Vlassakis receives NIH New Innovator Award

photo of Julea Vlassakis (left) and Jerzy Szablowski

PhD alumna Julea Vlassakis, now Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University, has been named a 2023 NIH Director’s New Innovator! These prestigious awards support early-career investigators with ambitious, unconventional project proposals demonstrating broad impact potential.

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Researchers demonstrate heat-induced pyroelectricity in viruses

Schematic showing the electric potential generated from virus film upon heating. Heat denatures, or melts, the protein coating on the engineered phage, causing a difference in electrical potential. (Image courtesy of Seung-Wuk Lee)

Researchers in Professor Seung-Wuk Lee’s lab discovered for the first time “heat-induced electrical potential generation on a virus,” a phenomenon known as pyroelectricity. This work may shed light on how biomaterials — cells, tissues and proteins — generate electricity at a molecular level as well as lead to the development of biomaterials with novel medical, pharmaceutical, environmental and energy applications.

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Iain Clark selected as Innovation Investigator by Arc Institute

drawing of Prof Clark

Professor Iain Clark was named an Innovation Investigator by the Arc Institute, a scientific research organization pioneering new models for scientific discovery and translation. As a member of the inaugural Innovation Investigators program, Clark will receive $1 million over five years to pursue “curiosity-driven, ambitious research.”

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Conboy Lab changes the measurement of biological age

cover of Aging journal 9/15/23

Research from Professor Irina Conboy’s lab is on the cover of the journal “Aging” this week, highlighting their exciting new research in the measurement of biological age. Their work shows that commonly-used Elastic Net DNA methylation clocks have low accuracy, and present an alternative using noise-detecting cytosines, measuring the pressure of aging and disease on an organism. BioE PhD student Xiaoyue Mei and undergraduate alumnus Joshua Blanchard are first authors.

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Messersmith receives 2023 Bakar Fellows Spark Award

photo of Messersmith

Congratulations to Professor Phillip Messersmith, a recipient of the 2023 Bakar Fellows Spark Award for his work on gel protection during tumor ablation. The award is designed to accelerate faculty-led research and produce tangible, positive societal impact through commercialization.

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