Rice University's Bioengineer Awarded $3.4M For Project To End Polio

Incorporating polio VLPs into a combination vaccine would help children under 5 years of age to be protected from whopping cough, tetanus, diphtheria and hepatitis B.

Study in US: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded $3.4M to Rice University Bioengineer Kevin McHugh to include protection against polio into a combination vaccine to protect against five dangerous and common childhood diseases.

McHugh, assistant professor of bioengineering and chemistry and a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute Scholar said, “Combining vaccines is a proven method for reducing the logistical burden associated with vaccination, which improves health care accessibility and vaccination rates, especially in low-resource settings. Unfortunately, in some cases the components present in one vaccine formulation can render another vaccine less effective, limiting the ability to combine those vaccines in a single vial.”

“Encapsulating polio VLPs in our PULSED microparticles allows us to form a barrier that physically separates polio VLPs from the incompatible components of the pentavalent vaccine. Then once the body has naturally cleared these components from the injection site — an interval we posit could be two to four days — polio VLPs will be spontaneously released from PULSED microparticles, which will allow the recipient to attain the full benefit of all the vaccines administered," McHugh added.

Texas’ Collaborative Efforts With Rice In Cancer Battle

Ken Kennedy Institute recently organized an AI in Health Conference at Rice University. During the event, Abria Magee, senior program manager for the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) talked about the CPRIT's efforts to incorporate innovation in cancer research to advance the prevention and cures.

“Our purpose is to improve patient care through innovation and product development, while also expanding the life sciences industry in Texas, creating new jobs and providing a direct return on taxpayer dollars. So far we’ve awarded 80 grants or over $700 million, so that’s almost 70 companies that were either started here in Texas, expanded in Texas or brought to Texas from somewhere else," Magee said.

Rice Team Gets $1.5 Million From National Science Foundation

Rice University's team of collaborators and engineers have won $1.5 million from the National Science Foundation to improve the resiliency and safety of coastal communities facing risks due to dangerous weather events.

Padgett, Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor in Engineering and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering said, “Our goal with this project is to enable communities to better prepare for and navigate severe weather by providing better estimates of what is actually happening or might happen within the next hours or days. OpenSafe.AI will take into account multiple hazards such as high-speed winds, storm surge and compound flooding and forecast their potential impact on the built environment such as transportation infrastructure performance or hazardous material spills triggered by severe storms.”

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