IBB names Hamill winners

Rice faculty and Texas Medical Center collaborators earn innovation awards for bio projects

Rice University’s Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) has honored five teams of researchers with Hamill Innovation Awards, presented by Tom Brown, grants director for the Hamill Foundation, Oct. 31 at the Allen Center.

The annual awards, in their 13th year, fund the initiation of collaborative research projects led by IBB faculty members at Rice. Collaborative research with the Texas Medical Center ties in with the goals of Rice’s Vision for the Second Century, Second Decade. The seed grants are intended to help researchers develop proposals for more substantial grants and awards from national and international agencies.

Rice researchers and members of their teams accepted Hamill Innovation Awards on Oct. 31. From left: chemical engineering graduate student Sushma Pamulapati, bioengineering graduate student Stephen Yan, IBB Faculty Director Zachary Ball, Hamill Foundation Grants Director Tom Brown, Matthew Bennett, Xue Sherry Gao, Dana DeMaster, Caleb Bashor, and IBB Executive Director Paul Cherukuri. Photo courtesy of the Institute of Bioscience and Bioengineering

This year’s honorees:

Xue Sherry Gao and Han Xiao, both of Rice, plan to incorporate synthetic amino acids into cells that add building blocks to the genetic code and generate protein structures and functions. The resulting biomolecules, they said, will revolutionize medicine through novel therapeutic approaches. Gao is the Ted N. Law Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Xiao is the Norman Hackerman-Welch Young Investigator and an assistant professor of chemistry.

Matthew Bennett of Rice and Ankit Patel of Baylor College of Medicine will use high-resolution imaging and machine learning to understand the complex interactions between single-cell organisms, like bacteria in the gut microbiome, and their hosts. The work will enable the development of new therapeutic interventions. Bennett is an associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology. Patel is an assistant professor of neuroscience.

Caleb Bashor of Rice and Charles Lin of Baylor are working to build synthetic versions of insulated neighborhoods – chromatin structural domains that are central to genome organization – to gain a better understanding of their structure and transcriptional function. They expect to learn about the fundamental mechanisms of gene regulation. Inappropriate regulation is the source of many human diseases, including cancer and various genetic disorders. Bashor is an assistant professor of bioengineering. Lin is an assistant professor of molecular and human genetics.

Robert Raphael and Matteo Pasquali of Rice and Alex Sweeney of Baylor are developing a carbon nanotube fiber cochlear implant to help those who are hard of hearing or deaf. Thin, flexible and conductive nanotube fibers created in Pasquali’s lab could give the small device more and better connections to the inner ear’s auditory nerve. Raphael is an associate professor of bioengineering. Pasquali is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry. Sweeney is an assistant professor and Dorothy L. McGee Endowed Chair of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery.

Marina Vannucci of Rice and Dana DeMaster of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston are using a statistical approach to analyze neuroimaging data from children with traumatic brain injury. Their models of brain connectivity networks will lead to a better understanding of brain function and improved diagnostics and treatment. Vannucci is the Noah Harding Professor of Statistics and chairman of the Department of Statistics. DeMaster is an assistant professor of pediatrics.