Six collaborations win IBB innovation awards

Six collaborations win 2012-2013 IBB innovation awards

Rice University’s Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) this week announced the winners of both the 2012-2013 Hamill Awards, which promote collaboration among Rice faculty, and the 2012-2013 IBB Medical Innovations Awards, which promote collaborations between faculty at Rice and institutions in the Texas Medical Center.

IBB's 2012-1013 innovation awards will be presented May 22 at the BioScience Research Collaborative.

The awards will be formally presented at IBB’s annual awards ceremony and luncheon at noon May 22 on the first floor of the BioScience Research Collaborative. The student recipients of this year’s IBB Travel Grants and BRC Collaborative Prizes will also be honored at the luncheon.

The Hamill Awards are in their eighth year and are funded by the Hamill Foundation. The IBB Medical Innovations Awards are in their sixth year and are funded by the Sid W. Richardson Foundation.

This year’s Hamill Award winners are:

• George Bennett, professor of biochemistry and cell biology; Yizhi Jane Tao, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology; and Ka-Yiu San, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering, for their project, “Using Virus Capsids to Tune and Control Metabolic and Regulatory Circuits.”
• Edward Nikonowicz, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology, and Joff Silberg, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology and bioengineering, for their project, “A Riboswitch for in situ Measurement of Charged tRNA Levels in Bacterial Biofilm Communities.”
• Deepak Nagrath, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and bioengineering, and Frank Tittel, the J.S. Abercrombie Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of bioengineering, for their project, “Targeting Nitric Oxide Signaling and Metabolism to Sensitize Ovarian Cancer Cells to Chemo Drugs in Presence of Nutrients.”
• Laura Segatori, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry and cell biology, and Junghae Suh, assistant professor of bioengineering, for their project, “Genetically Encoded Nanotherapeutics for Neurodegenerative Diseases.”

• Michael Stern, professor of biochemistry and cell biology; James McNew, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology; and Weiwei Zhong, assistant professor of biochemistry and cell biology and computer science, for their project, “The Role of Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia Genes in Motor Neuron Function and Locomotor Behavior.”

This year’s IBB Medical Innovations Award winners are:

• Dan Carson, dean of Rice’s Wiess School of Natural Sciences, the Schlumberger Chair of Advanced Studies and Research and professor of biochemistry and cell biology; Dr. Robert Bast Jr., vice president for translational research, internist and professor of medicine in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; and Pamela Constantinou Papadopoulos, faculty fellow in biochemistry and cell biology, for their project, “MUC16 as a Target for Cancer Therapies.”