TAMEST Member News Roundup – December 2022

TAMEST In The News

ASBMB: What’s in the Structural Vaccine Designer’s Toolbox?, 2022 O’Donnell Award Recipient Jason McLellan, Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin 

Texas Border Business: $2.2M Raised Will Support Immunotherapy Research at The James P. Allison Institute at MD Anderson Cancer Center, TAMEST Member and Nobel Laureate James Allison, Ph.D. (NAM, NAS), The University of Texas at MD Anderson Cancer Center

CNBC: AMD CEO Lisa Su Talks About the Company’s Remarkable Comeback, and Huge Bets on New Types of Chips in the Face of a PC Slump, TAMEST Member Lisa Su, Ph.D. (NAE), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Sci Tech Daily: Light-Powered Nanomaterial Catalyst Could Be Key for Hydrogen Economy, TAMEST Member Naomi Halas, Ph.D., D.Sc., (NAE, NAS), Rice University

The Rice Thresher: Two Rice Professors Named to List of World’s Top Women Scientists in Robotics, Energy and Science, TAMEST Member Lydia E. Kavraki, Ph.D. (NAM), Rice University

Member Briefs

Dr. Huda Zoghbi Named 2023 Watanabe Prize Winner

TAMEST Member Huda Zoghbi, M.D (NAM,NAS), Baylor College of Medicine has been named the 2023 winner of the August M. Watanabe Prize in Translational Research and will be honored at the 2023 Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) Annual Meeting on Friday, September 22, 2023. Zoghbi is a Distinguished Service Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, and an investigator with Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Read More

UT Regents Fund Pioneering Trauma Care Research Center at UT Health San Antonio 

The University of Texas Board of Regents approved $2.5 million in funding to establish the Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative (TRC4) at TAMEST Member Institution The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) in partnership with the Department of Defense (DoD). The new trauma care research center will be the first and only of its kind in the United States. Read More

Dr. Eyal Gottlieb to join MD Anderson as Vice President for Research

TAMEST Member Institution The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announced that Eyal Gottlieb, Ph.D., has been named the institution’s Vice President for Research. Gottlieb, an accomplished scientist and leader, will join MD Anderson in January to uphold and expand the institution’s research excellence. In this role, Gottlieb will oversee laboratory science departments leading innovative discovery and translational research across a variety of disciplines. Read More

UT Southwestern Scientists Among Top 1% of Highly Cited Researchers Across the Globe

More than 20 UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists are among the 2022 Highly Cited Researchers, according to a list released by the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate. Several TAMEST Members made the list, including Zhijian J. Chen, Ph.D. (NAM,NAS), Ralph J. DeBerardinis, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM), Sean J. Morrison, Ph.D. (NAM,NAS), and Michael K. Rosen, Ph.D. (NAS). It included the top 1% of researchers from across the globe who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their chosen field or fields of research. Read More

Rice University Technology Startup Syzygy Plasmonics Raises $76 Million in Latest Funding Round

Syzygy Plasmonics, a Houston-based startup co-founded by TAMEST Member Naomi Halas, Ph.D., D.Sc., (NAE, NAS), Rice University, has announced $76 million in Series C financing led by Carbon Direct Capital — one of the largest rounds of funding for a venture spun out of a Rice lab. Syzygy is focused on commercializing deep decarbonization of chemical manufacturing processes. The company’s efforts combine new photocatalyst technology with a novel reactor that utilizes common low-cost materials to manufacture hydrogen, ammonia, methanol and other chemicals, rather than relying on thermal energy. Read More