Saturday, August 30, 2025
Science
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag
No Result
View All Result
Home Science News Chemistry

Rice, Baylor College of Medicine centers jointly award seed grants

April 30, 2024
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Rice Synth Center
70
SHARES
638
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT

Rice University’s Synthesis X Center (SynthX) and Baylor College of Medicine’s Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center have jointly awarded their first innovation seed grants to three teams of research collaborators from Rice and Baylor.

Rice Synth Center

Credit: Photo by Rice University

Rice University’s Synthesis X Center (SynthX) and Baylor College of Medicine’s Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center have jointly awarded their first innovation seed grants to three teams of research collaborators from Rice and Baylor.

Launched this spring, SynthX fosters the development of groundbreaking cancer drugs and technologies by encouraging primary researchers and clinicians to collaborate on research that integrates advances in organic chemistry, chemical biology and material chemistry into clinical practice.

Managed by Rice’s office for Educational and Research Initiatives for Collaborative Health (ENRICH), each of the two-year SynthX/Duncan Center seed grants provides up to $80,000 to help research teams initiate projects and amass the preliminary data that’s needed to apply for more substantial awards from federal or international funding agencies. Teams must include one or more principal investigators (PI) from both Rice and Baylor. Three quarters of funds will be provided in year one, and the remainder will be extended to teams that produce multi-PI grant submissions within the first year.

Inaugural grants were awarded to:

  • Baylor’s Pabel Miah , assistant professor of surgery, and Rice’s Lei Li , assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, for the development and optimization of high-resolution imaging technology to guide the surgical removal of breast cancer tumors. Miah and Li plan to combine photoacoustic and ultrasound technologies to create a real-time imaging system that allows surgeons to directly visualize tumors they could not otherwise see. The technology could improve surgical outcomes and eliminate the need for costly and invasive “tumor localization” procedures that patients often undergo today.

  • Baylor’s Xin Li , instructor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology, and Yongcheng Song , professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology, and Rice’s James Tour , the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, for the creation of a precision leukemia treatment that uses molecular jackhammers , molecules invented in Tour’s lab. When activated by a specific frequency of near-infrared light, molecular jackhammers vibrate more than a trillion times per second, so rapidly that their vibrations can disrupt or kill nearby cancer cells. Tour, Li and Song hope to create a treatment that uses molecular jackhammers to disrupt the activity of a transcription protein called ENL that helps fuel the growth of leukemia cells in several acute forms of the disease.

  • Baylor’s Ruhee Dere , associate professor of medicine, and Rice’s Anna-Karin Gustavsson , assistant professor of chemistry, to investigate the mechanism of a cancer-associated enzyme called lysine demethylase 4A (KDM4A) and search for ways to exploit the mechanism to drive cancer cells to kill themselves. In healthy bodies, aberrant or unhealthy cells often kill themselves via apoptosis, or programmed cell death. The circumvention of this process contributes to rapid cell division and tumor growth in many forms of cancer. Previous studies have shown that KDM4A becomes concentrated in structures called centrosomes as cells are preparing to divide, and that low levels of KDM4A can disrupt cell division and cause cells to behave in ways that are reminiscent of cancer. Dere and Gustavsson are working to identify KDM4A’s centrosome-specific partners and to explore how the enzyme’s relationships with those partners may be used to trigger programmed cell death in cancer cells.

By Jade Boyd
Special to Rice News



Share28Tweet18
Previous Post

New breast cancer screening recommendations aim to address health inequities, especially among Black women

Next Post

China’s bid to decarbonize may have hidden costs

Related Posts

blank
Chemistry

Innovative Pimple Patches Offer Effective Solution for Stubborn Acne

August 29, 2025
blank
Chemistry

Revealing the Unseen: A Breakthrough Method to Enhance Nanoscale Light Emission

August 29, 2025
blank
Chemistry

Fluorescent Smart Eye Patch Revolutionizes Monitoring of Eye Health

August 29, 2025
blank
Chemistry

Protective Dual Shell Extends Lifespan of Lithium-Rich Batteries

August 29, 2025
blank
Chemistry

Interface-Engineered Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions Pave the Way for Next-Generation Spintronics

August 29, 2025
blank
Chemistry

Reversible Small-Molecule Assembly Enables Recyclable Battery Electrolytes

August 29, 2025
Next Post
China’s bid to decarbonize may have hidden costs

China’s bid to decarbonize may have hidden costs

  • Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    27542 shares
    Share 11014 Tweet 6884
  • University of Seville Breaks 120-Year-Old Mystery, Revises a Key Einstein Concept

    955 shares
    Share 382 Tweet 239
  • Bee body mass, pathogens and local climate influence heat tolerance

    642 shares
    Share 257 Tweet 161
  • Researchers record first-ever images and data of a shark experiencing a boat strike

    509 shares
    Share 204 Tweet 127
  • Warm seawater speeding up melting of ‘Doomsday Glacier,’ scientists warn

    312 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
Science

Embark on a thrilling journey of discovery with Scienmag.com—your ultimate source for cutting-edge breakthroughs. Immerse yourself in a world where curiosity knows no limits and tomorrow’s possibilities become today’s reality!

RECENT NEWS

  • Innovative Mechanical Flipper Enhances Vision in Myopic Kids
  • Pingtung Doublet Unveils Mantle Faulting Dynamics
  • Pemafibrate’s Long-Term Safety in Hyperlipidemia Treatment
  • How Involvement in Research Benefits Health Care Staff

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Athmospheric
  • Biology
  • Blog
  • Bussines
  • Cancer
  • Chemistry
  • Climate
  • Earth Science
  • Marine
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine
  • Pediatry
  • Policy
  • Psychology & Psychiatry
  • Science Education
  • Social Science
  • Space
  • Technology and Engineering

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 5,182 other subscribers

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Discover more from Science

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading