Faculty share secrets to success with Class of 2027
August 16, 2023
On the second morning of O-Week, Rice’s Class of 2027 gathered in Tudor Fieldhouse to receive advice from a three-person panel of professors regarding their secrets for success — both at Rice and beyond. The faculty delivered short, TED-style talks encouraging new students to stay open to the possibilities the university offers.
Gold buckyballs, oft-used nanoparticle ‘seeds’ are one and the same
August 14, 2023
Rice chemists have discovered that tiny gold “seed” particles, a key ingredient in one of the most common nanoparticle recipes, are one and the same as gold buckyballs, 32-atom spheres that are cousins of the Nobel Prize-winning carbon buckyballs discovered at Rice in 1985.
Weaker transcription factors are better when they work together
August 14, 2023
Rice bioengineer Caleb Bashor and colleagues have developed a generalizable method to address “off-target” gene activation, a significant problem in the field of synthetic biology. Taking a cue from nature, the researchers showed they could all but eliminate the activation of off-target genes by designing weak transcription factors that cooperatively assemble.
Cost-effective jaundice testing developed for low-resource hospitals
August 14, 2023
The Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies has validated the accuracy of its latest testing technology for newborn jaundice. BiliDx addresses a critical gap in the availability of accurate, affordable, point-of-care jaundice testing in low-resource hospitals.
Education program tackles race-based cancer health disparities
August 10, 2023
Rice U.’s Carolyn Nichol has won a competitive 5-year, $1,038,544 NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) award to address race-based cancer health disparities by increasing underrepresented minority student populations’ engagement and participation in biosciences education.
Tiny, flexible spinal probe system could lead to better therapies
August 7, 2023
A $6.25 million National Institutes of Health grant supports Rice U. engineers optimizing a neural probe array that can record the activity of spinal cord neurons as bodies move and behave. Scientists would also develop an integrated data-processing and stimulation-feedback system.