalysis. (Credit: Wang Group/Rice University)

Quantum dots keep atoms spaced to boost catalysis

Rice engineers use graphene quantum dots to trap transition metals for high atom loading in single atom catalysis.

Rice University scientists have enhanced models that could detect magnetosphere activity on exoplanets. The models add data from nightside activity that could increase signals by at least an order of magnitude. In this illustration, the planet’s star is at top left, and the rainbow patches are the radio emission intensities, most coming from the nightside. The white lines are magnetic field lines. Illustration by Anthony Sciola

Nightside radio could help reveal exoplanet details

Rice scientists enhance models that could be used to detect magnetosphere activity on exoplanets. The Rice model adds data from nightside activity that could increase signals by at least an order of magnitude.

Lillian Wieland

Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium offers supportive venue for students to share ‘incredible work’

Lillian Wieland’s freshman-year presentation for the Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS) “went terribly,” as she recalls it.

RAMBO

Odd angles make for strong spin-spin coupling

HOUSTON – (May 25, 2021) – Sometimes things are a little out of whack, and it turns out to be exactly what you need.